Digging Deep - Old Vine Cali Riesling from Desire Lines Wine Co.

Some months back I had the pleasure of meeting Cody Rasmussen, one half of Desire Lines Wine (with his wife Emily). He came by the store and we tasted a fairly stunning lineup of wines. The wines showed a remarkable sense of poise and consistency across a wide range of different sites and varieties. This makes sense when one considers that for ten years Cody has been the associate winemaker at Bedrock Wine Co. under Chris Cottrell and Morgan Twain-Peterson, two of California's premier vineyard archivists. Talking with Cody while we tasted, it was clear that he and Emily have thoroughly absorbed Bedrock's reverence for old California vineyards and the growers who maintain them.

Cody has a particular affinity for those rowing against the current, maintaining old Mourvèdre or Viognier in places that are thanklessly inaccessible. And that afternoon, there were two wines that especially turned my head, a pair of Rieslings. Riesling has a long history in California, arriving with German immigrants in the 19th Century, and as recently as the 1970s and 1980s it was still common to find sweet wines bottled as Johannisberg Riesling by some of the state's classic producers. But with the rise of Chardonnay, and later of Sauvignon aka "Fumé" Blanc, Riesling was as often as not relegated to blending into jug whites, or worse—pulled up and replaced. Its reputation as a sweet wine didn't help either. However, there are some intrepid growers who have maintained their plantings in the face of market indifference and Cody's affinity for off-dry and dry German wines led him to seek them out. My colleagues and I were pretty well knocked out that afternoon.

The first of the two we tasted was from Cole Ranch (the smallest AVA in California), from vines planted in 1973. The vineyard itself is tucked away at the north end of Mendocino, at elevations ranging from 1400 feet to 1600 feet above sea level, and extremely cold even as the state grows ever warmer. The wine was riveting right from jump—intensely citric, with deep lemon and lime character and a distinct mineral component backed up by incredible acidity. The combination of structure and dry extract leads me to think that this has great potential for the future if you can find room in the cellar, but alongside a plate of ham or oysters now you'd be hard-pressed for a better companion.

The second Riesling that morning was Wiley Vineyard, another hilltop site about halfway between Ukiah and Philo just ten miles inland from the Pacific. Planted in 1976 by Brad Wiley (of the publishing family), the profile here leaned just a bit broader, with the citrus rounded out with stone fruit and tropical notes and a beautiful savoriness in the finish. This is delicious right now but there is no hurry!

Tasting with growers like Cody is often the highlight of the day at CSW. There is nothing we love more than being introduced to new wines that demonstrate intention and thoughtfulness, and then in turn sharing them with you. As a little incentive to give these wines the attention they deserve, a purchase of six bottles from this offer comes with the case discount of ten percent! Sam Ehrlich

**This is a pre-arrival offer. These wines will be available by Fri 7/22**