What Bottles are We Really Laying Down? A Brief Look at My Cellar
This is going to be a strange way to contact someone who owes you wine, but Kim Aliperti, Lenn and I would like to finally collect on our case.
I was thinking about laying Finger Lakes wine down the other day and it occurred to me: Lenn and I went in together on a case of Billsboro Winery 2008 Riesling. That wine happened to be our first-ever Finger Lakes White Wine of the Year, and deservedly so. It’s wonderful. Lenn and I thought it was the right kind of wine to cellar.
Here’s the odd part: I’m reasonably sure that we paid for our case and figured we’d pick it up on some future occasion. Knowing how way leads onto way, I doubted that we should ever come back, or so someone once said. And that’s what happened: Lenn and I simply forgot about the purchase. It’s entirely possible that Vinny and Kim have sold through their stock and have forgotten as well. There’s probably a statute of limitations on these things.
But I hope not, because the Billsboro 2008 Riesling is not only a great wine, it’s built to last. What we can not know, but what we can reasonably guess, is that it’s built to improve with some time in the bottle. Right about now would be a great time to check in and dent a case, assuming it still exists.
WeI regularly write about laying bottles down. It’s quite another endeavor to put your money where your mouse is, and as I thought about the Billsboro ghost case, I thought about the fact that while I buy Finger Lakes riesling, I rarely purchase a full case. That’s mainly a matter of money, or lack of it. But it’s also a matter of dividing my attention among many wines in my cellar. I buy wine in chunks of two or three at a time. The Billsboro was a kind of outlier.
The point is not to harangue the Aliperti family into scouring their own cellar to fulfill a long-ago purchase. It’s to ask you, our readers: What wines are YOU laying down? What is the single Finger Lakes wine you own the most of? Which producer? Which vintage?
And I’m happy to start. I’m not going to list everything Finger Lakes riesling I own, but I’ll choose a special year for me. The 2008 vintage was the one I spent the most time working the harvest and preparing to write Summer in a Glass. It was likely the best riesling vintage of the past decade, too. There are some dynamite rieslings, from dry to dessert and everything in between, that came out of this region that year. And most are holding strong, still very fresh and primary, barely budging into their fifth year.
I don’t own Billsboro, but I hope to! Beyond that…
Ravines 2008 Dry Riesling
Ravines 2008 Argetsinger Vineyard Riesling
Anthony Road 2008 Semi-Dry Riesling
Fox Run Vineyards 2008 Reserve Riesling
Fox Run Vineyards 2008 Riesling
Sheldrake Point 2008 Riesling
Hermann J. Wiemer 2008 Late Harvest Riesling
Hermann J. Wiemer 2008 Dry Riesling (magnum)
Hermann J. Wiemer 2008 Magdalena Vineyard Dry Riesling
Hermann J. Wiemer 2008 HJW Vineyard Dry Riesling
Heron Hill 2008 Ingle Vineyard Riesling
Tierce 2008 Riesling
Lamoreaux Landing 2008 Dry Riesling
Hosmer 2008 Riesling
- Related:
- billsboro winery
Ha! Strange, maybe, but it worked! I remember it well, but honestly can’t remember about payment. At any rate, we will give you a call. It was a great vintage. And we will have kept some back, I’ll check in with Vin and we can get it all sorted and finally get that wine to you guys.
I have only a handful of NY wines currently in my cellar, and they happen to all be from Long Island, and from a single winery: Paumanok. I have the 2005 Paumanok Petite Verdot and
2005 Paumanok Tuthill Cabernet Sauvignon sitting there. I really don’t have any specific plans of how long I will keep them. Though I suspect both will be very good for some time to come.
We tend to buy a lot of “drink it soon” wine from the Finger Lakes and more “cellar it” stuff from Long Island – not saying that FLX wine isn’t worth laying down, just that when we’re up there we tend to be looking more for things to drink now. That said, here’s what we have waiting for us as of now (I think…haven’t actually updated the wine cellar database recently):
Shinn Estate Vineyards (LI North Fork):
2008 Cab Franc
2009 Cab Franc x3
2007 Cab Sauv x2
2007 Wild Boar Doe x2
2008 Wild Boar Doe x2
2009 wild Board Doe x2
Wolffer (LI South Fork):
2006 Fatalis Fatum
McCall (LI North Fork):
2009 Pinot Noir
Shaw (Seneca Lake):
2006 Cab Sauv x3
2007 Pinot Noir
Ravines (Keuka Lake):
2007 Meritage x3 (hoarding this one…)
2008 Dry Riesling Argetsinger Vineyard x2
2006 Dry Riesling
2009 Dry Riesling Argetsinger Vineyard
Heart & Hands (Cayuga Lake):
2008 Pinot Noir x2
Standing Stone (Seneca Lake):
2008 Saperavi x2
the Tierce Brothers (Seneca Lake):
2008 Riesling
Paul Hobbs (Napa)
1999 Cab Sauv Beckstoffer
Again, this is the stuff we’ve laid down; there’s a fair amount of other daily drinkers in there as well.
