Two New Reviews for Rolling Hills Wine from Wine Characters
2024 Rolling Hills Estate Marquette
The Marquette wine is deep purple in the glass. Floral and herbal aromas lead to a velvety mid-palate with abundant fresh dark-red fruit, herbal notes, and sweet spice. This is an excellent vineyard-specific wine from Schoolhouse Vineyard in the Champlain Valley AVA in Upstate New York.
The 2024 Marquette is still quite young, but it has layers of complexity and a medium-plus body, and it’s surprisingly good now. I believe it will benefit from three to five years of aging in Hungarian oak barrels. The wine is smooth, rich, and warm, and ideal for fireside sipping or dinner parties. We paired it with grilled Mediterranean herb-crusted pork tenderloin and quinoa-roasted stuffed red Peppers.
Read winemaker Kyle’s Wine Characters interview to learn about his Napa-to-NY wine love story.
2025 Rolling Hills Estate “La Crescent” White Wine
Pale yellow-gold in the glass, the wine is very zesty, perfumed, and floral on the nose, with hints of tropical fruit on the palate. Aromas and flavors are surprisingly in sync. This is a luscious, lip-smacking white blend. The wine shows freshness and balances crisp acidity with a creamy mouthfeel.
This is a single vineyard wine from the Champlain Valley AVA. I had never tasted the LA Crescent variety, a hybrid grape developed by the University of Minnesota. It’s known as a cool-region, highly aromatic white wine, ideal for upstate New York’s climate. Extra points: only 12.7 % alcohol, so it’s ideal for food pairings. We enjoyed it tonight with grilled Pacific Coast steelhead, roasted potatoes, and Roasted Vegetables.
Read Kyle Mizuno’s Wine Characters interview to learn more about him and the winery.
