Forge Cellars Riesling Classique 2021 (750ml)

 

Rated 90 Points by Wine & Spirits

 

Scents of pine tips and green herbs give way to firm, austere citrus flavors.  It's got an herbal edge, of thyme and chervil, with an orange peel and lime-oil lift.

 

Rated 90 Points by Wine Spectator

 

Focused and tight, with a mix of yuzu, yellow apple, fennel and bitter almond notes that race along through the lengthy finish.

 

Forge Cellars Dry Riesling Classique 2021

 

Our Classique bottlings are our most important wines, as they aim to reveal the true nature of each vintage and to explore the terroir of east Seneca Lake.  These wines are the foundation of Forge, and each year we aim to craft a wine that consistently speaks of the style of Forge and a pure expression of the vintage.

 

Each of the 16 vineyards that we work with contribute to the blend that make up our Classique wines.  These wines showcase the beauty of Seneca Lake: to be able to consolidate the various elements of each site into a perfectly balanced wine.  Very few regions in the world provide in a natural way this perfect combination.

 

This wine is like you and me - we are individually unique, but we represent all of our ancestors at the same time.  We carry their traits.

 

Soils:  Lansing, Hudson, Angola and Conesus gravelly loam on shale

 

Harvest Date:  October 10, 2021 to October 24, 2021

 

Winemaking:  Spontaneous fermentation in neutral barrel

 

Alcohol:  12.7%

 

Winemaker Notes

 

The Classique acts as an annual celebration of their work.  It commemorates the efforts and dedication of their growers who take each vintage in stride by receiving each day with vulnerability and leaning into the gifts of Mother Nature.  Their Classique is an imprint of their diverse and geologically rich region.  For them, it represents the potential of Bone Dry Riesling on southeast Seneca Lake.

 

Seneca Lake Wine Region

 

Seneca Lake is a standalone American Viticultural Area (AVA), located within the Finger Lakes AVA.  The original petition explains it well, documenting dozens of pages of the uniqueness that is Seneca Lake and the immediately surrounding area.

 

The Seneca Lake AVA covers 320 square miles.  According to the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, it is “characterized by the “lake effect” meso-climates along Seneca lake, the “air drainage” of sloping hillsides, and glacial soils conducive to drainage.”

 

The region specializes in Riesling, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, as well as sparkling wines and ice wines.  There are, of course, French-American and Native American varietals found in the region as well.  Winemakers here are used to unpredictability that Mother Nature often presents, and they are adept at adapting viticultural and winemaking processes to make fantastic wine as they go.  Similarly, wineries are also producing unexpected varietals and styles.

 

 

Forge

 

Cellars

 

Specializing in Bone-Dry Riesling,

 

Cool Climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay,

 

and Cabernet Franc from Seneca Lake.

 

Our goal is for our wines to reflect the place that they come from, because this is where the pleasure is.  When you smell a wine, you should be transported to its origins and see the landscape.  It should relate to good memories, and provide a strong feeling of identity.  This is why we try to listen, be soft and transparent in our winemaking.

 

Our choices in the cellar guard the purity of our vineyards.  Simply put, we make wine in the traditional, handcrafted manner.  We harvest by hand.  We sort by hand.  We load the grapes into the press by hand.  We shovel the vats out by hand.  We employ spontaneous fermentation and ferment in very tiny lots, so that we truly understand the expression of the vineyard each year.  We use very low levels of sulphur, ferment our Rieslings bone dry, and do not fine or filter our red wines.

 

Our indigenous yeast fermentations proceed very slowly.  It is not in spring, but in the summer after the vintage that we are finally able to move toward bottling the wines.  Once fermentations are complete, our team begins diligently tasting through our barrels and tanks, giving each a detailed rating and review, and writing personal tasting notes.  When we talk about small batch and individualized fermentations, we really mean it - hundreds of separate, small French barriques from more than a dozen different vineyards, each with its own story and personality.  

 

 

Rated 90 Points by Wine Spectator

 

Focused and tight, with a mix of yuzu, yellow apple, fennel and bitter almond notes that race along through the lengthy finish.