William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

Drink me and enjoy me! It was my pleasure to receive this wine to taste and review at home. This Riesling is the second of four samples I received featuring Finger Lakes 2012 Rieslings. I began participating in the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance tastings a couple of years ago. Since, I have become quite fond of Finger Lakes Riesling. Quality is strong and they are different from the local Rieslings I have access to. "Americans are turned on to Riesling and the Finger Lakes has what Riesling loves: life at the cool margins and layers and layers of slate. There's no better place to find crisp, refreshing mineral-tinged Riesling in the States." - Joshua Greene, Publisher & Editor, Wine & Spirits Magazine

Sipping the Finger Lakes. In September, I participated in the Finger Lakes 2011 Riesling Launch. The focus was the release of the 2011 vintage. Samples were provided and several days were focused on tasting and tweeting about the 2011 Rieslings from the Finger Lakes wine region. We used #FLXwine in our tweets about the Finger Lakes wines. One of the wines I received in September was a 2011 Fulkerson Winery Semi-Dry Riesling . That is the second wine reviewed on this post. My notes for the Semi-Dry Riesling are from September. The other wine I am reviewing was shipped to me last week, it is the 2010 Fulkerson Winery Dry Riesling . That is the first wine reviewed today. Fulkerson Winery Tasting Room. Fulkerson Winery is a family owned and operated winery and fresh juice plant in Dundee, NY in the heart of the Finger Lakes on the West side of Seneca Lake. They offer over 23 varieties of Wine, 33 varieties of fresh grape juice in the fall and a full line of home wine mak...

Taste Washington! Recommended Wines. Antolin Cellars Winemaker Tony Haralson. Antolin Cellars is a boutique winery located in Yakima, Washington. Founded in 2007 by Tony and Linda Haralson. They source Riesling, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah from their 5-acre estate vineyard and other select sites in Yakima and Columbia Valleys. All three wines poured for me were very good. The Elephant Vineyard Syrah stood out. Antolin Cellars 2010 Estate Riesling. 2010 Riesling - Estate, dry, not sweet, apple, nice. ABV 12.2%, RS 2.03%, cases produced 100. $13.50 retail price. Recommended. Antolin Cellars Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon dry, crisp. Good structure, lighter body. 130 cases produced. ABV 13.7%. $22 retail price. Recommended. * Favorite: Syrah Elephant Vineyard – lighter, very good, must evaluate further. 200 cases produced. ABV 14.6%. $24 retail price.  Winery notes . Wines listed here are the wines I liked and recomme...

Finger Lakes Official Riesling Launch These are the six wines I received to review. I was fortunate to participate in the official Riesling launch sponsored by the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance and Finger Lakes Wine Country (#FLXwine). As a participant, I received a selection of six bottles of Finger Lakes Riesling.

This is the must have bubbly for tonight! Yes, this is a Washington State sparkling Riesling. Pacific Rim, a Riesling focused winery, was originally located in California, but is now located in West Richland, Washington about a 10 minute drive from my home. They moved here because the grapes are grown here. Makes sense to me. The grapes used in this sparkler are from their Selenium Vineyard — located north of the Yakima River at an elevation of almost 1000 feet. Riesling is not a traditional varietal for sparkling wine. You might even expect this wine to be over the top sweet, but it's not. This is a gorgeous, dry, crisp, lovely bubbly wine. It has a fragrant floral nose, which leads to a mouth full of crisp apple flavor and a snappy finish. I've already enjoyed two bottles of this wine in the last week. I hope you have the opportunity to enjoy some too. Although reasonably priced at $16 on their Web site, you may be able to find it for less locally (I certainly did). H...

K Vintners – 2007 Kung Fu Girl Riesling another recommended wine made by Charles Smith. Don't you love the label? I missed sampling this wine at Taste Washington , so I felt I owed it to myself to try a bottle at home. Washington is well known for Riesling - we have the perfect climate for growing the varietal. And Riesling was one of the states first widely successful wines in the 1970's - 1980's. With the increased focus on red wine grape varietals and all things Chardonnay in the 1990's, Rieslings popularity faded. A focus on Late Harvest Rieslings and Ice Wine production meant that dry Rieslings were largely ignored. But that has changed. I've noticed a Riesling renaissance occurring over the last eight years. The popularity of Chardonnay has proportionally decreased as the popularity of Riesling has increased. Some growers have been replacing Chardonnay vineyards with new Rieslings vineyards. Many great Rieslings are being produced in Washington -j...

Happy New Year! This is my first post of the new year, and a great way to enjoy the new year is with some of the remaining Barnard Griffin Dry Riesling. Rob Griffin only made 80 cases of this Riesling and just 6 cases remain as of yesterday. While this wine was not one of my favorites last summer, far too citrusy for my taste, a little time in the bottle has changed my opinion. The Dry Riesling is quite dry and balanced with good acidity, but now tastes of delicious, crisp Granny Smith apples! This is one of my favorite white wines for 2007. If you open a bottle and don't finish the wine the same day, don't worry, after a couple of days this wine softens and opens up to tropical fruit and a light apricot finish - very nice. The remaining 6 cases won't last long. So this is your last opportunity to stock up. You can still find this wine at the Barnard Griffin tasting room. Cheers!