2023 Desire Lines Massa Vineyard Riesling

Library Offering:

"The 2023 Riesling Massa Vineyard offers an intriguing mix of textural depth and lifted floral overtones. A wine of real presence and layers, the Massa is full of character. It opens so well on the mid-palate and finish. The 7.8 grams per liter of residual sugar amplifies the wine’s textural presence without being overly dominant. Superb." - 94 points, Antonio Galloni (Vinous)

After the excitement of making a kabinett-style Riesling in 2022, we opted to return to a drier GG-style last year, particularly given the gorgeous cool weather in Carmel. The 2023 is decidedly autumnal: yellow orchard fruits and orange citrus, green herbs, and the spicy warmth of fallen leaves. We direct-pressed most of the wine per usual but reserved a portion of the grapes for an overnight skin soak and fermented that wine separately before blending back prior to bottling. The skin soak portion brings additional aromatic intensity to the wine, and a greater phenolic density to the palate that adds a lovely form and structure to embrace the wine’s Central Coast sunshine and 7.8 g/L of residual sugar. As with the Cole Ranch, this has a higher-than-usual TA and a lower-than-usual ethanol.