Eroica Riesling 2017
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Eroica Riesling offers sweet lime and mandarin orange aromas with subtle mineral notes. The mouth-watering acidity is beautifully balanced by flavorful Washington Riesling fruit. To achieve our Eroica style we strive for bright fruit with crisp acidity and enhanced mineralilty.
Pair with Asian dishes, Indian curries, crab and scallops.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Subtle and complex as ever, the 2017 Eroica delivers on its best features (including price!) while introducing a few more. It is always an accessible wine, just off bone dry; this one starts off with lemon and dried pineapple scents, then yields more complex markers of petrol, wool and citrus. It feels balanced and bright, luminous in purity, with a mild phenolic bitterness that holds the sweet fruit aloft. A steal at $20.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Even more vivid and pure than the base Riesling from Ste. Michelle, the 2017 Riesling Eroica boasts a light gold color as well as notes of crushed lime, sugared mint, crushed rocks, and exotic flowers. With a more off-dry style, it's textured, balanced, and beautifully layered on the palate. As in most years, it’s one of the top expressions of Riesling in the United States.
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Wine Enthusiast
Light aromas of flower, wet slate, lime and peach lead to off-dry fruit flavors. Vibrant acidity heightens the appeal. This wine still seems to be in its shell but has all of the stuffing.
Editors' Choice -
James Suckling
This has a fresh-herb and pear-blossom nose with a stone-fruit, too. The palate has a fresh and steely texture with a sleek, pure and attractive finish. The sweetness is nicely judged.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Riesling Eroica wafts from the glass with classic Riesling notes of green apple, pineapple, limes, peach with citrus blossoms and a soft nuance of petrol. The wine is medium-bodied and clean on the palate, showing good acidity and freshness, with just a kiss of sweetness and a lingering finish.
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Launched in 1999, Eroica is a labor of love for two of the world's great Riesling producers. One from the Old World, Dr. Loosen estate of Germany, and the other from the New World, Chateau Ste. Michelle of Washington state. An intermingling of Old and New World philosophies and technique enables the crafting of an extraordinary Riesling from Washington state grapes. Named for Beethoven's Third Symphony, Eroica reflects not only its variety and site, but also its heritage: bold and forward from its Washington roots, elegant and refined from German inspiration.
The first five vintages of Eroica Riesling (1999-2003) were named to Wine Spectator's "Top 100" list.
"I have long believed that a Riesling revival would have to start with a prominent New World winery like Chateau Ste. Michelle."
- Ernst Loosen, Dr. Loosen estate
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.
A large and geographically diverse AVA capable of producing a wide variety of wine styles, the Columbia Valley AVA is home to 99% of Washington state’s total vineyard area. A small section of the AVA even extends into northern Oregon!
Because of its size, it is necessarily divided into several distinctive sub-AVAs, including Walla Walla Valley and Yakima Valley—which are both further split into smaller, noteworthy appellations. A region this size will of course have varied microclimates, but on the whole it experiences extreme winters and long, hot, dry summers. Frost is a common risk during winter and spring. The towering Cascade mountain range creates a rain shadow, keeping the valley relatively rain-free throughout the entire year, necessitating irrigation from the Columbia River. The lack of humidity combined with sandy soils allows for vines to be grown on their own rootstock, as phylloxera is not a serious concern.
Red wines make up the majority of production in the Columbia Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety here, where it produces wines with a pleasant balance of dark fruit and herbs. Wines made from Merlot are typically supple, with sweet red fruit and sometimes a hint of chocolate or mint. Syrah tends to be savory and Old-World-leaning, with a wide range of possible fruit flavors and plenty of spice. The most planted white varieties are Chardonnay and Riesling. These range in style from citrus and green apple dominant in cooler sites, to riper, fleshier wines with stone fruit flavors coming from the warmer vineyards.