2020 Cobb Vineyards Wines Riesling Vonarburg Vineyard Anderson Valley 750 ml

Cobb is a first-ballot Hall of Fame Sonoma winemaker. He’s a top-flight craftsman whose Cobb Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays—as well as those he’s made for WIlliams-Selyem, Flowers, and Hirsch—command top dollar. 

But he makes his Riesling for love, not money.

Riesling is harder to sell and commands less per bottle than Pinot or Chard. Yet Vonarburg Vineyard Riesling is so damn good that Ross Cobbis compelled to work with the grapes. And when those grapes meet his talent, the result is one of the greatest under-the-radar wines in California.

Cobb doesn’t make much of this wine—there are barely two acres of old-vine Riesling planted at Vonarburg—but what he does make is sublime, a white wine packed with citrus blossoms, green apple, and slate flavors that ripples with fractal complexity and finishes bone-dry.

Needless to say, we order Ross’ wines whenever we see them on wine lists—and though it’s one of his rarest bottlings, we’ve spotted the Vonarburg Riesling at Michelin-starred destinations like Atomix in New York City and SingleThread in California.

Vonarburg is a privileged site in the Deep End of Mendocino’s Anderson Valley, next to owner Norm Kobler’s family home—and the Kobler name means a lot in the North Coast. His family founded the landmark Lazy Creek Winery in the early 1970s, and made wines of such distinction that they helped draw legendary French Champagne house Louis Roederer to the area. Now Vonarburg Vineyard sits just on the other side of a fence from Roederer Estate.

Cobb picked the grapes at perfect ripeness, then fermented them in a mixture of stainless steel and large barrels before bottling the following spring. The result, coiled on release, has blossomed beautifully in the bottle.