The 2016 Riesling Ara gives up zesty aromas of lime skin, freshly sliced pineapple, quince, white apricot and nectarine with a touch of wet stone. The palate is off-dry—there's just a touch of sweetness here—with warm pineapple and stone fruit notes, racy acidity and a long, mineral finish. 400 cases produced.

Listed on the back label as "dry," the 2015 Riesling Ara is a little reticent on the nose with aromas of petrol and candle wax giving way to ripe yellow peach, candied citrus peel and pulverized stone. Medium-bodied with a touch of sweetness in the mouth, it offers peachy and pineapple flavors plus notes of lemongrass and candied lime. It's framed by a wicked line of rocky minerality and laser-like acidity, finishing long and packed with fruit. 300 cases produced.

The 2012 Riesling Ara comes from the estate vineyard and a second in the Yamhill area. The bouquet is very attractive with scents of nectarine, blood orange and honeysuckle aromas that are very intense and well defined. The palate is brisk on the entry with a fine bead of acidity that cuts through the slightly viscous texture. There is great weight and real energy here, getting to the essence of Riesling better than many Oregon Rieslings that I have encountered. Excellent.

Brooks’ 2010 Riesling Ara originates in 1985 Yamhill Vineyards plantings and their estate’s 1974 block and was only recently released, a reaction to this wine’s austerity that I can appreciate. That having been noted, the lime-peel pungency and cut; bright lemon; and alkalinity on display here offer a more generous – and somehow shimmeringly interactive – performance than in the corresponding “regular” bottling, and there is also greater sheer refreshment to an admittedly rather severely-penetrating, tart, and phenolically-pronounced finish. A saline, briny streak serves for some saliva-inducement in a wine I would pair cautiously with cuisine and about the potential of which to become more interesting or ingratiating with further bottle age I remain agnostic. I tasted this July with Brooks winemaker Chris Williams, for more detail about whom – as well as about the history and current operating procedures of this estate – consult my issue 202 report. (Wines from Williams’ own small but exciting Terue project can also be found – under that name – in the present report.) As had been the case last year, I found the Rieslings on which this estate puts great stock and about which a number of my journalistic colleagues have written flatteringly were not nearly on the impressive level of the Brooks Pinots – or indeed of their recently-introduced Gewurztraminer from Columbia Gorge fruit. (Because my views on Brooks Rieslings might be considered contrarian, I have elected to publish full tasting notes on certain wines whose ratings would ordinarily have relegated them to a mere mention in my text and to listing as “also recommended.”) “I try not to ever chaptalize,” says Williams – whose low-alcohol (at times astonishingly so) 2011 and 2010 vintage Pinots testify to his resolve under the greatest imaginable temptation – though he confesses that “I had to water-back a couple of lots from 2012 that would have just been big, huge monsters; but, man, I struggled with that because I had never, ever done it; and I’ve never done acid-addition either.” (Could you guess that Williams isn’t at all sure the already much-ballyhooed 2012 Pinots will prove more exciting than his 2011s?!) Incidentally, a new winery is planned for a vineyard location a short distance from the present facility, the old Eola quarters being noticeably cramped. Tel. (503) 435-1278

Also recommended, but no tasting note given. Portlandian Jimi Brooks was among Oregon’s path-breakers and most prominent proselytizers for biodynamic viticulture, and when in 2004 death cut to a mere half dozen years tenure as director of his own winery, his sister Janie Brooks Heuck and assistant winemaker Chris Williams determined to perpetuate the Brooks legacy and style, until such time as control of the estate falls to Jimi Brook’s son Pascal, now 16. An enormous diversity of fruit sources was and remains integral to the Brooks program, but a source intimately associated with Jimi Brooks’ career – the 20-acre Eola-Amity Hills Vineyard planted to Riesling and Pinot in 1974 by pioneers Don and Carolyn Byard – changed hands to become the Brooks Estate Vineyard in 2009. Fruit for Brooks Pinots is always de-stemmed, receives two or even three weeks of cold soak (or is that even the right word in such a case?!) in a refrigerated chamber; ferments spontaneously (de rigeur for biodynamists); is extracted via both punch-downs and pump-overs; and typically spends 18 months in barrel. Tel. (503) 435-1278