Cold White Wine 2024

I love Archive. I've been going for as long as I've lived in this city. Some of the best bottles I ever drank were there. And I love Bar Isabel. Every time I go, Alessandro surprises me with something from Spain I didn't even know existed. So when two of the geekiest Toronto wine personalities make a wine together, you have to stock up.

For the fourth consecutive year, Josh from Archive and Alessandro from Bar Isabel have teamed up to make some wine. These Riesling grapes were grown in the Jerkins Vineyard in Four Mile Creek. Hand harvested on October 3rd. Macerated on the skins for five days. Natural, spontaneous fermentation with the yeasts present on the skins. After pressing, fermentation continued in stainless steel. Once fermentation was complete, the wine aged on its lees for ten months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered with a very small dose of sulfur.

And yes, this is Riesling. But not a Riesling for the faint of heart. It's a Riesling that has been interpreted, stripped down from the myth of sweetness and boringness. It's a Riesling that is textural, that is sharp, that tastes like preserved lemons and a match's strike. A Riesling that quenches your thirst and makes you think that maybe, you could fall in love with Riesling.

For maximum enjoyment, serve coooooooold. Like, really cold.