12/14/2023 0 Comments Ice wine riesling![]() ![]() This limited-production Artz Vineyard Semillon spent its entire fermentation in a concrete tank, a process that emphasizes zip and freshness. We’re happy to go against the grain if the result is this delicious. At the end of the day, Kiona grows eight (!) white cultivars at three of our highly-regarded vineyards here on Red Mountain. Maybe it's a combination of all of the above. Maybe we planted white grapes here before anyone knew how good the red grapes were. There is a significant opportunity cost to have a white cultivar planted here. Ergo, white cultivars are uncommon in our diminutive region, where acreage supply is low, and demand is high. The unfortunate reality is that a bottle of high-quality red wine can be sold for more than a bottle of high-quality white wine. ![]() ![]() There is an economic explanation for why white wines are not more prolific on Red Mountain: when a region produces red wines as well as we do, the financial incentive is to plant those cultivars. Still, the net result is quintessential "Ranch," and the goal is to make the best wine possible within any blending constraint. The wine includes a small Heart of the Hill component (5% Petit Verdot) its inclusion continually impressed us in our double-blind blending process. The Cabernet Sauvignon block featured in this wine holds several distinctions: it's Kiona's youngest plant- ing (2016), the highest in elevation, and the only planted off-axis. ![]() Ranch at the End of the Road sits more than 300' higher than Kiona Estate at its highest point, despite its relative proximity (~1.3 miles). Even so, site-specific, vineyard-designated wines hold a lot of intrigue. Most Red Mountain-appellated wines already have an extraordinary degree of geographical specificity since the entire AVA is only 4,040 acres. Having already featured Kiona Estate and Heart of the Hill in previous Vineyard-Series releases, Ranch at the End of the Road joins the fray for the first time with this 2018 bottling. Starting in 2015 we embarked on the goal of releasing a top-tier, vineyard-designated wine from each vineyard. Kiona Vineyards and Winery encompasses five Red Mountain sites totaling 270+ estate acres. Of the Bordeaux red cultivars grown in our region, Malbec stands out as being particularly tasty in its youth and equally at ease with food or by itself. This certainly holds true on Red Mountain, where the wines tend to exhibit a softer, svelte tannin profile. Malbec was “discovered” by the new world wine-drinking public as a superb stand-alone culti- var for fruit-forward, dark, approachable wines with lots of depth. It’s a higher-elevation vineyard well suited to the cultivar. This 2019 Malbec represents the first time we’ve featured the site as a 100%, single-vineyard estate offering. Observant Kiona followers know that Sunset Bench vineyard features in many of our current and former wines, but always as a blending component. The fruit is highly sought after by Washington winemakers for its strong varietal typicity and opaque coloration – demand continues to outpace supply. The grape thrives here, producing wines of uncommon depth and complexity. In 15 years, Malbec grew from a 2-acre experiment to Kiona’s fifth-most-planted cultivar on Red Mountain. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |