Sheldrake Point Vineyard

What’s most attractive about Sheldrake Point 2006 Bunch Select Riesling is what it is not. Unlike many desert wines that strive to overwhelm, this is not cloyingly sweet, overwrought, or exhausting on the palate. Made in select years when the noble rot, botrytis, hits Sheldrake’s Riesling vineyards on the west side of Cayuga Lake, workers hand pick botrytis infected clusters from the standard Riesling harvest. The clusters are gently pressed, for the most part, and fermented slow and cold, at 55 degrees F.

The result is that this wine delivers some botrytis character on the nose with smells of candied apricot and flavors of kiwi-strawberry and nutella. Showing an elegant balance of acids and sugars, the wine has 6 percent residual sugar and 12 percent alcohol.

The wine, one of several Rieslings produced by Sheldrake, was developed in 2000 when a visiting French winemaker noticed the botrytis and declared that it could make a fine dessert wine. Four have been made since then, with 100 cases of this 2006 produced.

“When you have onions, you eat onions,” said Sheldrake general manager Robert Madill. “When we have botrytis, we make this wine.” A dessert wine of moderation in all ways, Sheldrake’s Bunch Select Riesling is a refreshing respite.

Reviewed December 14, 2007 by David Falchek.