Exploring the age-ability of New York wines is probably something we should pursue a little more. We all do it on our own, but getting together and opening bottles would be interesting. Perhaps one of two grape varieties at a time.
I do not think enough is known about the development of our wines over the years. The vintage variability would only make this more interesting. It would also be a great way to evaluate the evolution over the past 10+ years or longer.
Morten,
Agreed – sign me up.
We put 10 cs out of our 300 cs of Riesling away…I hope it’s enough!
One of the wines im laying down and dont know if i will be able to resist is a 2009 Anthony Road MRS Riesling. Zing!!!!
Remember that 03 Ingle Vineyard Riesling we drank a couple of years ago? Proof was in that pudding, dude.
I would love if bottles we purchased from ESC (or the club) had some suggestions for cellering (if Applicable) on the tasting notes. While some of it would be a guestimation, It would suggest to me (and some of you) to exercise patience and perhaps not open that last bottle of _____ for a little while.
Well that’s easy enough to do — at least for the club wines.
Although to Morten’s point — I’m not sure how much we REALLY know about the age-worthiness of New York wines yet. Still, I have some ideas and opinions (you knew that).
Billsboro has been offering formal vertical tastings to our customers and undoubtedly come away super impressed. Most start with our inaugural 2006 vintage (not too long ago) and to date we have been extremely pleased with the longevity and freshness of all the reds, Pinot, Cab Franc, Syrah etc. Chard and Riesling, all bottled under a Diam cork.
We’ve participated in Vinnie’s Verticals for 2 years now and look forward to the Feb. series as we always learn something. And because of the Verticals we have a better handle on which wines to lay down and those to bypass. We now follow winemakers and purchase subsequent vintages after learning their styles.
Our cellar contains many vintages of FL wines since 2001. Some wineries include Atwater, Billsboro, Miles, Ravines, Herman Wiemer, Hickory Hollow, Shaw, Standing Stone, Bloomer Creek, Lamoreaux Landing, Red Newt, and Anthony Road and Zugibe, along with countless others. Most are 1 or 2 bottles now, as we have consumed some the past few years, and have found it amazing how the wines take on much more character when allowed to age for a few years.
We are having a few friends over this weekend, and will be doing a vertical of 2002 Miles Milestone, a 2003 Atwater Meritage, and a 2005 Ravines Meritage. We are excited to try these 3 vintages and compare notes
Most of our cellar is in reds, but we do have some Rieslings and other whites we are holding on to for a while longer.
I have been collecting wines from the finger lakes since 1995 and have a collection of about 200 wines in my cellar. Ever since I had some bottles go south on me I have tried to consume the wine once it hits 10 years, with a few exceptions. When I find something that I think will be good for aging I purchase a case and drink one a year until I feel it has reached it’s peak. While I don’t have an exact list (perhaps this discussion will lead me to assemble one!), but I do have verticals from the following wineries:
1998-2010 Hazlitt- Cab Franc, Merlot, Cab Sauv. with a few bottles of 2001 Meritage
2005-2010 Hazlitt- Gewurztraminer, Riesling
1998-2008 Leidenfrost- Cab Franc, Merlot, Cab Sauv., Pinot Noir, Baco Noir
2001-2009 Lucas- Cab Franc, Pinot Noir…and a variety of Gewurztraminer, Vignoles and
Riesling, and some old Sparkling bottles
2005-2008 Lakewood- Pinot Noir, Cab Franc, Gewurztraminer, Vignoles
2001-2007 Standing Stone- Pinnacle..I had a number of their wines go bad because of
poor enclosures.
2005-2008 Hermann Wiemer- Gewurztraminer, Cab Franc, and a small collection of
Sparkling
2005-2008 Sheldrake- Gewurztraminer, Meritage, Riesling
I also have various old bottles from Ravines, Lamareaux, and Chateau Lafayette
The 2005′s are tasting really good right now, and the 2007′s still have lots of aging potential in case anyone has some and are wondering about when to open them.
ooops…Lamoreaux
No contest. Sheldrake Point 2010 Riesling, It’s absolutely wonderful. Case of 12 is now down to 7 bottles.
Fun story. I am mostly a Long Island red guy, but I do have the Ravines 2007 Meritage and the initial vinetage of Heart and Hands reserve Pinot Noir, and from the Hudson Valley Hudson Chatham 2007 Empire Red.
My Long Island wines I am cellaring are below. Some are young but I bought extras with the idea of keeping for a while:
Bedell 2005 Reserve Merlot-(collectors item!)
Bedell 2005, 2006, 2007 Musee
Bedell 2005 merlot
Bedell 2007,2008 Taste Red
Bedell 2010 Malbec
Roanoke- 2007 Blend one and Blend Two
Roanoke 2006,2007,2008,2009 Gabby’s cab Franc
Roanoke 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
Paumanok 2007 Tuthills merlot
Paumanok 2005 Tuthills Cabernet Sauvignon (thinking of cracking soon)
Paumanok 2009,2010, 2011 Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc
Peconic Bay 2007 Lowerre Family Red Table
Raphael 2002 Merlot
Clovis Point 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
Clovis Point 2007 Merlot
Clovis Point 2007 Vintners Select Merlot
Nappa’s 2010 Blackbird
Nappa’s 2010 Dieci
Nappa’s 2010 Annomoly
Lenz 2006, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
Lenz 2005, 2007 reserve merlot
Lenz 2008 gwertraminer
Pelligrini 2007 Encore
Macari 2007 Bergen Road
Mattebella 2005 2007 familia
Finally, I am also a NY baseball fan and I am cellaring 2009 GTS Cabernet from (Tom) Seaver Vineyards which received great reviews from WS. Looking forward to drinking that someday. The hideous 2005 Jorge Posada Cabernet I will never drink.
I am a relatively young wine drinker and don’t have the budget to buy full cases, but I have nonetheless taken great joy in cellaring some bottles of Finger Lakes wine.
Here are my oldest, all of which I’m pretty confident are still going strong:
Ravines 2005 Meritage (2 left!)
Shaw 2005 Cab Sauvignon
McGregor 2005 Rob Roy
Dr. Frank 2005 Pinot Noir
I also have a lot of 2007. A few highlights…
Ravines Meritage
Ravines Cabernet Franc
Ravines Pinot Noir
Heart and Hands Pinot Noir Barrel Reserve
McGregor Black Russian
McGregor Rob Roy
Dr. Frank Cuvee d’Amour
I drank several of my 2007 reds this year, and they were drinking beautifully. (I think it was the perfect time to drink Dr. Frank’s Merlot and Cab Franc, among others.) But all of the ones I tasted from the above list had a lot of life remaining, so I’m holding on to those bottles a bit longer. That Cuvee d’Amour is my only one, and I’m less sure about its drinking window. Anyone want to venture a guess? (I’m trying to at least stretch it till next fall’s venison when child #2 is born and my wife can drink it with me
My other experiment is Hermann Wiemer 2008 Semi-Dry Riesling. I’ve been opening one bottle per summer and keeping notes. Four more years to go.
Good stuff, Ryan. The hardest decisions will come with the Ravines ’05 Meritage, as it’s a legend of a wine. It is almost certainly not going to get better, but it might last a while longer. There’s no better time to drink it if you’re looking for pure pleasure. But holding on offers so many other possibilities. And it’s a wonderful wine to pour for skeptical friends. As a bonus, it’s a meritage blend but it’s dominated by cab franc, not cab sauv. A beauty.
Thanks for the thoughts, Evan. Barring advice from Mr. Hallgren himself, I think you’re probably the leading 05 Ravines Meritage expert, so the advice is much appreciated.
I had originally pegged one of them for my 30th birthday in May. However, the last bottle of it I opened was when my wife was pregnant with our FIRST child, and I promised I wouldn’t deprive her of yet another bottle of it.
I remember that when I first bought the wine, the person pouring at Ravines said it could go 10 years, so I’ve been figuring 2015 as the long end of my drinking window.
I have a very extensive cellar and am hoarding many precious bottles that are close to my heart. Listed are a few that i think are going to cellar well!
Dr. Frank’s 06 & 07 Cuvee d’Amore
Ravines Meritage
Ravines Cabernet Franc
Heart and Hands Pinot Noir Barrel Reserve
Keuka Springs Epic
McGregor Sangiovase
KLV Leon Millot & Dry Riesing
Sheldrake Cab Franc
Atwater Cab Franc & Riesling
Tierce
Shalestone Pinot Noir