Hyland Estates Riesling 2016
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From a 40-plus-year-old vineyard, this peppery wine is dry, fruity and bold. It combines peach, apple and orange fruit flavors with a lusciously full-bodied mouthfeel that's also layered and well structured. Drink now and over the next decade.
Editors’ Choice
Hyland Vineyard began planting in 1971 by four pioneering friends with own-rooted Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling & Gewurztraminer that now totals 185 acres. Located in the McMinnville AVA of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Hyland Vineyard is the largest contiguous and second oldest single vineyard site in Oregon. The Hyland Vineyard is LIVE Certified Sustainable. The LIVE Certified Sustainable Wine logo on a bottle is your assurance of sustainably produced, authentic Northwest wine.
In 2007, the property changed hands to new caretakers led by Laurent Montalieu who felt that this vineyard had to be left wild and untamed. He wanted the land to speak in its own voice, adopting a "land not hand" philosophy. The block, the elevation, the growing season and the individual expression of every vine is present in the glass. Quiet and self-sufficient, the vines produce a textually mature, high-concentrated juice that come with decades of establishing oneself firmly into the land. This is Hyland Estates.
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
Stretching southwest from the city of McMinnville, the AVA with the same name covers about 40,000 acres across 20 miles until it meets the Van Duzer Corridor. This corridor is the only break in the Coast Range whose gap allows the cool Pacific Ocean air to flow eastward into the Willamette Valley.
The Pacific's moderating winds hit McMinnville’s south and southeast facing slopes where cool-climate varieties—namely Pinot noir and Pinot blanc thrive on ridges at between 200 to 1,000 feet in elevation.
Soils here are primarily uplifted marine sedimentary loam and silt, with alluvial formations; McMinnville receives less rainfall than its neighbors to the east because it is situated in the rain shadow of the Coast Range.