Teutonic Candied Mushroom Riesling 2022

Nicknamed the Umami Tsunami, the Candied Mushroom was inspired by chef and MSG champion David Chang of Momofuku and is Barnaby Tuttle’s ode to umami in Riesling form. Though a purist at heart when it comes to Riesling, the creative and curious beast within Barnaby must be fed. “I have to act outside my comfort zone, stay creative and dream of new things and methods,” he told us. “If you don’t experiment, you become stagnant.” So, the first iteration of this wine came in 2017, in a season that saw a high degree of (good and healthy) botrytis on the fruit. Rather than try to mitigate the influence of the noble rot in the wine, Barnaby leaned in, soaking the fruit on skins as whole clusters for a few days to allow the fungus to develop and grow. He then pressed the fruit to barrels and allowed a layer of flor to develop—adding layer upon layer of complexity and depth—and bottled the wine at low abv with some residual sugar. Savoury, racy and mineral, the wine was a hit, and Barnaby makes the Candied Mushroom every year that conditions allow.

The fruit is sourced from the Tuttles southernmost vineyard source, the Crow Valley vineyard in the southern Willamette Valley, some 35 kilometres west of Eugene. The south-facing four-hectare site—first planted in 1979 to Riesling and Gewürztraminer with later additions of Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir in ‘97 and 2000 respectively—is owned and operated by Denea and Jackie Farrar. These own-rooted vines on loamy soils are dry-grown and farmed organically (not certified). The fruit was hand-harvested and macerated on skins for four days with foot stomping. The wine was then sent to old oak for fermentation.

Staying true to his Mosel inspirations, Barnaby bottles Candied Mushroom with a lick of residual sugar (11.5% abv with 11.2 g/L). His reasoning is as sound as the wine delicious: “The architecture provided by a touch of residual sugar makes the wine more food-friendly; anything salty, fatty, smoky, gamey or cheesy will do. A little bit of RS turns the wine into a chameleon with food.”