Folk Machine Riesling
Folk Machine Riesling
Varietal: Riesling
Region: California - Santa Lucia Highlands
Year: 2015
Price:~$17.99 Pair With: Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac
In my family, if you said you were bored then, undoubtedly, you’d be volunteering the next morning at 6 am.
I made the mistake of being bored one summer and, sure enough, found myself standing in a lemon grove picking fruit for the local food bank.
In California everyone has a friendly citrus tree in their neighborhood or backyard; use it for lemonade, salad dressing gin and tonics... Well the trees in this grove were NOT like your friendly neighborhood lemon trees. These fucking things meant business; three-inch razor-sharp thorns. They stood tall and foreboding, taunting any dumb SOB to steal from their branches.
Well, I spent the day being a dumb SOB.
None of the volunteers, expect for the owner of this lemon grove, realized gloves were a necessity when picking, so we spent the day carefully threading our hands in and out of the branches like a game of operation. From the top of my ladder I could see a vineyard of grapes in the neighboring field. As the sun got hotter, the thought of a chilled white wine was all consuming.
After picking our weight in lemons and having hands that looked like they went through a meat grinder, we finished for the day. One of the volunteers had a jug of ice-cold water, flavored with lemon wedges, waiting for us. It wasn’t the wine I was hoping for, but it hit the spot none the less.
The 2015 Riesling from Folk Machine reminded me of that lemon water on a hot day; cool, citrusy, refreshing and hard-earned. The fruit in this wine comes from the Santa Lucia Highlands, where cool afternoon winds and prevalent fog make vineyards ideal for cool climate grapes – think Riesling Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These Riesling vines, still on their original rootstock, were planted in the 1960’s meaning lower yield and more concentration of flavor. The winemakers did a great job of letting the fruit show its unique character.
Bone dry with a high level of acidity and clean granite crispness, this wine pairs with a patio or day spent picking fruit. Lemon, apple and some lip smacking honeysuckle makes this wine incredibly interesting. And if you find it boring, take my advice and keep that opinion to yourself.