Paradoxically, late harvest grapes were the first Riesling grapes harvested during the last five vintages at Navarro. September weather brings days of drizzly fog and starts rot in the Riesling. Since Anderson Valley nights are cool, botrytis cinerea—the noble rot—soon dominates. In recent years, the humidity is very low during late September so the botrytis dries up quickly concentrating—almost doubling—sugars, acids and flavors. We harvested the field in two passes; the first pass we selected only the clusters in which most of the berries were botrytis-shriveled for use in this luscious wine. If you want a wine that will be delicious 20 years from now, this is your bottle. Gold Medal winner. Best of Show. 98 points.

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