Forge Cellars Dry Riesling Classique 2023

Forge Cellars is made up of friends with a common goal: to grow grapes and handcraft wines of interest and value that perfectly balance minerality, aromatics and fruit to reflect the exceptional terroir of southeast Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes of New York state. Each vintage is viewed as an opportunity to express this region — to reflect its soils, cool climate, and diverse terroir.

LOUIS BARRUOL is the winemaker and a true visionary. Louis comes from a winemaking tradition of 14 generations. His family has been located at their historic property in the village of Gigondas in the Southern Rhone Valley of France since 1570. Louis grew up among the vines and took over the estate from his dad in 1992, proceeding to improve quality and grow a vigneron-negociant arm of the business. Chateau de St. Cosme is now regarded as the benchmark of wine quality in Gigondas.

Forge Cellars Riesling Classique acts as an annual celebration of the winery's work. It commemorates the efforts and dedication of their growers who take each vintage in its own style by receiving each day with vulnerability and leaning into the gifts of Mother Nature. The Classique is an imprint of the diverse and geologically rich region it comes from and represents the potential of Bone Dry Riesling on southeast Seneca Lake.

"Our Classique is our most important wine because it reflects our work on a larger scale. Sixteen different lieux-dits, each vinified separately, are the basis of this wine and represent the DNA of Classique. 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." —Louis Barruol