Is BC Riesling Special?

I am a lover of Riesling.  It allows the wine maker to produce wine in many styles, from bone dry, to a lusciously sweet ice wine.  While we here in BC have talked about making very good aromatic white wines, I have not yet seen a systematic analysis of our aromatic grapes, Riesling in particular, and how the wines differ across BC.

I would like to compare 2014 vintage Rieslings from across BC (or 2013), taking into account the location of the vineyard, it’s terroir, and write about it here on mywinepal for everyone to read, and learn, and appreciate BC wine.  (If you have not yet released your 2014 Riesling, then I will also accept 2013 for this comparison).

We are starting to break down BC wine regions into smaller sub-regions.  How does Riesling express itself in each region?  Our current regions from winebc.org are:

• Okanagan Valley
• Similkameen Valley
• Fraser Valley
• Vancouver Island
• Gulf Islands

If you are a BC wine maker, and you produce Riesling, and would like to participate, please email me at contact@mywinepal.com.

I would like to start reviewing the wines by June 22 at the latest.

I would also like to get a spec sheet and bottle shot if you have it in digital form, and information on the geographic location of your Riesling vineyard(s) so that I can produce an interactive story map about our BC Rieslings.  Helping readers learn more about BC Riesling can help to make it more interesting to purchase and try.

Update: Wineries Already Contributing

The Rieslings have arrived at my door and tasting is well underway.  I have bottles from and would like to thank the following wineries for participating:

• Tantalus Vineyards
• Gehringer Brothers Estate Winery
• Moraine Winery
• Red Rooster
• Mt. Boucherie Family Estate Winery
• Upper Bench Estate Winery
• Fort Berens Estate Winery
• Backyard Vineyards
• Summerhill Pyramid Winery
• Arrowleaf Cellars
• Sperling Vineyards
• Stags Hollow
• Road 13
• Wild Goose Vineyards
• Dostana (Kalala)
• Inniskillin
• Jackson-Triggs
• Sonoran Estate Winery
• Mike B (Okanagan Crush Pad)
• Lang Vineyards
• Sperling Vineyards
• St. Hubertus Estate Wines
• Tantalus
• Summergate
• Evolve Winery
• Synchromesh

I am working diligently tasting the wines and making notes.  The notes will be entered into a database, along with a picture of each label, and then the interactive story map will be made.  It is going to be very interesting.