Chateau Ste. Michelle gets much of the credit for the resurgence of American Riesling — and properly so. The Woodinville, Wash., winery makes more Riesling than any other in the world. Riesling makes up 45 percent of all Ste. Michelle wines, and two-thirds of the production at the state’s oldest winery is white wines.

Bob Bertheau arrived in 2003 from California as Ste. Michelle’s white winemaker and a year later was promoted to head winemaker. In 2007, Wendy Stuckey arrived from Australia and now oversees white wine production. Bertheau’s focus was on Chardonnay when he arrived because he hadn’t made much Riesling in California, and Stuckey’s global reputation on Riesling made her a perfect fit with Ste. Michelle.

Bertheau takes the lead in setting the style for each wine, and Stuckey is the on-the-ground winemaker and manages the staff. The white wines are made in Woodinville, while the red wines are made at Ste. Michelle’s Canoe Ridge facility in Eastern Washington.

While the focus certainly is on the million cases of Riesling the winery produces, Bertheau and Stuckey also craft a lot of different whites, including Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris. Here are some we’ve tasted recently:

Chateau Ste. Michelle winemaker Bob Bertheau

Chateau Ste. Michelle 2009 Chardonnay, Columbia Valley, $13: Toasted pine nuts, marshmallow, banana, lemon, grapefruit peel, pear, vanilla and a dab of butter help describe the aromas. Pineapple, light banana and Golden Delicious apple flavors swirl with lovely brightness, keyed by citrusy acidity. Oak notes are tucked off to the side, making this suitable to serve with seafood, shellfish and poultry dishes accented by herbs.

Chateau Ste. Michelle 2008 Canoe Ridge Estate Chardonnay, Horse Heaven Hills, $22: This carries a heftier oak profile than the Columbia Valley offering, but the barrel notes (50% new French) are restrained on the palate. Aromas open with buttered popcorn, grilled pineapple, apricot and lemon yogurt, and there’s a nice follow-through on the palate. It’s seated comfortably in the mouth, backed by apples and lemon pith in the finish.

Chateau Ste. Michelle 2008 Indian Wells Chardonnay, Columbia Valley, $18: The bulk of this crop comes from the Wahluke Slope, and the production shows a tasty balance of orchard fruit and time well spent in barrel. Golden Delicious apple and pear aromas include notes of vanilla, toffee and lemon zest. It’s juicy with flavors of apricot and sweet pineapple, backed by lingering acidity and wrapped up by a piece of Werther’s Original.

Chateau Ste. Michelle 2009 Gewurztraminer, Columbia Valley, $10: Sugared Texas pink grapefruit gets most of the face time here. Lychee, ambrosia salad and peach tones twist in the background,

Chateau Ste. Michelle white winemaker Wendy Stuckey

along with talcum powder, slate and poached pineapple. Suggested fare includes crab and Asian dishes with cilantro.

Chateau Ste. Michelle 2009 Horse Heaven Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, Horse Heaven Hills, $10: There’s a whiff of barrel smoke over the tropical hints of orange and banana. The palate screams with lime and grapefruit from start to finish, interrupted at the midpalate by creamy banana from the 22% of the lot that’s barrel fermented on the lees. Serve up a bowl of mussels and bring bread for the broth.

Chateau Ste. Michelle 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, Columbia Valley, $10: Widely available, it’s a solid introduction to the variety without any extremes, showing off lime, starfruit, Granny Smith apple and yellow grapefruit accents. Hints of kitchen herbs will lend it easily to seafood dishes that call for rosemary or chives.

Chateau Ste. Michelle 2009 Pinot Gris, Columbia Valley, $13: Night-time harvesting retains natural acidity and the inclusion of Viognier (6%) helped make for a sassy drink of starfruit, pear, peach, green banana and pear, backed by some grassiness, minerality and citrus pith. Pair with poached halibut.

Andy Perdue and Eric Degerman are the editors of Wine Press Northwest magazine. For more information, go to www.winepressnw.com.

In the New World, a winery can get away with focusing narrowly on Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel or Syrah. But few would think about building a winery around Riesling. And perhaps only one could do it successfully.

That winery is Pacific Rim Winemakers in West Richland, Wash.

One of the wine world’s true iconoclasts, Randall Grahm, came up with Pacific Rim. The owner of famed Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, Calif., began Pacific Rim in 1992. He used grapes from Washington as well as Germany, a previously unheard-of combination.

By 2006, Grahm’s operation had grown greatly in size, and he didn’t necessarily care for that. So he sold his popular Cardinal Zin and Big House brands and decided to spin off his Pacific Rim wines as a standalone winery. It made sense to Grahm that he should locate his new operation in Washington, where the vast majority of his Riesling grapes came from. He worked with the Den Hoed family, longtime grape growers in the Yakima Valley and Horse HeavenHills, to create a winemaking facility in the shadow of Red Mountain. The DenHoeds built the building, which they own and lease to Pacific Rim. Now, the winery has been purchased by the Banfi family, which owns an important wine import company in New York and a famous winery and vineyard in Italy.

