Our Wines: Ice Wine
2006 Persimmon Creek Icewine, Trillium Block
Winery Note: 2006 Persimmon Creek Riesling Icewine will be released in July.
Vineyard: 118 vertically trellised vines planted on a gentle, limestone based and quartz filled slope rising from behind the bending Persimmon Creek, close to a 2,100 ft.-elevation. This particular site enjoys the cold climate conditions of Persimmon Creek Valley, favorable west-facing sunlight exposure, and superior air circulation which in most years allow for ripening deep into November or December, usually with partial Botrytis cinerea (the “noble mold” that concentrates sugars and the peach and apricot-like varietal qualities of Riesling).
Cellar & Fermentation: Manually harvested then refrigerated to keep floral aromas fresh, gently pressed, and sent to tank. 100% temperature controlled stainless steel fermentation.
Tasting Notes: Flowery fresh in the nose and on the palate; much like Persimmon Creek’s “regular” Riesling, only with the jardin des fleurs qualities accentuated to a sweet, honeyed concentration – a mélange of lush, lively, mouth-filling peach and apricot-like fruit, brightly balanced with exhilarating natural acidity, and an entire garden of flowery notes exploding in a long, gentle finish.
The Vineyard: The Trillium Vineyard Riesling
The name almost says it all: we adore the wild yet delicate, three petaled flowers of the genus Trillium – the most exquisite plant of the woodland – which is why we selected and named this block for the making of the most exquisite but most widely unpredictable wine, the Persimmon Creek Late Harvest Riesling or the Icewine, each made according to the unpredictable whims of Mother Nature.
Rising up from behind the bending Persimmon Creek, the Trillium Vineyard’s gentle, limestone based and quartz filled slope combines with ideal solar exposure and temperatures (slightly cooler than our other three Riesling blocks) to extend maturation late into the season. The Trillium’s 118 plants are usually picked in November or December, one to two months after the rest of the vineyard is harvested.
Good air circulation allows grapes to ripen slowly, and is also conducive to partial development of Botrytis cinerea – a natural “noble mold” (in German, edelfaule) – on the grape clusters. Botrytis accentuates texture and the peach and apricot-like qualities typical of the grape, concentrating sweetness while preserving completely balanced acidity. Our Late Harvest Riesling and the 2006 Icewine are both typically crisp, with nary a cloying note to its lush, sweet, natural character. Truly, a “trillium.”
In 2005 the Trillium Vineyard Riesling (this vintage currently sold out) was picked in mid-November with partial Botrytis; the wine finishing with 8% residual sugar and a light and delicate 10% alcohol. The soon to be released 2006 was picked in mid-December on a 14 degree day, and the shriveled, partially Botrytised grapes were pressed outside when still partially frozen. The resulting, ultra-concentrated “Riesling Ice Wine” (in Germany it would be called an eiswein) now lies sleeping in wood, and will be bottled and released as our Trillium Vineyard Late Harvest Riesling.
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