Each of our regular WRO contributors has selected a Wine of the Year and a Wine Producer of the Year for 2007. We will feature one of their write-ups each day in this space through the end of the year, and if you’d like to nominate a wine or winery , email your choices to [email protected] –Ed.
Producer of the Year: Chateau Ste. Michelle (Woodinville, Washington): Is there any other place in the winemaking world where one company so dominates production and yet is so 
admired by virtually everyone in the business? Chateau Ste Michelle is the flagship winery in a company now called Ste Michelle Wine Estates. The company includes other Washington wineries–Columbia Crest, Col Solare, Northstar, Snoqualmie–as well as select California and Oregon properties. (It also is an important importer.) In the Evergreen State, Ste. Michelle is the proverbial Goliath, as it controls the majority of premium wine production in the state.
You might think that other Washington producers would feel resentful, or aggrieved, or perhaps jealous towards Ste. Michelle. But from everything I can gather, just the opposite is the case. 
No one I have ever talked with has anything but praise and admiration for the company. Everyone says that without Ste. Michelle, Washington would still be a wine backwater. Instead, it today produces some of the most exciting wines in the United States. Many of those wines sport the Ste. Michelle label, which is one of the most reliable for not only quality but also for fair value in the country. So for the role it plays in Washington as well as in the country at large, and for the sheer pleasure that its wines provide for so many people, Chateau Ste. Michelle is my 2007 ‘Producer of the Year.’
Wine of the Year: Tierce, Finger Lakes (New York) Dry Riesling 2005 ($30): A brief trip to the Finger Lakes last spring proved revelatory. Not because many wines, especially Rieslings, tasted good (from past experience, I already knew they would), but because the top renditions now are being made in a truly dry style. Ever since Dr. Konstantin Frank first proved back in the 1950s and 1960s that quality wine could be made from 
Riesling and other European vinifera grape varieties, fine wines have come from ambitious vintners in the Finger Lakes. Yet until now, most of the Rieslings were off-dry, since German wines from the Mosel were the original inspiration for Dr. Frank. Today, however, the very best are bone dry. They offer riveting flavors, and can proudly hold their own with top dry Rieslings from Alsace, Australia, Germany, or anywhere else in the world.
Of all the exciting Finger Lakes wines I tasted, Tierce was the most enthralling. It’s a collaborative venture between three of the area’s most talented winemakers–Peter Bell of Fox Run, Johannes Reinhardt of Anthony Road, and Dave Whiting of Red Newt Cellars. Tierce debuted with the 2004 vintage, and the story of its emergence encapsulates what is happening in the region at large. As Whiting tells it, ‘We didn’t have any preconceived notions as to style when we started. We just wanted to make the very best wine we could.’ The idea was for each winemaker to contribute wine from his home winery. ‘But when we got together and tasted each other’s wines, it became clear that Tierce was going to have to be completely dry. Even though we didn’t say so, we all knew that dry Riesling is the future here.’
Both the 2004 and the 2005 vintages of Tierce taste vivid, with juicy fruit, bracing acidity, and a wealth of chalky, mineral-tinged undertones. They’re simply fantastic.
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