It’s the high-quality grapes that make this $10 Riesling

Winemakers may get all the glory, but wine quality rests in the hands of the grape grower. Because wine is made with a single ingredient, the best way to improve wine quality is to grow better fruit. That’s why many fruit-growing families aspire to make their own wines under their own label, as with High Heaven Vintners, a recently launched line of wines from the Zirkle family, one of Washington state’s top growers of apples, pears and grapes.

Growers like the Zirkles determine many aspects of a wine’s quality potential when they plant a new vineyard. It’s important to plant the right varieties in the right place, because grapevines are like little trees that take years to begin producing good fruit and will be productive for decades. Ongoing quality factors that growers control include the vineyard’s “yield,” or productivity per vine, and the farming philosophy that informs their year-round vineyard practices, from frost prevention to pest control. In each vintage, the grower’s challenge is to pick the grapes at the precise moment their sugars, acids, and flavor compounds are all perfectly balanced for the style they aim to make. These choices pay off in this faintly sweet-tart Riesling, with its lemon and honeysuckle aromas and flavors of crisp pink lady apples. Try it with spring rolls or pork chops with sauerkraut.

Columbia Valley, Washington

$9.99; 12.8% alcohol

PLCB Item #97476

Sale price through Jan. 29 — regularly $10.99

Also available at these N.J. shops:

Canal’s Bottlestop in Marlton, $10.09, canalswine.com/; Cheers Wine & Spirits in Voorhees, $12.99, cheers-nj.com/; and West Deptford Super Buy Rite, $12.99, westdeptfordbuyrite.com/.