Ruth Lewandowski ‘Elimelech’ Riesling Zero 2020
Location: United States, California
Winemaker: Evan Lewandowski
Grapes: Riesling
Soil: clay, loam, limestone, shale
Winemaking: whole cluster, direct press; spontaneous fermentation in polyethylene with indigenous yeasts; full malolactic
‘Elimelech’ 2021, in Evan’s words: Where did you go to my lovely? Perhaps you felt the void, while others may not have even noticed...likely distracted by the shiny new 'Tatto' release last year...but we simply didn't bottle a 2019 Elimelech. I'm not the GREATEST at admitting defeat, but this particular wine absolutely defeated me back in 2019. Thing went sideways, full squirrel, just kinda gross really annnnnnnnd it was entirely my fault. Dagger. There was zero chance I'd put my name on it, stand behind it and pour it in your glasses. So with a tear in my eye I sent it away and vowed I'd do better in 2020. Here we are with the results of that vow, 2020 Elimelech Cuvée Zero. I can't tell you how incredibly happy (and relieved) I am to have this wine back. It is, once again, a wine as hauntingly complex and singular as Cole Ranch itself.
About Ruth Lewandowski Wines, from the Producer: I’ve said it a thousand different ways since the beginning of Ruth Lewandowski Wines, and I think its most comprehensible to explain ‘Ruth’ as a concept more than a living breathing individual. A concept born out of the affiliation of my own philosophies of farming and winemaking (which indeed spill over to inform so many of my life beliefs) and one small but very significant text in the Old Testament of the Bible, the book of Ruth. Without sounding ‘preachy’ and so as not to offend the sensitive, and in the interest of concisely summing things up, I don’t believe there to be a deeper, more compelling depiction of the natural cycle of death and redemption (both in the physical realm we can see and the spiritual realm we often do not) than this one short book.
Death is, indeed, the engine of life.
Nothing that is alive today could be so without something having died first. This is the redemptive nature of our universe, of our planet, of our soils, plants, and ultimately you and I. The cessation of things is necessary to begin anew, even more fully. From the wreckage of death and tragedy at the beginning of the book of Ruth, a young woman finds life, finds beauty and is able to truly live…not simply in spite of the death, but because the death occurred at all. The regeneration of the life of our soils occurs only through organic matter…all completely dead, broken down carbon-based items. A natural fermentation is the building up and dying off of multiple strains of yeast and bacteria, each paving the way for the next strain to take over (and each leaving their altogether unique signatures of flavor, aroma, and textural compounds).
Who is Ruth? Well, with this sort of explanation, I suppose I could say that there is a bit of Ruth in all of us.
Location: United States, California
Winemaker: Evan Lewandowski
Grapes: Riesling
Soil: clay, loam, limestone, shale
Winemaking: whole cluster, direct press; spontaneous fermentation in polyethylene with indigenous yeasts; full malolactic
‘Elimelech’ 2021, in Evan’s words: Where did you go to my lovely? Perhaps you felt the void, while others may not have even noticed...likely distracted by the shiny new 'Tatto' release last year...but we simply didn't bottle a 2019 Elimelech. I'm not the GREATEST at admitting defeat, but this particular wine absolutely defeated me back in 2019. Thing went sideways, full squirrel, just kinda gross really annnnnnnnd it was entirely my fault. Dagger. There was zero chance I'd put my name on it, stand behind it and pour it in your glasses. So with a tear in my eye I sent it away and vowed I'd do better in 2020. Here we are with the results of that vow, 2020 Elimelech Cuvée Zero. I can't tell you how incredibly happy (and relieved) I am to have this wine back. It is, once again, a wine as hauntingly complex and singular as Cole Ranch itself.
About Ruth Lewandowski Wines, from the Producer: I’ve said it a thousand different ways since the beginning of Ruth Lewandowski Wines, and I think its most comprehensible to explain ‘Ruth’ as a concept more than a living breathing individual. A concept born out of the affiliation of my own philosophies of farming and winemaking (which indeed spill over to inform so many of my life beliefs) and one small but very significant text in the Old Testament of the Bible, the book of Ruth. Without sounding ‘preachy’ and so as not to offend the sensitive, and in the interest of concisely summing things up, I don’t believe there to be a deeper, more compelling depiction of the natural cycle of death and redemption (both in the physical realm we can see and the spiritual realm we often do not) than this one short book.
Death is, indeed, the engine of life.
Nothing that is alive today could be so without something having died first. This is the redemptive nature of our universe, of our planet, of our soils, plants, and ultimately you and I. The cessation of things is necessary to begin anew, even more fully. From the wreckage of death and tragedy at the beginning of the book of Ruth, a young woman finds life, finds beauty and is able to truly live…not simply in spite of the death, but because the death occurred at all. The regeneration of the life of our soils occurs only through organic matter…all completely dead, broken down carbon-based items. A natural fermentation is the building up and dying off of multiple strains of yeast and bacteria, each paving the way for the next strain to take over (and each leaving their altogether unique signatures of flavor, aroma, and textural compounds).
Who is Ruth? Well, with this sort of explanation, I suppose I could say that there is a bit of Ruth in all of us.
Location: United States, California
Winemaker: Evan Lewandowski
Grapes: Riesling
Soil: clay, loam, limestone, shale
Winemaking: whole cluster, direct press; spontaneous fermentation in polyethylene with indigenous yeasts; full malolactic
‘Elimelech’ 2021, in Evan’s words: Where did you go to my lovely? Perhaps you felt the void, while others may not have even noticed...likely distracted by the shiny new 'Tatto' release last year...but we simply didn't bottle a 2019 Elimelech. I'm not the GREATEST at admitting defeat, but this particular wine absolutely defeated me back in 2019. Thing went sideways, full squirrel, just kinda gross really annnnnnnnd it was entirely my fault. Dagger. There was zero chance I'd put my name on it, stand behind it and pour it in your glasses. So with a tear in my eye I sent it away and vowed I'd do better in 2020. Here we are with the results of that vow, 2020 Elimelech Cuvée Zero. I can't tell you how incredibly happy (and relieved) I am to have this wine back. It is, once again, a wine as hauntingly complex and singular as Cole Ranch itself.
About Ruth Lewandowski Wines, from the Producer: I’ve said it a thousand different ways since the beginning of Ruth Lewandowski Wines, and I think its most comprehensible to explain ‘Ruth’ as a concept more than a living breathing individual. A concept born out of the affiliation of my own philosophies of farming and winemaking (which indeed spill over to inform so many of my life beliefs) and one small but very significant text in the Old Testament of the Bible, the book of Ruth. Without sounding ‘preachy’ and so as not to offend the sensitive, and in the interest of concisely summing things up, I don’t believe there to be a deeper, more compelling depiction of the natural cycle of death and redemption (both in the physical realm we can see and the spiritual realm we often do not) than this one short book.
Death is, indeed, the engine of life.
Nothing that is alive today could be so without something having died first. This is the redemptive nature of our universe, of our planet, of our soils, plants, and ultimately you and I. The cessation of things is necessary to begin anew, even more fully. From the wreckage of death and tragedy at the beginning of the book of Ruth, a young woman finds life, finds beauty and is able to truly live…not simply in spite of the death, but because the death occurred at all. The regeneration of the life of our soils occurs only through organic matter…all completely dead, broken down carbon-based items. A natural fermentation is the building up and dying off of multiple strains of yeast and bacteria, each paving the way for the next strain to take over (and each leaving their altogether unique signatures of flavor, aroma, and textural compounds).
Who is Ruth? Well, with this sort of explanation, I suppose I could say that there is a bit of Ruth in all of us.