Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Gets Highest Score in History; Single Berry Select 2000 Receives a ``98'' From Wine Spectator.

Food/Lifestyle Editors

WOODINVILLE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 29, 2003

The 2000 vintage of Single Berry Select, a wine made by Chateau Ste. Michelle, has received a "98" rating, the highest score ever given a Washington state wine by Wine Spectator magazine.

Only one other American white wine -- a California Chardonnay -- has been rated higher, according to the Wine Spectator database, which covers 110,000 wines reviewed over more than two decades.

The almost-perfect score for the 2000 Single Berry Select follows the magazine's "97" rating for the wine's 1999 vintage. Made in the German Trockenbeerenauslese style, Single Berry Select is noted for its balance of sweetness and acidity, which gives it the extraordinarily long "finish" on the palate so prized by connoisseurs.

Single Berry Select is also the most expensive wine -- red or white -- in Washington state history, and one of the most expensive in America. A half-bottle (375 milliliters) sells for $200.

The wine is made from Riesling grapes grown in Eastern Washington by Chateau Ste. Michelle. A select few grapes are hand picked and sorted at the end of the fall harvest after they have developed a special mold on their skins. This mold has been known in fine wine lore as the "noble rot" ever since gaining fame in French vineyards centuries ago.

The world's most famous wine made with "noble rot" grapes is the legendary Chateau d'Yquem of Bordeaux.

Chateau Ste. Michelle winemaker Erik Olsen made Single Berry Select along with Ernst Loosen, a leading winemaker from Germany's Middle Mosel River region and owner of the Dr. Loosen winery there. The two also team up on Single Berry Select's sister wine, Eroica, a dry Riesling that has been chosen for Wine Spectator's list of the "Top 100 Wines of the World" three years in a row.

Each growing season, Olsen and Loosen spend many days in the Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling vineyards east of the Cascade mountains, pruning vine canopies and deciding which grapes to nurture and which to cull. They also work together in the cellar on the final blends.

"We have long believed that Washington state grows the finest Riesling grapes in the New World," said Olsen. "That is what attracted someone of Ernst's stature to us. In the three years we have been working together, Ernst has taught us a lot and we'd like to think we have taught him something, too. It is a great partnership, as this '98' rating shows."

Loosen, reached in Germany, said, "I told Chateau Ste. Michelle that Washington could make a TBA wine (Trockenbeerenauslese) as good as we Germans do. Single Berry Select is a staggering wine, one for the ages. Like our own TBAs, you could cellar this wine for a century and it would still be stunning."

To make Single Berry Select, Olsen and Loosen chose grapes from the Horse Heaven vineyard overlooking the Columbia River. Conditions there are ideal for producing the noble rot, formally know as Botrytis Cinerea.

But a special challenge arose with the 2000 Single Berry Select. Fermentation was unusually slow, taking much longer than the 1999 vintage. But the 17-month wait was worth it because it resulted in an ultra-rich wine with intense aromas of dried apricot, honey and sweet spice.

The 2000 Single Berry Select will be prized by collectors, so the 95 cases are expected to sell out even at the price of $200 for a half-bottle. Great dessert wines are treasured by gourmets because they not only match well with desserts but also with the finest foie gras.

Founded in 1934, Chateau Ste. Michelle pioneered the cultivation of European wine grapes in the Northwest. In the past decade it has become one of the world's most acclaimed wineries, thanks to high scores and strong sales for its premium red and white wines.

Chateau Ste. Michelle is owned by Stimson Lane Vineyards & Estates of Woodinville, WA, near Seattle. The company also owns the Northstar Merlot, Columbia Crest, Domaine Ste. Michelle and Snoqualmie wineries in Washington state and the Conn Creek and Villa Mt. Eden wineries in Napa Valley, California.