2023 Rustiqué Wines, Riesling, Tondre Grapefield, Santa Lucia Highlands.
The latest set releases from Chad Silacci at Rustiqué Wines, located on the northwestern edge of the Santa Lucia Highlands, are all lovely quality efforts, especially the Pinot Noir and this bright dry Tondre Grapefield Riesling which shows off crisp detail, lime blossom, zesty apple, citrus and tart peach fruits, with racy acidity. The Santa Lucia Highlands’ cool climate, loamy decomposed granite soils and breezy conditions allow the Riesling grapes to ripen perfectly and retain classic acidity and Rustiqué got it all captured in the bottle in this extra cool vintage. The 2023 is a true Trocken style and delivers exceptional purity with loads of tension on the lighter framed palate, making this one, with its hints of tropical fruit, wet stones, ginger spice and almond notes, will appeal to those that like the more severely dry versions of this grape. This Riesling is a micro batch and a limited offering from Rustiqué, definitely an under the radar wine in the collection, but certainly worth the extra efforts to find it.
The Silacci Vineyards, first planted vines in 1999 and became an instant hit with their Pinot Noir grapes, which went into some very successful and highly rated wines from some top producers, but now have their own label Rustiqué Wines, originally founded in 2006, and are crafting some excellent wines on their own. Chad Silacci, who’s one of the new and young winemakers in the Monterey region, mentored under the gifted hands of Denis Hoey at Odonata, is showing lots of potential and I really enjoyed both of the vintages of Riesling, this 2023, which is bone dry, and the more Kabinett level off dry and fruitier 2024, plus the SLH Chard, Syrah and Pinot offerings, in particular the KW Ranch. For the Riesling, Silacci employed a gentle approach with a soft pressing of the grape clusters and was careful to settle the juice as to not allow for green, bitter phenolics and used a combination of stainless steel and neutral French oak with a short period of lees aging. This 2023, a worthy addition to the California Riesling scene, will be excellent with sushi and or fresh oysters, while the upcoming 2024 will be better with spicier dishes, with its well judged amount of residual sugar cutting into the heat of Asian dishes.
($44 Est.) 90 Points, grapelive