The Top 5 Wines from the Dirty South Wine's TasteNY Tasting of 12 Finger Lakes Rieslings
By Lenn Thompson, Founder and Editor-in-Chief
I'm still digging out at work after a week in hot, often-sunny Orlando last week, but the New York wine world certainly doesn't stop for lil ole me!
You might remember that I announced TasteNY back at the end of May. In a nutshell, is that I hand-pick a set of New York-made wines, beers or spirits and get them into the hands of a small group (10-12) of bloggers. The first edition features a mixed case of Finger Lakes rieslings that was sent out to a dozen bloggers last month.
So far, two of the host bloggers have held their tastings — one in San Francisco, California and another in Atlanta, Georgia.
First up was the Bay Area tasting, hosted by Thea Dwelle of Luscious Lushes. She was joined by Ward Kadel, Fred and Eva Swan, Marshall Sontag and Brittany Dean, Paige Granback
and Chuck Hayward, and two of The BrixChicks.
To read what the particpants thought of the wines, you can read Thea's blog post and read Ward's reviews:
- Heron Hill Winery 2005 Old Vines Riesling (3 stars)
- Ravines Wine Cellars 2006 Riesling (3 stars)
- Red Newt Wine Cellars 2006 Reserve Riesling (3.5 stars)
- Sheldrake Point 2006 Reserve Riesling (3 stars)
- Atwater Vineyards 2007 Dry Riesling (3.5 stars)
- Wiemer Vineyards 2007 Dry Riesling (3.5 stars)
- Dr. Konstantin Frank 2007 Dry Riesling (3.5 stars)
- Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards 2008 Homestead Reserve Riesling (3.5 stars)
- Anthony Road Wine Company 2008 Semi-Dry Riesling (3 stars)
- Billsboro Winery 2008 Dry Riesling
- Fox Run Vineyards 2008 Riesling (3 stars)
- Lamoreaux Landing 2008 Red Oak Vineyard Riesling (3.5 stars)
My friend Hardy Wallace, the talent behind Dirty South Wine hosted his TasteNY dinner at Dynamic Dish down it Atlanta, and was joined by Atlanta food and wine bloggers/writers/lovers Ed Thralls, Jim Sobeck, Bill Addison and Broderick Smylie.
As you can see in the picture at the top of this post, they were able to narrow down the field to pick five favorites:
- Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyards 2007 Dry Riesling
- Dr. Konstantin Frank 2007 Dry Riesling
- Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards 2008 Homestead Reserve Riesling
- Sheldrake Point 2006 Reserve Riesling
- Red Newt Wine Cellars 2006 Reserve Riesling.
Unfortunately, Hardy's bottle of the Ravines Wine Cellars 2006 Dry Riesling was corked.
You can also read a report from the tasting on Ed's blog.
These are just the first couple of tastings, but it looks like the wines are being very well received and impressing people. After tasting the 12 Finger Lakes rieslings, Hardy proclaimed on Twitter, "The best showing of domestic Riesling I've had."
For those of us tasting and drinking Finger Lakes riesling for a while now, that's no surprise.