100% Riesling

Food pairings: Fragrant spiced dishes such as harissa-spiced roasted carrots, Sichuan dan dan noodles and Buffalo chicken wings, spicy Thai food, Vietnamese pho, sushi, soft-ripened cheeses, light charcuterie and fruit tarts.

Winemaking: The Semi-Dry Riesling is all about the classic interplay of sweetness and acidity. Carefully timed selections capture the balance: early picks bring the vibrant, tantalizing acidity, while later selections add depth, ripe fruit character and a delicate touch of sweetness. The 2024 combines hand-picked fruit with machine-harvested early picks; everything is hand-sorted and fermented with indigenous yeasts over about three months. No fining additives or adjustments are used, and the wine is vegan.

Vineyards and terroir: The fruit comes from estate vineyards along Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes: the Magdalena and Josef Vineyards near Dresden on the western shore, where a beneficial air exchange with the lake moderates temperatures and lime silt loam soils build flavor intensity; the Julia Vineyard, home of the estate's nursery research plantings; and the historic Standing Stone vineyards on the eastern slopes of the lake. The deep lake creates a diversity of mesoclimates that gives the wine its layered fruit and aroma.

Family and history: Founded in 1979 by German-born Hermann J. Wiemer, a pioneer who championed vinifera grapes and Riesling in the Finger Lakes, Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard is one of America's leading Riesling producers. Hermann bought his Seneca Lake land in 1973 and founded his grapevine nursery in 1974. When he retired in 2007, he handed the winery to his former apprentice Fred Merwarth, who partnered with his Cornell friend, Swedish agronomist Oskar Bynke. The estate eliminated herbicides in the early 2000s, and its HJW Vineyard earned Demeter Biodynamic certification in 2023. In 2017 the team began restoring the historic Standing Stone Vineyards across the lake.

In the pictures: Co-owner Oskar Bynke; the Magdalena Vineyard from the air; and the Hermann J. Wiemer tasting room in its timber-framed barn (photos courtesy of Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard).