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2004 Corral Creek Vineyards Riesling

(new release October 2004)

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The Wine

Our dry riesling is produced in very limited quantities from our Corral Creek Vineyard. Our intent is to reflect ripe fruit that is highly focused with pinpoint acidity, but to capture perfect balance. This is a serious riesling, not a quaffer, a big wine with brilliant, rich fruit, bright acid and a weighty palate. The acidity provides ageability and great structure, making it perfect with food and cleansing on the palate. It continues the viscous, intense, Alsatian styled wines that our Pinot Gris Reserve starts; it is harvested late (last and many times in November) with full ripeness and a touch of botrytis, giving the most dramatic and ageable dry Riesling we can make.

The Vineyard

Corral Creek was begun in 1983 by John and Diane Howieson, founders of Veritas Winery from whom the vineyard was purchased in 1995. A 25-acre vineyard predominantly planted to Pinot noir, with grafts of Dijon chardonnay, Pinot gris, and, recently, Riesling, to augment the prime 1.1-acre block of 16-year-old Riesling sited on a low bench above Corral Creek. Soils are Laurelwood, a blown sedimentary loess soil series that, although low in elevation, is well drained and seems especially suited to complex white wines like Riesling.

The Vintage

What a difference some rain makes! Vintage 2004 was destined to be equally hot and ripe as 2003, until we had a quenching rain in late August and then a month later. Young and early vineyards that were almost ready to harvest the first week of September could have done without the rain, but the rest (like Chehalem’s) thought it a blessed relief. A short cropload, plus growing season heat make 2004 properly plump, but with restraint. An interesting vintage—almost an average of 2001, 2002, and 2003—it has perhaps a little more variability in reds and more structured, brighter whites, similar to 2002.

Stats

Harvest Data:

Harvested 10/15/04 @22.2 brix, 3.20 pH, and 7.4 g/L total acid at 2.55 tons per acre

Fermentation:

Fermented with VL-1 yeast in a small stainless Grundy tank

Cooperage/Aging:

Tank fermented

Bottling:

Cold stabilized, filtered and screwcap bottled 4/14/2005

Bottling Analyses:

12.8 % alcohol, 7.8g/L acid., 3.02 pH, 0.40 % residual sugar

Cases Produced:

Suggested Retail:

$25

Release Date:

October 2004

Winemaker's Comments

This is a special, single-vineyard Riesling from Corral Creek, a single small fermentor of which I bottled separately because I couldn’t bear losing the special nature of this old-vine site entirely in the Reserve blend. It is bright, intensely aromatic with white and yellow fruit, talc, a lemony lift in the nose. The overall fruit impressions are of peach and apricot, with some peach pit indicating a firmness. It holds great acidity, low alcohol relative to all other varietals and should age impeccably for decades.

Quotes

The Wine Advocate, June 2006, Pierre Rovani: 89. Dried honey-coated minerals make up the aromatic profile of the medium-bodied 2004 Riesling Corral Creek. A wine of gorgeous intensity, balance, focus, and depth, it offers a liquefied mineral and flower-dominated core of fruit.

© CHEHALEM
31190 NE Veritas Lane • Newberg, OR 97132
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