Desire Lines Riesling Experimental Series #10: Old Durney Massa
Critics Average score from professional wine critics and publications.
91
/100
Reviews
12
professional
Vintages
1
2021
Other
91/100
Riesling
NV
Community Reviews
1919
Reviews
91.3
Avg Score
95
Highest
Taster #8960
· Nov 21, 2025
Pop and pour, this one’s wild. Crazy vibrant tropical fruit notes, little bit of key lime on the finish. A slight green note I usually associate with stem inclusion on red wines, but damned if it doesn’t work with the full package. Glad to have one more of these that I’ll give a chance in 10 years to see where it’s gone.
2021 vintage
Taster #4160
· May 29, 2025
90/100
very tasty. Hint of lemon on the finish
2021 vintage
Taster #9329
· Apr 8, 2024
87/100
A bit of oak showing through. Ends up lacking the facileness of Riesling with some phenolic extract showing its elbows here and there Some floral notes, feels a bit tight and showing more notes on day 2 and 3, but never fully composed I would hold my second bottle until year 7 and then retry. I could well be wrong but this feels like Riesling made by someone who make zins all day
2021 vintage
Taster #5230
· Mar 10, 2024
Another delicious wine from Desire Lines. So drinkable and friendly. Pleasant citrus zest and balance. Glad more just arrived the other day.
2021 vintage
Taster #0341
· Jan 26, 2024
91/100
Almost a year since I last tasted, and this is coming along nicely. It really feels like Desire Lines invented a new style of wine here - Riesling with noticable oak. (In this case, they used 1000L Austrian barrels). Of course, this isn't THAT oaky; but you can defenitely smell some secondary influence. Ripe white peach, lemon curd, jasmine, reduction (probably from TDN?), smoke, cedar, vanilla and warm spices on the nose. Medium + intensity of aromas. The palate is …
2021 vintage
Taster #1922
· Nov 4, 2023
93/100
Fresh, well balanced and varietally correct. Very tasty - nice job!
2021 vintage
Taster #4160
· Jul 29, 2023
90/100
Refreshing fruit here with nice acidity. I have had several Desire Lines Rieslings and will continue to try them. Always good. Nice job here.
2021 vintage
Taster #3905
· Jun 26, 2023
This wine takes me back in time. I remember the Durney Winery. Back then I didn’t realize that there was Riesling planted. I also did not know that eventually someone would rediscover that Riesling, and give it some serious love and care. Nostalgia is what made me try this wine. That and Cody’s clear skill with Riesling. Having now tasted a bottle over the course of a full week, which I rarely do, I will happily go back for more …
2021 vintage
Taster #0087
· Jun 21, 2023
Showing quite reductive at first but it blew off over the course of 2 hours open. Otherwise similarly delicious as my previous note.
2021 vintage
Taster #1922
· May 17, 2023
93/100
Interesting and delicious.
2021 vintage
Taster #0341
· Mar 18, 2023
90/100
Honeysuckle, jasmine, tangerine/orange peel, under ripe white peach, apricot and a hint of plastic/TDN on the nose. Not quite petrol; but I think if you aged it a couple more years it would smell like petrol. The palate is linear, mostly consistent with the aromas, adds wet stone, fresh green herbs and leads with the non-fruit notes. All the fruits and flowers are at the end. Medium bodied with only medium acid, which was a bit of a surprise for …
2021 vintage
Taster #6909
· Mar 16, 2023
92/100
Medium Lemon. Vanilla and lemon peel on the nose. On the palate high acidity, medium alcohol, silky texture, pineapple, apples, pears. Likely to improve.
2021 vintage
Taster #7079
· Mar 16, 2023
90/100
Nine Rieslings, Mostly Dry, with Seven DC Doods (DeeCee Columbia Heights) : Pale straw color. Initially quite shy on the nose, this eventually opened to show white florals and lime o the nose. A very clean and linear wine with some lemon/lime citrus and a bright refreshing finish. Seems this one could use some time to find its full expression.
2021 vintage
Taster #3125
· Mar 16, 2023
9 Rieslings - 6 Dry 3 Off Dry : First wine, lightest color and guessed for youngest in the lineup (correct) but that was about as far as I got. Tons of slate and minerally citrus on the nose, more fruit forward on the palate with a whiff of petrol. Fairly short finish, this needs some time to open up.
2021 vintage
Taster #0087
· Feb 24, 2023
An evolution in style for DL riesling, with the fermentation in large wood barrels having a clear influence on texture and mouthfeel. There’s just more complexity here, while still retaining that California orchard and citrus fruit and strong acidic spine. Love the clean lime and white flower finish. So good.
2021 vintage
Taster #1922
· Dec 22, 2022
95/100
Intense orchard fruit, great body, balance and depth. Delicious and stunning. For all of Cody's great Rieslings, this may just be his finest in my book.
2021 vintage
Taster #3072
· Dec 2, 2022
A nice riesling that paired gamely with temaki. Notes of peach and orange on the nose and palate with a green tea finish and a zip of mouthwatering acid.
2021 vintage
Taster #9887
· Nov 20, 2022
92/100
Picked by many as the wine of the lineup among rieslings from around the world. I generally understand this to be dry farmed on a slope with underground ephemeral stream watering the roots with cool mtn runoff. Winemaking seems to allow expression of much more stone and terroir characteristics than the fruit-disguise presented by many other bottles this evening. Dry, fruit character was ripe orange and apricot. This bottle represented therefore the warmest-spectrum fruits combo with the lowest residual sugar. …
2021 vintage
Taster #0746
· Oct 29, 2022
92/100
Of the same gorgeous style as the other DL Rieslings from the North, it's hard not to love this charming wine. Enjoyed with various sushi and fish dishes over a couple nights, the wine is equally swell as an intense sipper as it is a seamless partner to plenty of foods with its fine acidity and focus. For me, these DL Rieslings have filled the space of the Navarro Rieslings from decades past. The latter are still great wines, but …
2021 vintage