By Lenn Thompson, Founder and Editor Last night over on Facebook, I learned about Wine Specator's first 2008 vintage report card, which includes an A grade for the Finger Lakes and a B for Long Island. A brief comment discussion ensued and I thought that I'd write a bit about it this morning. I have an email in to Mitch Frank, who contributed to the piece and who I know writes about Long Island for the publication, because I'm curious to learn how these grades are calculated. On the surface, it looks like winemaker and vineyard manager interviews are the…
Posts Tagged“finger lakes”
Sheldrake Point 2007 Pinot Gris
Sheldrake Point Vineyard, located on the western short of Cayuga Lake in New York's Finger Lakes region, makes some terrific wines. Over the years I've particularly enjoyed their rieslings and even a couple cabernet francs here and there. This wine, the Sheldrake Point 2007 Pinot Gris ($12) was underwhelming. The pinot gris (or pinot grigio) grape should do well in the Finger Lakes, and I've had some bottles that were good, if not great. This one just fell a bit flat for me. In the glass, it's a pale straw color but the nose is surprisingly neutral with only a…
Pompous Ass Winery Revisited
By Jason Feulner, Finger Lakes Correspondent At a recent wine event in the Finger Lakes, a few individuals approached me to express disapproval over my previous post about the upcoming opening of Pompous Ass Winery on Seneca Lake. Their chief complaint? Some felt that I came down too hard on Pompouss Ass before it had a chance to prove itself. I was told that the owners seemed like nice people. I'm sure they are nice people, but that's not really the point. Now that the winery has a liquor license and is open for business, I re-visited the website to see…
Finger Lakes Winemakers Announce the Release of TIERCE 2006 Riesling
Anthony Road Wine Company, Fox Run Vineyards and Red Newt Wine Cellars have announced the release of the third vintage of their co-produced riesling TIERCE, a 2006 Dry Riesling. I thought it had been released over the summer, but apparently not. Peter Bell, winemaker at Fox Run also let me know this morning that there will not be a 2007 edition because 2007 rieslings from the region "just aren't all that racy." I don't think that is true across the board, maybe the group learned a lesson with their 2005 TIERCE, which I thought lacked acidity the last time I…
Welcome VisitFingerLakes.com to LENNDEVOURS
Please join me in welcoming VisitFingerLakes.com as LENNDEVOURS' newest sponsor. It's a great resource for anyone looking to visit the Finger Lakes for the first time, be it to tour wineries or to enjoy the area's natural beauty (which I fell in love with last spring). The site is filled with information on where you can stay and eat in the Finger Lakes and also lists attractions and "things to do." I'm happy to have them sign on as a new site sponsor for 2009. Check them out.
Heron Hill Winery 2005 Riesling Reserve
Nena and I both love riesling, but not always the same ones. When we visited the Finger Lakes last spring, our differing preferences arose at nearly every winery stop — if the winery had more than one riesling. For the most part, I preferred (and prefer) the drier, more minerally styles and she preferred the semi- and off-dry wines. It isn't so much about the sweetness, but she prefers the richer fruit flavors — the peach, tropical fruit, etc. And we both want riesling with racy acidity. That brings us to this wine, Heron Hill Winey's 2005 Riesling Reserve ($30).…
The 2008 Riesling Shoot-Out
By Jason Feulner, Finger Lakes Correspondent Events sometimes receive an exclamatory billing only to draw attention to an antithetical subtext. The title of the "Riesling Shoot-Out," the brainchild of John Zuccarino of Silver Springs Winery and wine author Thomas Pellechia, evokes a line-in-the-sand Wild West gun fight between Finger Lakes and German rieslings, with only the biggest and baddest wines left standing to proclaim victory. Of course, the results were far more mixed, and therein lies the point. The big critics and the publications they work for consider Germany the home of riesling and treat her wines well, giving many a score above the coveted 90-point mark. As this…
More Finger Lakes Riesling Invades California
The following is a guest post from Bob Madill, owner of Sheldrake Point Vineyards and Chair of the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance, who recently attended Copia's RieslingFest 2008. Nothing like picking a few Finger Lakes rieslings to showcase in Napa, California at Copia. What a novel idea. A Riesling festival in the heart of Cab land. So on behalf of the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance (FLWA) country mouse traveled to Napa lugging cases of wine to pour at RieslingFest on October 19, 2008. Ten dry Rieslings from 2007 and all awarded a Wine Spectator score of 84+. Copia, the "non-profit…
Bottling Reds at Shaw Vineyard
By Jason Feulner, Finger Lakes Correspondent Although Ravines Wine Cellars is located on Keuka Lake, owner-winemaker Morten Hallgren crafts his wines using space at Shaw Vineyard, located a few miles to the east on Seneca Lake. Hallgren and Steve Shaw, winemaker and owner of Shaw Vineyard, work independently but of course try to coordinate production schedules to enhance services and manpower. Before the fall harvest, Steve Shaw invited me over to the winery to watch as he bottled some of the reds wines from both wineries. I was interested to check it out because both winemakers use a mobile bottling…
WTN: Treleaven 2006 Gewurztraminer (Finger Lakes)
I had high hopes when I opened this wine from King Ferry Winery/Treleaven . I’ve thoroughly enjoyed their rieslings in the past and thought that their rose (made with cab franc) was pretty nice too. Unfortunately, this one wasn’t my favorite. Treleaven’s 2006 Gewurztraminer ($14.50) is an extremely pale straw yellow. The nose is tight and doesn’t offer much in the way of aromas — some light floral notes and just a little spice. Medium-light bodied, it is somewhat neutral tasting with just a little bit of the classic Gewürztraminer character that I love (rose petals, lychee, ginger spice). The…