November 17, 2004

Give Thanks to California Whites for Holiday Feasts
by Virginie Boone

Riesling has long been considered an ideal food-pairing wine in the regions where it grows best -- Germany, the Alsace region of France and, increasingly, Australia and Washington and New York states -- but there are some pretty astounding rieslings being made right here in our back yard, most notably by a handful of Napa and Mendocino-based producers.

Though still a small percentage of the overall wine market, these wineries are proving quite convincingly that California-grown rieslings and gewurztraminers -- two crisp, aromatic white wine grapes of German lineage -- are well able to stand on their own as a fine complement to all kinds of food, including Thanksgiving turkey…

Stony Hill Vineyards, also on Spring Mountain northwest of St. Helena, started planting vineyards in 1947, and has become one of the most prestigious names in Napa Valley, particularly for producing a slate of aromatic, age-worthy chardonnays. The small winery was the first built in Napa after Prohibition.

But Stony Hill also makes some very highly regarded rieslings and gewurztraminers, devoting 10 of its acres to riesling, the first vintage of which it produced back in 1957; and three acres to gewurztraminer. Both are made in a dry style.

above excerpted article © 2004 - The Press Democrat