A Trisaetum 2011 Riesling Dry Ribbon Ridge – picked, as proprietor James Frey points out, long after a November 8-10 loss of foliage – features green apple and passion fruit with an undertone of stone, and as such would easily pass for Sauvignon in a blind tasting. There’s plenty of pep and invigoration here, and the wine’s 9 grams of residual sugar are wisely chosen given that the overall effect is still dry and tart; but I am inclined to anticipate that this will be best drunk within the coming year.
Tristaetum is the 2003 creation of photographer, painter, and one-time California home winemaker James Frey. Portland- and Beaune-trained Greg McClellan has been the other half of Trisaetum’s vineyard and cellar team since the first commercially significant vintage, 2007. The estate vineyards are two: Ribbon Ridge Estate – where winemaking facilities are located – in the eponymous A.V.A.; and Coast Range Estate, on a mix of sedimentary and volcanic-based soils at the western edge of the Yamhill-Carlton A.V.A. Both the Frey family’s Alsace origins and taste preferences led to Riesling playing nearly as important a part at Trisaetum as Pinot Noir, and those are the sole grapes grown. Huge importance is placed on fruit selection including vacuuming of detritus and two sophisticated sorting tables. Riesling is fermented in both stainless steel “barrels” and actual ones, as well as in vineyard-designated; dry and off dry; two-vineyard reserve blend; and, frequently too, in late-harvested versions. As with their Rieslings, Frey and McClellan employ for the sake of complexity a variety of yeast cultures to – following extended cold soak – ferment their Pinots in a mixture of stainless steel tanks and oak uprights, with three or more punch-downs a day the norm, and pressing at or within 2-3 days after achieving dryness. Production is in the 300 case range for these wines, the notable exceptions among those I most recently tasted being the “Estates Reserve” bottlings (combining fruit from both Ribbon Ridge and Yamhill-Carlton branches) which represented half that amount of 2011 Riesling and double that amount of 2010 Pinot Noir. (Note that while Trisaetum identifies their wines with the name of the relevant branch of their estate, they have not chosen to explicitly indicate the relevant official Willamette sub-A.V.A.s on their labels.)
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