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WTN: 2004 Willow Heights Riesling, Stefanik Vineyard (Niagara Peninsula VQA)

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Paul B.

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WTN: 2004 Willow Heights Riesling, Stefanik Vineyard (Niagara Peninsula VQA)

by Paul B. » Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:06 pm

12.5% alc. Clear, bright straw colour with very fine carbonation. A very bold petrolly nose - very nice, and exactly what I love to see in our Rieslings. Petrol - diesel oil, to be exact - along with green-apple and pineappley aromas. Actually, a nice whack of conifer too. Intensely dieselly and pineappley upon swirling. Wonderfully crisp and gorgeously dry; in fact, I was wondering what the residual sugar content was given that no mention of it was made anywhere on the label. Happily, the wine is thoroughly dry. Some match-stick sulfur comes out on the mid-palate. Acidic and crisp on the palate; lots of acidic verve, which is great. The finish, though, is somewhat short and again defined by match-stick sulfur. The really exciting part of this wine is its fantastically redolent, spot-on varietal Riesling nose.

2004 was a cool, somewhat wet vintage in Ontario. I didn't have high expectations for the wines from that year, but practically all the whites I've tried so far have shown much better than I expected: they have very crisp, minerally edges to them, which I love.

Besides the short finish, the only other criticism I can make here is that a composite cork (read: cork bits glued and pressed together) was used instead of a solid, high-quality cork (or better yet, I think, a modern screwcap). Based on the closure, I would drink this Riesling up within two years at most.
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