2007 Hermann Wiemer Dry Riesling
Grape variety: Riesling
Region: Finger Lakes, New York
Food pairing: Grilled Snapper with Green Curry
It's not often that a New York wine, or any East Coast wine for that matter, gets significant recognition from the national press. Even though the Hudson Valley and Finger Lakes regions are capable of rivaling the West Coast and even Europe when it comes to certain varietals (Riesling chief among them), they're often overlooked as minor-league.
But Hermann J. Wiemer's winery, established in the Finger Lakes in 1979, is finally getting some of the recognition they deserve for producing a dry Riesling that rivals the best in the same price category from Washington and even Alsace. Lime zest, a little wild mint and vanilla mingle to offer extraordinary freshness, with just the smallest hint of floral sweetness on the finish. Wine & Spirits magazine awarded this wine 92 points, while both Food and Wine and Saveur agreed that Wiemer is one of THE best American Riesling producers, hands-down. East Coasters, take pride; West Coasters, take notice.More info: http://www.garyswine.com/fine_wine/east_coast/59002.html
Not that we've conducted serious analytical research on the topic, but lately as we've perused our aisles, we've noticed that our shelves have been graced with quite the plethora of impressive bottlings from talented women winemakers. Now we won't enter into the debate over whether women really do have superior taste-buds and olefactory sensors (although there is some evidence to support the theory of "female supertasters"), and we won't get into the glass-ceiling politics behind women on this career path as opposed to that.
The great thing about selecting the very smallest and most special lots of wine for a premium bottling is that there's a lot of great juice left over when they're done. Knowing that she had lots of great grapes left over after crafting and nurturing her more expensive Susana Balbo wines, Susana Balbo had the idea to create a second bottling under the Crios label. "Each harvest," Balbo explains on her label, "I try to create the grandest possible Susana Balbo wines. To achieve this, I make a rigorous selection of the finest barrels prior to making the final blends, dividing them into the parents (Signature wines) and offspring or Crios. Wines under my Crios label display ripe and vibrant fruit flavors, excellent balance, and are meant to be enjoyed in their vibrant youth.
Silverado Vineyards have become quite a recognizable wine brand, but that doesn't mean that they've compromised quality or commitment to the sustainability of their vineyard land in doing so. Among the "green" practices they can boast are a solar powered winery, 