SKU: 04400

Forge Cellars Riesling 2017

750ml

$21.99

$19.79

Category	White Wine
Varietal	Riesling
Region	United States, New York, Finger Lakes
Brand	Forge Cellars
Alcohol/vol	13%

Forge Cellars is a small, artisanal producer focusing entirely on Dry Riesling and Pinot Noir in the Finger Lakes. Made up of three partners —French Winemaker-Grower, Louis Barruol of Château de Saint Cosme in Gigondas and American partners Richard Rainey, and Justin Boyette, their goal is for the wines to reflect the place that they come from, because this is where the pleasure is. When you smell a wine, you should to be transported to its origins and see the landscape. It should relate to good memories, and provide a strong feeling of identity.

Their choices in the cellar guard the purity of the Forge vineyards. Simply put, they make wine in the traditional, handcrafted manner : harvesting by hand, sorting by hand, loading the grapes into the press by hand. They shovel the vats out by hand, they employ spontaneous fermentation and ferment in very tiny lots, so that they can truly understand the expression of the vineyard each year. They use very low levels of sulphur, fermenting Rieslings bone dry, and do not fine or filter the red wines.

Forge Classique Riesling is the winery's most important wine reflecting the substance and diversity of southeast Seneca Lake. It fermented in both vats and old oak (228 liter Burgundy barrels and demi-muids) with indigenous yeasts for several months, as is typical of our wines. Combining aromas of mineral and fruit: mango, jasmine, flint, it delivers a balanced texture, straightforward while being both long and soft. American viticulture has the ability to deliver fantastic mineral-driven, complex, refined, long-aging, and refreshing white wines that remind of great Burgundy or Sancerre. This is Riesling, this is southeast Seneca Lake, this is Forge.

Wine Advocate

wa91

The 2017 Dry Riesling Classique is whole-cluster pressed, then fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged in a mixture of 57% neutral French barriques and 43% stainless steel for about eight months. It comes in with 13% alcohol and just three grams of residual sugar. This, says the winery, is the first labeling with the Seneca Lake AVA. It is a blend of sites from the southeast side of Seneca. This has as much power as the single-vineyard wines, showing some bite from the wood and plenty of focus. It holds up well to the upper level and comes at a bargain price. It may not have the finesse of the Leidenfrost, say, but it has as much depth and more power. And it's a lot cheaper-a word that only references price, not quality.

Mark Squires, June 28, 2019

Wine Spectator

ws91

Juicy and vibrant, with jasmine-gilded yellow apple, melon and mirabelle plum flavors backed by flashes of verbena and green almond on the finish. Shows lots of range and energy. Drink now through 2022. 125 cases made. - JM

James Molesworth

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Forge Cellars Riesling 2017

750ml

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