The folks at Smith-Madrone Winery, which is located high atop Spring Mountain overlooking St. Helena, got in touch earlier this week to share some news.
The winery recently released new vintages of its Chardonnay (a 2007 for $40 per 750ml bottle) and Riesling (a 2008 for $27 per bottle). The more interesting news, at least from our point of view, is that Smith-Madrone has also just re-released its 2002 Riesling ($60 per bottle).
Now, admittedly we’ve generally not thought of laying down a Riesling in the cellar for a decade or better like we’d do with a Cabernet Sauvignon, but founder Stuart Smith notes “Rieslings age every bit as well as do Cabernet Sauvignons and Pinot Noirs, if not better.”
Smith-Madrone claims to be one of the few (if not the only) winery in the United States with a program of holding back a portion of its Rieslings and re-releasing them a few years down the road. Here’s a quick breakdown of the 2002 Riesling:
- 100% Riesling
- 750 cases produced
- Fruit sourced from 31 year old vines
- 12.7% Alcohol by volume
At some point here in the next few weeks we hope to make the trek up Spring Mountain to give each of these wines a taste for ourselves.
In the meantime, if you have a favorite Smith-Madrone wine (or story from your visit to the winery) let us know about it in the comments.
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