Maker: Bel Lago, Cedar, Leelanau County, Michigan, USA
Grape: Riesling
Place of origin: Leelanau County, Michigan, USA
Style: Sweet/semi-sweet Riesling
ABV: 12%
Purchased for $19 (Holiday Market)
Appearance: Pale gold
Nose: Canned pear, gravel.
Palate: Full-bodied. Sweet but not cloying. Pineapple-mango-orange juice, mineral water.
Finish: Drying, peach.
Parting words: Bel Lago needs no introduction for long time readers of this blog. It’s one of my favorite Michigan wineries.
Like most of Michigan’s best, Bel Lago has a fine line of Riesling wines at varying levels of sweetness. Select Harvest is a style of late harvest wine roughly equivalent to German Auslese in terms of ripeness. As such, they are more age-worthy than dry Rieslings, which is why I waited so long to open this bottle. This wine is not especially complex (perhaps due to the brutal 2014 vintage) but it hits all the right notes for ripe Riesling: sweetness, citrus, and minerals. I have a few more bottles of this wine in my cellar and I look forward to seeing how this wine develops over the next 3 or 4 years. 2014 Bel Lago Select Harvest Riesling is recommended.
Sipology 