1990 Stony Hill Riesling- USA, California, Napa Valley (1/3/2010)
Good cork. Medium gold. Nose of petrol, honey, ripe peaches or nectarines and citrus. On the palate the wine has weight, richness and a bit of oiliness. Honey, ripe fruit with an acid backdrop. Medium long finish that leaves a great combo of tart and honey. I think this is basically dry but leaves an impression of RS. 12% alcohol.
The most amazing thing about this 20 year old Napa Riesling wine is that it is much better on night 2, richer, fuller and frankly younger tasting. Quite an achievement! (91 pts.)
Chris,
Not too surprised that this wine was still singing. It was always a pretty high-acid and lean kind of Riesling…exactly the kind
that generally ages very well.
Thanks for an interesting TN.
Tom
Sounds great. I bought a couple bottles of the '91 at auction a while back thinking that everything from '91 was good. Not these, unfortunately. No signs of damage, but just over the hill. Same shipment, an '88 Stony Hill Chardonnay was excellent. Still have a '93 Chard that I should look into. Love old Stony Hill, usually anyway. Anybody have that '91? How was it?
I love Stony Hill’s wines and am in the process of working on a feature on the winery for the newsletter. Am in the research phase, which means drinking Stony Hill whenever possible, and I am not complaining one bit. Have not had a riesling this far back yet (mostly chards from the early '90s and '80s), but I am not surprised how well it is drinking. They really make terrific wines and I wish they had not fallen so far below the radar in the last decade, as the wines continue to be terrific. BTW, there is cabernet in their future, and it is going to be a terrifically soil-driven, low fat and complex example, if the first few vintages are any indication of how well they are going to do with this varietal.
