Very pale yellow color; pear, cantaloupe, citrus on the nose; pear, tangerine, green and yellow apple, citrus on the palate.
Brilliant acidity (2.88 pH) is deliciously balanced by vivid fruit and an almost-off dry sweetness (this is dry wine that lives near the border of medium dry). Stainless steel fermentation allows for the great Washington State-Columbia Valley fruit to pour pleasures on your palate. The wine shows how a simple wine can be delicious and wonderful expression of riesling—a grape that finally is regaining the respect it fully deserves.
Chateau Ste. Michelle started as a hunting retreat and rural farm (called “Hollywood Farm”) built by lumber baron Frederick Stimson. The wine operation started in 1954 as the “American Wine Company” after the merger of the National Wine Company, founded in 1934, and the Pomerelle Wine Company. Today it is Washington’s oldest and largest winery. It is owned by Altria, the company formerly known as Phillip Morris.
Chateau Ste. Michelle produces more than two million cases of riesling a year, making it the largest riesling producer in the world.
Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Dry Riesling 2015 is superb reason to put riesling in your glass. Forget the dismal riesling plonk of the 70s and 80s when producers pursued lowest-common-denominator stuff for sale in America. Riesling is one of the great wines of the world. When dry or semi-dry, a fantastic food wine that can match with almost anything; consider it in same category as sauvignon blanc in this regard. When it is quality sweet, riesling is fabulous desert wine. Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Dry Riesling 2015 is widely available (100,000 cases made) and comes at can’t-pass-up price. $9-10
Second photo: The Chateau Ste. Michelle chateau
