Sign up for our Newsletter

Credit: Wölffer Estate Vineyard courtesy

One of Wölffer Estate Vineyard’s wines just received a rating of 94 by Wine Enthusiast magazine, tying for Long Island’s highest score ever given by a wine critic.

That bottle, Wölffer’s Descencia Botrytis Late Harvest Riesling/Chardonnay 2015, also made Wine Enthusiast’s list of the Top 100 Wines of 2016.

It’s just the latest coup for the award-winning Sagaponack winery. Last year the Descencia also received a score of 94 from the Wine Advocate, tying it with Wölffer’s Diosia Late Harvest as Long Island’s highest rated wine ever.

The chardonnay grapes used to make the Descencia were picked last year and contained an unusually high sugar content (78 brix), according to Roman Roth, Wölffer Estate Vineyard’s winemaker and co-owner.


RELATED: NORTH FORK WINERIES HONORED AT WINE AND FOOD CLASSIC


“It was like pure gold coming out of these grapes, ” Roth told us earlier this year, adding that a photo of those grapes is displayed on the background of his cell phone. “That was something I had never seen.”

That gold came in handy this past August as well when Descencia Botrytis Late Harvest Riesling Chardonnay 2015 won the award for best dessert wine at the New York Wine and Food Classic. Hosted in upstate Watkins Glen, it’s the premier event for judging New York State wines.

Our wine columnist Lenn Thompson also appreciated this bottle, selecting it as his “Wine of the Week” earlier this year.

“Mouth-filling and coating, it is decidedly sweet, but vivacious, palate-cleansing acidity brings excellent balance and keeps the wine from feeling heavy or tiresome,” he wrote. “Roth has long made some of the region’s best dessert wines. This wine continues that tradition and then some.”

Wine Enthusiast will publish the rank, rating and reviews of all the wines honored in its Best of the Year issue, which goes on sale December 6.

For now the Descencia Botrytis Late Harvest Riesling Chardonnay 2015 is available at Wölffer Estate Vineyard or by visiting wolffer.com.

X
X