Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020 - 81

34TH A NNUA L B U YING G U ID E

unselfconscious, the way a dancer, knowing
the choreography so well, might completely
inhabit a dance, electrifying the stage and
expanding the space indeﬁnitely. You won't
ﬁnd many examples of a wine like this, and
it only came about by the commitment Eric
Sussman has made to these vines, one parcel
dating to 1946 (planted by Lee Morelli), the
other to 1981 (Robert von Weidlich's planting). Together, those vines provided Sussman's ﬁrst Radio-Coteau release in 2002.
He purchased the property in 2012 and has
since developed it as a biodynamic farm, an
activity that has, if ﬂavor is evidence, energized those old vines and the wine from the
fruit they give. -J.G. § (W&S 6/20; 190 cases) §
520295

95 | Ridge

tional purity. It smells like a spring day in a
fruit orchard, like orange blossom, wheat and
cracked sunﬂower seeds. And the texture is
textbook Finger Lakes, with an almost synesthetic quality: It gives an impression of
streaming water, of a brook rushing over
stones, slatey and pristine. -P.J.C. (W&S
6/20; 20 cases) §

BEST ICE WINE

95 | Bergström

$110

2018 Willamette Valley Sigrid Chardonnay ^ My notes on the 2018 Sigrid never seem
to end. This tête-de-cuvée blend from Josh
Bergström, drawn from valley-wide estate
sources (mostly biodynamically farmed)
starts off lean and citrusy and then heads
into unexpected directions-honey, ﬂint,
honeycomb, salt, vanillin, wheat, apple, lime,
hazelnuts, lees... It's all of those things in a
youthful and complex mélange, sumptuous,
satiny, pillowed and generous, but with tension and driving minerality. Decant this and
sip slowly. -P.J.C. (W&S 10/20; 460 cases) §

BEST RIESLING

$36

2017 Alexander Valley Boatman Zinfandel (Best Buy) ^ Tim Boatman planted this
vineyard in the 1970s, the bush vines rising
up a steep east-facing slope overlooking Alexander Valley. John Olney has been making a
wine from the site since 2014, and it is quickly
becoming a star of Ridge's zinfandel portfolio
(the 2016 earned 93 points). This wine beneﬁted from an early harvest, at the end of
August, long before the devastating wildﬁres
at the end of the 2017 season. And it feels like
it captured the August sun in its rich red-licorice ﬂavors, the scent of roses on a summer
morning, the spice of zinfandel skins and a
breath of petrichor that cools the wine, as if
refreshed after a summer rain. For me, that's
exactly what I want in a zin: complete, complex and packed with energy. -J.G. § (W&S
6/20; 1,350 cases) §

N EW YO RK W H IT E

520429

95 | Sheldrake Point

$60

2018 Finger Lakes Riesling Ice Wine ^ This
is as much about movement and texture as
it is ﬂavor. The ﬂavors seem to be endless,
notes of honeysuckle and apricot giving way
to orange, peach, pineapple, ﬁg, dates, butter brickle-at one point a panelist said, "We
could go on like this forever." Yet as lush,
seductive and wildly concentrated as they
are, the ﬂavors move with a powerful internal
drive. It feels centrifugal, like racing around
a curve on a bicycle, pulled by speed and
momentum. -P.J.C. (W&S 6/20; 140 cases) §

OREGO N WHITE

BEST RIESLING

BEST CHARDONNAYS
521224

95 | Walter Scott

520269

95 | Hosmer

Wine & Spirits

$25

2017 Cayuga Lake Limited Release Riesling ^ Julia Hoyle typically makes a tank selection of exceptional lots for Hosmer's Limited
Release program, and in 2017, one block was
so pristine she waited to harvest it until the
end of October. The fruit produced just 20
cases of this wine, a rare riesling of excep-

$65

2018 Eola-Amity Hills Seven Springs
Vineyard Chardonnay ^ Ken Pahlow and
Erica Landon are among the few who have
a contract with Evening Land to get a small
amount of chardonnay from its Seven Springs
Vineyard. Their fruit comes from 1.7 acres
on the shallow south ridge, where the soils
peter out to almost pure basalt. They deliver
a translucent wine: It seduces in seconds, a
heady savor of bread dough and apple pie,
with just a hint of caramelly oak behind the
lees accents. But the wine feels as light as gossamer, lacy and ﬁne, with a golden sheerness
one taster described as sunlight seen through
piecrust. Very expressive now, it has the acid
structure and vibrancy to cellar. -P.J.C.
(W&S 10/20; 320 cases) §
521150

521425

95 | Ovum

$30

2018 Rogue Valley Off the Grid Cedar
Ranch Riesling ^ From an old vineyard of
shallow cobbled soils riddled with devigorating serpentine, this is a haunting wine.
John House does as little as he can to the
fruit, aging it in cement eggs and acacia
puncheons, adding sulfur at bottling and little else. So, there's nothing to suppress the
seemingly boundless aromatics-lemon oil,
lemon peel, scallion, petrol, saffron, cedar
tips, peach, quince and on and on. Its ﬂavors start out broad-shouldered, on creamy
spiced pear and peach, only to tense up and
become sinewy and delineated; all the while
the texture feels luminous, ﬁlled with energy
and an invigorating acidity. Generous now,
this has the structure to age into something
even more luxurious. -P.J.C. (W&S 10/20;
455 cases) §

OREGON RED
BEST PINOT NOIRS
521489

96 | Walter Scott

$65

2018 Eola-Amity Hills Sojeau Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ Sojeau was planted in 2007 by
Denny Peseau, who's farmed in the area since
the 1970s. It's on the southern edge of the
Eola-Amity Hills, set high on a ridge and fac-

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Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020

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