Riesling, one of my favorites. It is such a great wine to pair with food especially seafood. Riesling grows well here in the Northwest but for a long time it has not been well done. It was often an over powering sweet wine.

But recently, there has an effort to improve the Riesling produced in the Pacific Northwest and make it more ‘serious’. And it has been very successful. The most well known is Eroica made by St Michele and Ernst Loosen from Bernkastel in Mosel valley Germany. It has been highly rated and is excellent. There is also a group of winemakers which has been formed to promote Oregon Rieslings. Dave McIntyre’s WineLine describes their efforts and the unfortunate recent death of winemaker Jim Brooks of Maysara who also made some very interesting Rieslings.

So I went in search of a Riesling from the Pacific Northwest and found the Amity 2001 Oregon Dry Riesling. The label says:

Our Riesling is made in a clean, crisp style that is excellent for sipping or with a meal. It is the perfect match with fresh crab, scallops, shrimp and ham. Although excellent now, it benefits from bottle aging. Vineyard profile: 59% Amity, Amity, 40% at Sunnyside, Salem and 1% at Bois Jolie, Amity. The 958 Cases of 750-ml bottles and 130 cases of 375-ml bottles were bottled in May 2002. The alcohol is 10.5%, the acidity is 7.7 g/L, the pH is 2.98 and the residual sugar is 1.05g/l.

Further notes

The 2001 Dry Riesling is a pretty, delicate wine. The nose has hints of peach, apple and honey, while the palette starts with tart apple that leads into honeyed peach.

It was perfect with our Sunday dinner of a fresh cracked Dunguness crab, sourdough bread and green salad. It had a good balance with some sweetness. You could also tell had been aged and mellowed. There were flavors of citrus and honey with mineral undertones. The color was golden. I would definitely purchase this one again ($14).

Several years ago I visited their winery located south of McMinnville in the Eola hills of Yamhill Valley. It is a great location with wonderful vistas over the surrounding hillside. I highly recommend stopping by the winery if you are touring the Yamhill Valley.