Posts Tagged“vinny aliperti”

Orange Wines in the Finger Lakes: What Was Old is New Again

Across the Finger Lakes, creative winemakers like August Deimel, Katey Larwood, Steve Shaw, Peter Becraft, Vinny Aliperti and others are employing traditional techniques with well-known grape varieties to produce innovative, new wines. Frequently referred to as “orange” or “amber,” these new wines are challenging establish perceptions of mainstay wines made from varieties such as chardonnay, gewurztraminer, vignoles and even riesling — the iconic grape of the region. What the wines have in common is that they are white wines that utilize extended skin contact during maceration and subsequent fermentation. This approach represents a major deviation from winemaking practices commonly employed…

Billsboro Winery 2012 Cabernet Franc

Billsboro Winery 2012 Cabernet Franc ($25) is ripe and fruit-forward on the nose with cherry and plum aromas that stay this side of jammy and accents of tobacco, baking spice and dried herbs. The first sip is a bit disjointed and almost comes across as hot (an indicator of higher alcohol that isn’t balanced) but with some air that fades and this medium-bodied, ripe-but-not-too-ripe red settles in with red and black fruit notes that are tinged by toasty vanilla oak-born spice and a bit of brown sugar. Structure is provided by juicy acidity rather than the tannins, which are soft and rounded. On…

Billsboro Winery 2007 Dry Riesling

By Lenn Thompson, Publisher and Editor May is Riesling Month in the Finger Lakes, but somehow this is my first Finger Lakes riesling review this month. Look for more riesling reviews this week and next (I'm tasting a lot of them lately, just haven't written them up yet). Before we get to today's wine, a little background on Billsboro Winery. It's located on the west side of Seneca Lake, just south of the city of Geneva, NY and is owned by Kim and Vinny Aliperti. Vinny, who makes the wines, also serves as winemaker at Atwater Estate Vineyards, which is…

Atwater Estate Vineyards 2007 Dry Riesling

I've mentioned before that Atwater Estate Vineyards is really the winery responsible for sparking my obsession with Finger Lakes wines, particularly riesling and other aromatic whites. I first discovered winemaker Vinny Aliperti's delicious, well-priced whites when they were being poured at Roanoke Vineyards here on the North Fork. Roanoke co-owner Richie Pisacano only had a 2000 merlot of his own to sell upon opening and, because he worked with Vinny at Wolffer Estate, offered a handful of Atwater wines in the tasting room as well. I picked up this bottle of Atwater Estate 2007 Dry Riesling ($18) after the tasting…

PALATE Update: Comparative Tasting Co-Hosted by LENNDEVOURS and Atwater Estate

Jason introduced the PALATE festival a couple weeks ago, but I have some exciting news about the upcoming food, wine and art festival in Corning, NY. As part of PALATE's programming, I'll be co-hosting a tasting with winemaker Vinny Aliperti on Wednesday, February 18 at 11 a.m at Atwater Estate Vineyards in Hector, NY. Vinny is Atwater's winemaker and also owns Billsboro Winery in Geneva. We'll be doing a comparative tasting of wines made from the same varieties, from the same years, by the same winemaker — but from different vineyards. It will be interesting to see how the wines…