Hogue Late Harvest White Riesling 09

Hogue Late Harvest White Riesling 09 -

Their most popular wine, a sweet, fresh, fruity wine with a clean, tangy finish. Aromas and flavors of dried apricot, tangerine, and powdered sugar with a hint of cocoa and mint on the finish. The wine has excellent sugar to acid balance. Excellent as an aperitif or paired with fruit sorbets, poached pears or warm apple crisp.

Previous Vintage Tasting Notes

THE WINE

Eastern Washington's low annual rainfall and cool nights during the growing season make it the perfect area for producing consistently great late harvest wines. Hogue has developed a style with Late Harvest White Riesling that includes a moderate level of sweetness, richness, viscosity and crisp balancing acidity with just a hint of complexity from the noble rot, Botrytis cinerea. The 2003 bottling was produced from our best Riesling vineyards, which have the ability to ripen to the required 24+ Brix level. At that level of ripeness the wine develops its trademark tangerine/apricot flavors and being grown in the cooler climate of Washington State it retains its acidity and crispness. The 2003 Late Harvest White Riesling has aromas and flavors of dried apricot, tangerine, orange peel, vanilla, raisin, and powdered sugar. The wine has good sugar to acid balance. Pair it with fruit sorbets, poached pears or hot apple pie.

THE VINTAGE AND VINEYARDS

A normal spring was followed by a hotter than average summer. Cool weather in early September drew out the harvest, allowing for a longer hang time for the grapes. This was followed by one of the warmest and driest Octobers ever recorded for Eastern Washington allowing for excellent ripening in the Riesling. Because of the dry conditions in Eastern Washington, botrytis levels at harvest were low and the finished wine has brilliant fruit flavors. Few other Rieslings can boast the intense apricot and tangerine flavors found in our Columbia Valley grapes. Harvest lasted from September 18 to October 17, and the grapes came predominately from vineyards located in the coolest Washington growing region, the Yakima Valley.

THE WINEMAKING

To preserve the lovely fruit qualities of this wine, the juice was fermented entirely in stainless steel, using Epernay II, GRE, and BA11 yeast at temperatures of 48-60 degrees F. The wine was bottled in December 2003 for January 2004 release.