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.

Madill
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 discovery center whose mission is to
explore, celebrate and share the many pleasures and benefits of wine, its
relationship with food and its significance to our culture," held a one-day
festival dedicated to riesling and by golly the Finger Lakes was going to be
there. And Copia and staff did a great
job. Terrific organization and the
tasting included some tasty morsels to accompany the wines.

The day started at
10:30 a.m. with a panel discussion about riesling in today’s market. Very encouragingly, rather than turning over
in bed, 50+ participants turned out to engage in a discussion about the growth
in riesling (the
fastest growing white varietal in the United States) and the challenge in buying the right
style given it’s range of sweetness. Imagine buying peanut butter and having to guess chunky vs. smooth. Jim Trezise of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation introduced the new ‘Riesling
Taste Scale’ developed by the International Riesling Foundation (IRF). This graphic, which is meant to be included
on a wine's label, includes a scale from "Dry" to "Sweet" to be marked appropriately by the
producer. Now doesn’t that just spoil
all the fun in guessing? The audience
was very well versed in riesling speak and several mentioned their passion for
dry and frustration with unknown sweetness levels.

Then
for the tasting. There were 20+
producers from 15+ regions showing 60+ wines. Most were from California but New Zealand, Germany, Washington,
Michigan, Oregon and mais qui, the Finger Lakes were also represented.  Under the moniker  ‘The Other White Wine’ an enthusiastic 110+
tasters enjoyed riesling in all it’s forms including bone dry to Ice Wine (I
did sneak in our 2007 just for fun) with artisan foods ranging from sausage to
sushi.

These were
true Riesling fans. The quality of their
interest was exceptional. The Finger
Lakes wines were arranged from the driest of the dry to the not so dry of the
dry. Tierce at one end and the Lucas at
the other with at least two wines from each lake. And for the most part all of the tasters
worked through all of the wines... to
great acclaim. 

They liked our dry
wines. Quel surprise! Not. The Finger Lakes was the least known region but attracted the spotlight
based on the quality (and value) of the wines.

My overall
conclusion was that Finger Lakes dry riesling wines have a terrific opportunity
out in Cab land.  Maybe more so than in oh-so-sophisticated New York
City. Our challenge has to do with the
nature of the three-tier distribution system and the logistics
involved.  

Stay tuned riesling
aficionados. We are working on it.