{"id":7778,"date":"2023-02-10T16:29:23","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T08:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/?p=7778"},"modified":"2023-02-10T16:29:23","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T08:29:23","slug":"finger-lakes-riesling-paul-hobbs-has-landed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/p\/7778.html","title":{"rendered":"(English) Finger Lakes Riesling: Paul Hobbs Has Landed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77\u8fd9\u7bc7\u6587\u7ae0\u6ca1\u6709\u4e2d\u6587\u7248\uff0c\u5176\u4ed6\u8bed\u8a00\u7248\u672c\u8bf7\u89c1English<\/a>\u3002 For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.<\/p>

Will Paul Hobbs be the Rocket that launches New York\u2019s Finger Lakes region?<\/p>\n

Every under-recognized fine wine region needs a high-profile producer to be a locomotive to pull it onto the world\u2019s stage. With his new venture, Hillick and Hobbs, named after his parents, Joan Hillick and Edward Hobbs, Paul Hobbs just might do it for New York\u2019s Finger Lakes. Robert Mondavi did it for California in the 1970s. At about the same time, Angelo Gaja drew attention to Piedmont and Piero Antinori\u2019s work shined a bright light on Tuscany. The Drouhin family did it for Oregon in the 1980s. Well-known names either go to an area\u2014Drouhin in Oregon\u2014or just by making and promoting superb wines in their home region\u2014Mondavi, Gaja, and Antinori\u2014bring attention to the entire region. That\u2019s not to say there aren\u2019t excellent producers making world-class wines in the Finger Lakes today. That\u2019s just the point. There are, Hermann J. Weimer, Dr. Konstantin Frank, and Ravines Wine Cellars, to name just three.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that too few people know about them and the region. Hobbs\u2019 presence will change that by putting a spotlight on the entire Finger Lakes region.<\/p>\n

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Paul Hobbs, one of California and the world\u2019s leading winemaker, needs no introduction. He was among the first, if not THE first of the \u201cflying winemakers,\u201d those who consult in the Southern Hemisphere, effectively doubling winemaking experience. Critics consistently score his wines highly. Hobbs\u2019 Napa Valley Cabernets and Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs routinely command triple figure price tags upon release and sell out quickly, but Hobbs has plenty of experience outside of California. He has partnerships all over the world, Vi\u00f1a Corbos (Mendoza, Argentina), Crocus (Cahors, France), Yacoubian-Hobbs (Vayots Dzor, Armenia), Alvaredos-Hobbs (Galicia, Spain), but what he is doing in the Finger Lakes is completely different, both commercially and viticulturally, from everything he\u2019s ever done before. As with all his other projects, beginning all the way back to 1991, when he started in California, Hobbs has purchased fruit from top-quality growers with choice vineyards in unique terroirs whose viticultural practices met his exacting standards. He would make the wine, bottle it under his label, but also crediting the grower. He explained that it made sense commercially because start-up costs were much lower and \u201cthere was less investment if it failed.\u201d It would be seven years after he first purchased grapes from Larry Hyde in Napa and Richard Dinner in Sonoma in 1991, for Hobbs to acquire his initial vineyard, which he named the Katherine Lindsay Estate, in honor of his great grandmother.<\/p>\n

However, in the Finger Lakes, though he searched high and low, he could not find growers who could meet his standards and supply him consistently with grapes that met his specifications. So, he recruited his brother, David, who lived in Upstate New York\u2014that\u2019s what everyone who lives south of Albany calls it\u2014and knew something about farming, to help find land suitable for vineyards. He knew it would be expensive, but he wanted to make world-class Riesling, so he felt it was the only way to go. Finally, in 2013, they acquired a 78-acre property, which had mostly never been planted, on the southeastern shores of Lake Seneca. Never mind that he had never made Riesling commercially before. He explained that he has always been fascinated by it, calling it his \u201cgateway \u2018drug\u2019 into the wine world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hobbs\u2019 journey into wine was unusual, to say the least. Hobbs had been raised in a tea-totaling fruit farming family in Niagara County in Upstate New York. (Hobbs\u2019 mother prohibited alcohol since her brother died of an alcohol-related accident.) In the late 1960s, his father wanted to diversify from orchard fruit and had secured contracts to supply grapes to local wineries. To convince Paul to run the farming aspect of this new project, he lured him with his first taste of wine, a 1962 Ch\u00e2teau D\u2019Yquem served in a Dixie\u00ae cup. Hobbs recalls that his mother thought it was some exotic fruit drink\u2014a reasonable assessment\u2014and was happy until she saw the bottle.<\/p>\n

At Notre Dame, Father James McGrath, his Botany professor, asked him to join his wine appreciation course. Hobbs declined at first because of his mother\u2019s prohibition but then, using a time-honored technique\u2014always choose which parent to ask when you need something\u2014he asked his father, who consented. As the younger Hobbs tells it, his father and Father McGrath \u201ccolluded,\u201d to convince him to attend the University of California at Davis, where he received a Master\u2019s in Food Science in Department of Enology, instead of medical school. At Davis, he was a member of a tasting group that invited producers from all over the world. That\u2019s when he really discovered great German Riesling and became fascinated by the grape. To this day, he speaks fondly of how he loves the German precision on the label. For years he managed to make side trips to the Mosel whenever he was in Europe. So, why did it take him forty years to make Riesling? Perhaps, like so many of us, he simply put off things he really wanted to pursue until later in life.\u00a0 He explains that for decades his world was California, then Argentina. But he always wondered where you could make great Riesling, like J.J. Prum\u2019s. Around 2009, on another leg of his globetrotting consulting, this time for Stratus Vineyard located in Canada\u2019s Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario, the proximity to the Finger Lakes got him thinking, like \u201ca seed waiting to germinate,\u201d about Riesling.\u00a0 He felt that the shale and slate-filled soil and steep slopes cascading down to the lakes was similar to the topography of the Mosel. He had already been looking for sites in Washington State and Oregon, but he found \u201cnothing compelling.\u201d\u00a0 You could, he felt, \u201cmake good, but not great, Riesling there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hobbs plans to focus on Riesling exclusively, with \u201cno burning desire to try other varieties,\u201d though when pushed, he admits to thinking about Blaufr\u00e4nkisch. But he emphasizes his attention with be on making \u201cgreat Riesling.\u201d He\u2019s not doing it to make a living\u2014he clearly doesn\u2019t have to\u2014but rather to \u201csee what we can do in the U.S. to compete with the world.\u201d He realizes it\u2019s an outsized investment in time and money.<\/p>\n

