Posts Tagged“riesling”

Boundary Breaks Vineyard 2011 No. 239 — Dry Riesling

Looking for an example of a ‘classic’ Finger Lakes riesling nose? Boundary Breaks Vineyard 2011 No. 239 — Dry Riesling ($20) delivers that. It is lime-driven with notes of tangerine, green apple, citrus blossom and just-ripe peach. Feather-light in the mouth, the palate is a bit more peachy, with Golden Delicious apple, a big squirt of lime juice and rocky minerals on the end of a long, dry finish. Juicy, citrusy acidity. While it lacks concentration and mid-palate richness, it shows nice verve and length. Producer: Boundary Breaks Vineyard AVA: Finger Lakes Clone: Geisenheim 239 Brix: 21 ABV: 12.1% RS: 0.6% IRF: Dry Production: 100 cases Price: $20* | Order…

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Keuka Spring Vineyards 2012 “Humphrey’s Vineyard” Riesling

Beautifully perfumed with aromas of apples, apple blossom, lemon zest, fennel and dried apricot, Keuka Spring Vineyards 2012 “Humphrey’s Vineyard” Riesling ($22), shows an impressive combination of complexity with restraint. Focused and fresh, well-integrated, nervy acidity, the palate tastes dry, offering fennel, apple, pear, apple blossom and peach flavors.  Showing great length, the finish lingers with pomme fruit and chamomile tea. Producer: Keuka Spring Vineyards AVA: Finger Lakes Brix: 20 ABV: 12% RS: .9% pH: 3.1 Production: 120 cases Release Date: June 2013 Price: $22* | Order from Empire State Cellars  (4 out of 5, Outstanding and Delicious, Highly Recommended)

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New Single Wheel Wine Aims for High End — and Looks to Customers Beyond the Finger Lakes

Single Wheel Wine recently joined the growing number of single-vineyard rieslings that are being produced in the Finger Lakes with the release of its 2012 vintage. The wine is produced by Hosmer Winery and is made from grapes that are grown in their Patrician Verona vineyard on the west side of Cayuga Lake. The concept behind single-vineyard wines is that a wine that is produced from grapes that are grown in a single, specific location has more consistency in characteristics and quality, and conveys a clearer sense of place than a blended wine. In the case of Single Wheel, the intent is to capture that sense…

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Moved by a New York Wine: Aged Finger Lakes Riesling (Uwe Kristen, DerKellermeister.com)

Editor’s Note: Thank you to our friend Uwe Kristen of Der Kellermeister  for the second story in our “Moved by a New York Wine” series. If a New York wine has moved you, let us know. White wine is still considered to be less age-worthy than red wine. Which, of course, is not true. Riesling, in particular, can age for decades. Once bottled, wine is not a finished product. It is still very much alive. Give it some years to fully express itself and you shall be handsomely rewarded. I had been holding on to two Finger Lakes rieslings from…

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The New York Cork Report Guide to Thanksgiving Wine

Thanksgiving wine columns. Editors demand them. Writers write them. Of course, people read them. They must. These “Perfect Thanksgiving Wine” columns are ubiquitous. We don’t like them here, though. We don’t think anyone should worry so much about wine pairings of any sort, for any meal. Wine pairing is often much more about avoiding bad pairings than it is finding the singular “perfect” wine for whatever is on your plate. Barbera is getting a lot of attention this year in Thanksgiving columns. It’s a great pick — fruity, low-tannin and crunch with acidity. But is it t he “perfect Thanksgiving wine?…

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Kemmeter Wines 2012 Sonero

The entry-level offering from winemaker Johannes Reindhardt’s recently launched Kemmeter Wines label, the Kemmeter Wines 2012 Sonero ($14) is a friendly, fruity expression of riesling with intense aromas of juicy pear, hard lemon candies and something vaguely soapy. Medium-light bodied with subtle mid-palate richness, the palate shows similar flavors –candied citrus and pear — with a faint gravelly mineral note. Though not flabby or cloying, there isn’t enough acidity to balance the residual sugar here, leaving the palate a bit flat and lacking verve. Producer: Kemmeter Wines AVA: New York Price: $14 | Buy now from Empire State Cellars (2.5 out of 5, Average-to-Very…

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Red Tail Ridge Winery 2012 “RTR Estate Vineyard” Riesling

With each set of new releases, Nancy Irelan and Mike Schnelle — the husband-and-wife team behind Red Tail Ridge Winery — cement their place as one of the top wineries in the Finger Lakes.  The wine geek in me is drawn to Nancy’s (she’s the winemaker) Obscure Varietal Series, which includes things like dornfelder, teroldego and blaufrankisch, but those are small production and may never be anything more. To be a top-tier Finger Lakes winery, you need to do riesling well. Nancy does that consistently and Red Tail Ridge Winery 2012 “RTR Estate Vineyard” Riesling ($16) is just another example…

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Red Tail Ridge Winery 2012 Good Karma

It is a pleasure to write about wines like Red Tail Ridge Winery 2012 Good Karma ($14). Created in 2009 by winemaker and co-owner Nancy Irelan, Good Karma benefits regional food banks, with 10% of gross profit per bottle donated. Originally, the money went to Foodlink, a regional food bank that serves a ten-county area in the Genesee Valley and the Finger Lakes region. Starting with the 2012 vintage, however, that’s changed a bit. In an email, Irelan said “Wee have expanded our reach with Good Karma. Foodlink has agreed to redistribute the funds to the state in which it is…

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Thirsty Owl Wine Company 2012 Riesling

You can’t smell sweetness of course, but the Thirsty Owl Wine Company 2012 Riesling ($15) does offer the impression of subtle sweetness on the nose, which is dominated by ripe and candied peach flavors with notes of musk melon and green apple. The palate, while well-balanced, lacks a bit of tension. The flavors range widely from the tropical to the floral to the delicately spicy. Nice mid-palate richness leads into a just-sweet finish dominated by apricot and perhaps a touch of botrytis (a good thing, here). Though delicious, a bit more focus would make it something really special. Producer: Thirsty Owl…

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Hosmer Winery 2012 Dry Riesling

The last wine I sampled during that Finger Lakes 2012 riesling virtual tasting last week (there was one more wine, but my bottle was horribly corked) was this Hosmer Winery 2012 Dry Riesling ($15), which initially reminded me a bit of the first wine from the tasting, but ultimately impressed me much more. A bit tightly wound on the nose, there are hints of lemon-lime soda, saltwater, green apple, just-ripe peach and fennel here, but the nose isn’t particularly effusive. Dry and vivacious, the palate is mouthwatering in its mingling of bright citrus character with green melon, just-ripe peach, herbs…

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