Posts Tagged“finger lakes”

Billsboro Winery 2006 Cabernet Franc

I've been a little hard on Finger Lakes reds over the years. Okay, at times I've been more than a "little hard" on them, but of late a few have grabbed my attention — mostly from the hot 2005 vintage. When I pulled this Billsboro Winery 2006 Cabernet Franc ($18) from my cellar for tasting, I didn't have high hopes. 2006 wasn't a great year for reds in the Finger Lakes and several that I've tasted just weren't very good. But this wine impressed with nuance, elegance and spiciness. Co-owner and winemaker Vinny Aliperti, who serves as winemaker at Atwater…

Why the Pessimism, Howard?

In last weekend's New York Times, columnist Howard Goldberg penned a piece "More Trouble for Vintners" that paints an uneccessarily bleak picture for New York wineries in 2009. In the story, he points to Governor Paterson's proposed budget, the possible elimination of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation (NYWGF), and the closing of both Vintage NY wine shops (which only sold NY wines) as the reasons for "more trouble." All three could potentially be detrimental to Long Island and other New York wineries, but they are only a part of the story. A small sliver in fact. The closing…

Dr. Konstantin Frank 2007 Dry Riesling

Of all the Finger Lakes wines that I review every year, those from Dr. Konstantin Frank are among my favorites. Why? Well, for one, the whites are  consistently good, especially the aromatic whit varieties like riesling and Gewürztraminer. For another, these are often the only quality New York wines that my friends and family back in Pittsburgh have any chance of seeing in their local, state-run liquor stores. Much like the other wine regions of New York, the Finger Lakes enjoyed a long, hot growing season in 2007 and that is apparent in many of the wines I've tasted from…

Dr. Konstantin Frank 2007 Reserve Gewurztraminer

Too often the descriptor "food wine" is used in a negative way, used to describe wines that aren't all that pleasing on their own. This is, of course, preposterous, and is just a way for writers to soften the blow when writing reviews of mediocre wines. Wine is meant to be enjoyed with food. At least it should be. Saying that a wine needs food, should be a given. This Dr. Konstantin Frank 2007 Gewuztraminer Reserve ($25) doesn't need food, but it sure does shine with it (or at least it did with the green Thai curry chicken and zucchini…

The LENNDEVOURS 2008 Wines of the Year

By Lenn Thompson, Founder and Editor This is a post that I look forward to writing every year. I dread it too. On one hand, it's fun to look back at all of the New York wines I've tasted over the past 12 months. On the other, how can I possibly choose a handful of the "best" wines, especially when I wasn't tasting them with this post in mind? For 2009, I have already promised myself that I'll come up with a formal process for the LENNDEVOURS wines of the year, but that doesn't do me any good for 2008…

Quick Q&A with Tim Moore, Owner, Imagine Moore Winery

We're joined by Tim Moore of Imagine Moore Winery for this week's edition of Q&A. Imagine Moore is still a relatively new player in the Finger Lakes wine community, but there are plenty of things to like about the operation. They source fruit from sustainable vineyards and print their labels with organic inks, to name just a couple of those things. What (and where) was the first bottle of wine you remember drinking? It was in the mid 80’s and being from California and relatively young, it was a bottle of Korbel Sparkling Wine out of my best friend’s house…

Imagine Moore Winery 2007 “Joy” Dry Riesling

Imagine Moore Winery located in Naples, NY southwest of Canandaigua Lake, is a relative newcomer to the Finger Lakes Wine world. There's something undeniably charming about the operation. Co-owners Tim and Diane Moore are dedicated to sustainability and only buy fruit from sustainably managed vineyards throughout the Finger Lakes. Their labels, which are painted onto the bottles, are done with organic ink. And those labels, in addition to carrying the grape names, also feature names like Love, Harmony and Peace. There's got to be some "hippy" in the Moore's, no? I tasted a handful of their wines from the 2006…

How Tierce Riesling Gets Made: Inside the Winemaker’s Lab

Winemaker Johannes Reinhardt at the Tierce blending session By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes CorrespondentAll photos by Morgan Dawson "These are the most precocious aromatics I've ever seen at this point in a wine's development," Peter Bell said, surveying more than 40 glasses containing Riesling blends from the 2008 vintage. "I mean, it's December. This is remarkable. Wine does what it wants to do, and the aromatics could drop a cliff. But I doubt it. This is just remarkable."   This is not propaganda. Some winemakers play up the virtues of each vintage. They have to answer to accountants, after all.…

Chateau Frank and the Economics of Bubbles

By Jason Feulner, Finger Lakes Correspondent During a recent visit to Dr. Frank's to compile a profile of its sparkling wine operation for Life in the Finger Lakes, I learned more than I expected to about the hard economic realities of creating such wines in the Finger Lakes. As nearly all Finger Lakes winemakers will profess, the region is well suited to making sparkling wine. Because of the cool climate, and a wide open harvest window, growers can let grapes hang just a little longer to enhance ripeness and flavor without sacrificing the crisp acidity necessary for good sparklers. Two of Dr. Frank's team winemakers who work with sparklers, Eric Bauman and…

McGregor Vineyard 2006 Pinot Noir

Wine never stops to be fascinating for me. In recent weeks I've been doing my wine tastings a bit differently. Instead of tasting them on the day I opened them, reviewing them and rating them, I'm holding off on giving final scores until I've re-tasted them again the following day. I like to taste and review wines the same way that people actually drink them, and the fact is, a bottle of wine may last a few day or longer in many people's homes. It's been an interesting exercise and I've discovered that more wines improve by day two (and…