There are challenges. Some years they get very little rainfall. Coupling that with some of the rootstocks they\u2019ve chosen and the well-drained rocky soil, means that they may need to resort to drip irrigation, something Hobbs did not expect. There are steep slopes and rocks that need to be conquered to plant rows up and down the slope instead of across, a system that allows for better airflow, the need for less pesticide and better drainage, but results in greater labor costs. Manual harvesting, which Hobbs insists results in better wine, adds to the expense.\u00a0 Depending on the year, they may perform labor-intensive leaf thinning and\/or a green harvest. All in all, Hobbs\u2019 practices are expensive, but result in better quality grapes, which is what he\u2019s after. Hobbs proudly notes that with these measures they keep their yields to only about three tons per acre of grapes, roughly half to one-third of what is standard in the area. Another challenge Hobbs faces is selling Riesling, which has been embraced by wine critics and wine geeks but not consumers who are put off by the unpredictable level of sweetness. To combat that fear, Hobbs is fixated on a completely dry style. His labels prominently proclaim, \u201cDry Riesling.\u201d He is positioning Hillick and Hobbs Riesling at US$35, which he admits is a bargain for the quality\u2014and I agree\u2014and would like to see it at US$50 a bottle. To keep costs down, Hobbs built a temporary winery in Ovid, about 30 minutes away from their 22 acres (out of a possible 47) of planted vineyards. He plans a state-of-the-art winery in the future and will convert the Ovid facility to a warehouse.<\/p>\n

The winemaking for Hillick and Hobbs Riesling depends on the vintage. To date, Hobbs finds that he achieves full physiological maturity by late September\/early October with low sugar levels, of only about 20.5 to 22 brix. The amount of skin contact varies year to year. He favors whole cluster pressing with the juice going into stainless steel tanks, keeping a close eye on how much press juice goes into the finished wine. No sulfur goes into the juice. Fermentation, using native yeasts, is long and slow, sometimes finishing in the following spring. Towards the end of fermentation, he might add sulfur to kill bacteria, preventing malolactic fermentation and allowing the yeast to finish their job. Hobbs remarks that the climate of the Finger Lakes and his viticultural practices means he never needs to acidify the wine. With his name and his established projects all over the world, Paul Hobbs already has a robust distribution network for export. Though he made only 1,845 cases of Hillick and Hobbs Riesling in 2019 and only 1,765 cases in 2020, he\u2019s already exporting it to Japan. He envisions expanding to other Asian countries and the U.K. soon. He hopes that exportation will help make the world realize the potential of the Finger Lakes region for distinctive, top-quality wine. Hillick & Hobbs has released two vintages, the 2019 and 2020, so far. Both are sensational (full tasting notes below). Riesling fans will love this duo of Riesling. Non-Riesling fans will be converted by them. They plan to release the 2021 in the spring of 2023.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ironic that the winery is named, in part, after his previously tea-totaling mother. At least they no longer must drink Ch\u00e2teau D\u2019Yquem from Dixie\u00ae cups.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The wines in this tasting<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hillick & Hobbs 2020 Riesling Estate Vineyard Seneca Lake New York USA\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a096<\/strong><\/p>\n

Floral hints announce good things will follow. And they do. This stellar Riesling delivers alluring subtle peach-like nuances balanced by firmness and flintiness. It has substantial weight and density, but without a trace of heaviness. Electrifyingly dry, its riveting saline minerality amplifies the wine\u2019s charms. Befitting an excellent wine, it blossoms as it sits in the glass. Deep and long, it finishes with a delectable hint of bitterness. (12.5% stated alcohol). Drinking window: 2023-2030.<\/p>\n

Hillick & Hobbs Riesling 2019 Estate Vineyard Seneca Lake New York USA\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/strong>93<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2019 was the first commercial vintage at Hillick & Hobbs. It\u2019s slightly less explosively delightful than the glorious 2020, which may be a result of an extra year in the bottle, vintage variation, or just a learning curve. Nonetheless, it\u2019s an exciting bone-dry Riesling that delivers a harmonious complexity of subtle fruitiness and stoniness. A delicate hint of white flowers on the nose complements its palate-cleansing edgy minerality. Like the 2020, it is long and refined. (12.5% stated alcohol). Drinking window: 2023-2030.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77\u8fd9\u7bc7\u6587\u7ae0\u6ca1\u6709\u4e2d\u6587\u7248\uff0c\u5176\u4ed6\u8bed\u8a00\u7248\u672c\u8bf7\u89c1English<\/a>\u3002 For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.<\/p>\n

by Michael Apstein<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":7786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-producer-insight","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}