The Ravines Dry Riesling 2015 is sourced from 2 estate vineyards and one contracted vineyard in the Finger Lakes AVA in north central/western New York, south of Lake Ontario and near the city of Rochester. Ravines Cellars is a family owned wine estate (since 2000) located on Seneca Lake and the Finger Lakes AVA consists of a series of long narrow glacial lakes that run north and south. The lakes (as long as they don’t freeze over) keep the land in between the lakes free from heavy frost in winter and provide cooling breezes in the summer. New York is the 3rd largest wine-producing state, after California and Washington and ahead of Oregon. (Here is a fun fact: the 5th largest wine-producing state is Texas) Vineyards have grown in the Finger Lakes region since the early 1800s and the area received AVA status in 1982, and they are well-regarded for making Riesling wine. Limestone and shale rocks are strewn thru-out the vineyards giving this Riesling solid minerality somewhat reminiscent of the Riesling from the Mosel region of Germany, where the vineyards have heavy deposits of slate. The alcohol content is 12.5%.
The color is a pale wheat yellow. If you only know Riesling from Washington State then the nose is going to seem strange, but if you are familiar with German Riesling then the nose will be very familiar. There are notes of petrol, melon, lemon, grapefruit, green apple, and a little stone fruit. This is a dry Riesling, it its lean, but it has some weight to the body, with well controlled acidity. It tastes of a mix of grapefruit and peach, apricot and lime, apple and lemon, all underlined by a streak of minerality. The mid-palate brings faint blood orange and guava. The acidity has very good balance, it is a food wine, but the self-controlled acidity allows this Riesling to sip very well. The finish is subtle and lingers.
If you are a Riesling fan and you have not explored the wines of Finger Lakes, you are missing out. The Ravines Dry Riesling 2015 is a delicious wine. This is a serious bottle of wine, it’s not a fun and fruity porch-pounder, but it has tons of flavor. The minerality is an intriguing counter-balance to the fruit and citrus, if you are not into wine you would never figure that minerals and fruit could somehow go together, but when you taste it, it makes perfect sense.
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