Chateau Saint Michelle White Riesling Ice Wine 03 375ml
winery: Chateau Ste Michelle
Wine Spectator rating 95 points!
Wine Spectator says: "After picking the frozen grapes the morning after Halloween, Ste. Michelle winemaker Bob Bertheau burned up the phone lines and email circuits getting advice from German vintner Ernst Loosen, who is involved in a joint venture with the Washington winery, on how to get it right. It worked. Dazzling in flavor, with a sure-handed balance of sweet apricot, pineapple, honey and lemon-candy elements against clean, sharp acidity. Stylish, elegant and amazingly refined, it's 29 percent residual sugar but tastes like one-third of that. From Washington.-H.S."Sold Out
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From the winemaker, Bob Bertheau:
"For the second year in a row, Mother Nature handed the
winery the ideal conditions needed to make prized ice wine.
(Chateau Ste. Michelle has produced ice wine only three other
times in the winery's history with the 1978, 1995 and 2002
vintages)." "Having just joined Chateau Ste. Michelle in early
2003 after years of winemaking in California, this was my first
time making ice wine. It was an amazing experience to stand in
the vineyard in the middle of the night in 14-degree weather
picking frozen grapes as hard as marbles. It was like making
wine on the dark side of the moon. The result is this exotic,
luscious, ultra ripe wine with concentrated aromas and flavors
of apricot and honey. The only thing I would do differently
next time is wear long johns!"
Bob Bertheau, Winemaker
V I N T A G E & V I N E YA R D S
+ All the necessary conditions for ice wine came together during
the 2003 harvest - low temperatures below 14? F and ripe,
healthy fruit still hanging on the vine.
+ Grapes were harvested from our Horse Heaven Vineyard,
located in the Horse Heaven Hills adjacent to the Columbia
River in Eastern Washington.
+ Eastern Washington's climate with its potential temperature
extremes is a perfect candidate to produce great ice wine in
appropriate years.
+ For the second year in a row ice wine grapes were picked in the
pre-dawn hours of Halloween.
W I N E M A K I N G
+ Frozen grapes were picked from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. on October
31st under a clear dark sky and freezing temperatures of 14? F.
+ Fruit went direct to press as hard as marbles.
+ Under pressure the berries gave up juice that was highly
concentrated in sugar and flavor, yielding less than one-half the
normal juice volume and nearly double the sugar concentration
of juice from other white grape varieties.
+ The juice underwent a month-long fermentation to help
preserve the rich, concentrated Riesling aromas and natural
fruit character.
