These mouthwatering summer white wines are the result of a wonderful chain of circumstances. I have wanted to make a Riesling for a very long time…but I only wanted to do so if it could be made in a delicious, crisp “old world” style…completely dry, without any sweetness…but still deliver the richness that we all love in our wines.

I wanted it to have hints of that classic Riesling spice…the almost petrol nuances and the traditional minerality, all wrapped around layers of floral and musk melon…a profile for Riesling very hard to find outside Germany or Alsace…many/most of them from California are either sweet or without the personality I described. However, a few years ago I met a grower from Monterey named Kelly McFarland. Kelly is a real grower – the kind of grower that loves to farm – not just from the seat of his pick-up as he drives by, but out in the field, walking the rows, cares about every vine, works as hard as any of his helpers; a real grower. Although Kelly is not a winemaker – nor does he want to be – he grows grapes like the few of us that are both growers and winemakers…we know that every day and every action in the vineyard will show in the bottle…and that’s Kelly’s approach, and if you can’t tell – I really hit it off with him. Not just because he a had a block of 30 year old Riesling vines in the most special benchland in Santa Lucia Highlands, the gem of Monterey County – although honestly that was the thing that made me want to get to know him better, but I really hit it off with him because he loved to grow grapes, and grow the best possible fruit for his wineries year in and year out. This vineyard is a special place – rocky, to give me the minerality I want, and kissed by the cold Coastal breeze each night. When I described to him the style of Riesling I was yearning to create, I could see the smile and twinkle in his eye emerge – he said that the other producer using this block was making a nice wine but in a semi-sweet style. Kelly told me he had always wanted someone to try a bone-dry, tart, crisp wine from there…the rest is history and now in your hands! It is aged only in older barrels so there is no oak flavor but just the purity of those rocks and Monterey surf and sunshine. That crisp character is a trait I call “salivacious”…because it makes your mouth water for your next bite or sip!