I'll confess I haven't always been pleased with the offerings of Canoe Ridge...they have seemed inconsistent to me, up and down in both style and quality.
And Riesling has apparently never been a focus for this winery. Even on their website header, it's listed under the "...and more" on their list of varieties, and available only at the winery or via web order apparently.
Consider my surprise then when I tasted the Canoe Ridge Dry Riesling Columbia Valley 2008 in passing. And then stopped, and considered it more closely.
Very nicely done Riesling it is, with a bit of an Alsatian flair to it, playing the heat of the great inland dessert off nicely by somehow translating it to a flinty, stony body. The wine carries its weight well--which some WA Rieslings don't---and maintains that slightly steely dryness that makes it so appealing. Nicely balanced, it carries through consistently from the front to the middle to the finish.
I sincerely hope this vintage isn't a fluke, and they continue with this approach to Riesling. Heck, I just hope they continue with Riesling, if this is indicative of t