Pacific Rim, under the direction of Nicolas Quille, general manager and winemaker, produces 160,000 cases of wine, almost all of which is Riesling made from Washington grapes (Grahm stopped using German grapes in 2008). That means only Chateau Ste. Michelle and Hogue Cellars make more Riesling in Washington.

Pacific Rim makes 10 different Rieslings, as well as a Chenin Blanc, Gewürztraminer, raspberry dessert wine and two blends. Here are six Pacific Rim Rieslings we’ve tasted recently:

Pacific Rim Winemakers 2008 Solstice Vineyard Riesling Yakima Valley $32: The approach with this wine is low sugar (1.4%), and one gets the sense of that in the nose of petrol, muskmelon, gooseberry, nectarine and pear. It’s a zippy drink with Asian pear crispness, Gala apple, a hard nectarine and Lemonhead candy.

Pacific Rim Winemakers 2008 Wallula Vineyard Biodynamic Riesling Columbia Valley $32: This Riesling floats in with tropical aromas and flavors, accented by honeydew melon, jasmine, pear and slate. Its dryness also levels off at 1.4% residual sugar, and that’s balanced with a finish of Rose’s Lime Juice.

Pacific Rim Winemakers 2009 Riesling Columbia Valley $10: Blood orange, apricot and tangerine aromas are matched on the delicious palate. Passion fruit, Ruby Red grapefruit and orange peel create a wealth of acidity, which strikes a delicious balance with the residual sugar (2.3%).

Pacific Rim Winemakers 2009 Organic Riesling Columbia Valley $14: This hints at aromas of dried mango, pineapple, Granny Smith apple and candy corn. Inside, there’s a delicious core of tropical fruit, supported by jasmine green tea, a pinch of anise and a lingering finish of lime. Despite the residual sugar (3.7%), it’s rather food-friendly, and its partners could include shrimp salad or grilled peaches with prosciutto.

Pacific Rim Winemakers 2009 Sweet Riesling Columbia Valley $10: One of the largest productions of Riesling in the Northwest, there’s not a lot of preparation in the nose for the pending sweetness (6.5% residual sugar). It’s dried pineapple, lime, spicy peach, jasmine, beeswax and rose petal among the aromas. There’s limeade, candy corn, jasmine and petrol accents in the finish.

Pacific Rim Winemakers 2008 White Flowers Sparkling Riesling, Columbia Valley, $16: This beautiful and popular sparkler opens with luscious aromas of orange blossoms, candied peaches and freshly cut apples. On the palate, this reveals superb bubble texture with fresh fruit flavors and true varietal characters.

This year I am only going to remind you of three things:

1. Review, memorize and apply the poem by Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
2. Open your mind to wine. Seriously. Don’t be turning your nose up at a member of the tasting room staff when they ask if you would like to try a Chardonnay, Riesling or a pretty pink rosé. Taste it. Who knows? You might even like it. And it’s okay for real men to drink rosés. Really.
3. Have a wonderful time in our valley and make some great memories. There is so much to do this year! And for some ideas, check out the Walla Walla Wine Alliance or with Heather at Walla Walla Wine News.

Cheers!
C~

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It is wonderful with fruit, especially apples and pears. In Norway, people place a container or a piece of gjetostnear the fireplace where it can warm and soften. Then they dip slices of fruit into it and enjoy the caramellytaste that compliments the fruit. People who see gjetostfor the first time often think that it is some kind of caramel or fudge. This fudginess occurs because to make gjetost whey is simmered until the moisture evaporates and the milk sugars caramelize.

Whey is the watery part of milk which is separated from the curds or the solid part of the milk in cheese making. Whey is nutricious and may be made into “whey cheese.” And there’s plenty of material to use for making it. Twenty pounds of milk will produce about two pounds of cheese and about fifteen pounds of whey. The whey may be used to create various whey cheeses like ricotta, manouri, Sérac, and the Norwegian whey cheeses, mysost, primost, flotøst, and gjetost.

Gjetost comes in a wide range of colors, consistencies, and flavors, and it is widely produced throughout Scandinavia where it is so common that, according to one of my Norwegian friends, they call it simply, “brown cheese,” brunost.

A woman named Anne Hov is believed to have made the first gjetostas it is known today. In 1864, Hovadded cream to whey to create a richer, firmer version of the ancient recipe. Hov lived in Norway’s Gubrands Valley where Gudbrandsalsost, a very highly regarded gjetost, is still made.

I like the combination of gjetost, apple and pear slices, and Riesling or a medium-dry Chardonnay, some hazel nuts, and a rye cracker or crusty rye bread.