Hogue Riesling

Name: Hogue
Color: White
Varietal: Riesling
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: Washington
Region: Columbia Valley
Price: $10
Stars: 4 (out of 5)


Another winner from Hogue! The 2007 Riesling was very crisp, clean, and refreshing. The color was a pale yellow with a hint of a green tint. On the nose, I picked up pear, green apple, dried apricot, and a little bit of banana. The taste was very similar to the nose, expect that I didn't get any hint of banana taste. We bought this wine at Total Wines and enjoyed it with a grilled chicken salad (ironically, this was one of the suggested pairings on the back of the bottle). We loved the Hogue Pinot Grigio on a couple of previous occasions, so I was not surprised at all by the quality of their Riesling. I definitely will try other wines by Hogue in the future.

As far as a comparison to a UK basketball player is concerned, I really wanted to go with Mark Pope here because of the connection to Hogue. Pope came to Kentucky via Bellevue, Washington and Hogue is a Washington winery. However, I didn't want to reuse Pope so soon after I used him to describe the La Vieille Ferme red. I like the guy, but let's not get carried away....So, I'm going with Scott Padgett, if for no other reason than his clutch shot in the 1998 Elite Eight comback victory over Duke. I was at that game in St. Pete with my wife and parents. When UK was down 17 with 10 minutes to play, I never would have thought that we would come back to win. But then Wayne Turner completely abused Wojo, Heshimu Evans and Cameron Mills nailed some huge shots, and Padgett iced it with his clutch 3 from the top of the key. I'll never forget that game. The next weekend UK won its 7th National Championship.