This is going to be a strange way to contact someone who owes you wine, but Kim Aliperti, Lenn and I would like to finally collect on our case.
I was thinking about laying Finger Lakes wine down the other day and it occurred to me: Lenn and I went in together on a case of Billsboro Winery 2008 Riesling. That wine happened to be our first-ever Finger Lakes White Wine of the Year, and deservedly so. It’s wonderful. Lenn and I thought it was the right kind of wine to cellar.
Here’s the odd part: I’m reasonably sure that we paid for our case and figured we’d pick it up on some future occasion. Knowing how way leads onto way, I doubted that we should ever come back, or so someone once said. And that’s what happened: Lenn and I simply forgot about the purchase. It’s entirely possible that Vinny and Kim have sold through their stock and have forgotten as well. There’s probably a statute of limitations on these things.
But I hope not, because the Billsboro 2008 Riesling is not only a great wine, it’s built to last. What we can not know, but what we can reasonably guess, is that it’s built to improve with some time in the bottle. Right about now would be a great time to check in and dent a case, assuming it still exists.
WeI regularly write about laying bottles down. It’s quite another endeavor to put your money where your mouse is, and as I thought about the Billsboro ghost case, I thought about the fact that while I buy Finger Lakes riesling, I rarely purchase a full case. That’s mainly a matter of money, or lack of it. But it’s also a matter of dividing my attention among many wines in my cellar. I buy wine in chunks of two or three at a time. The Billsboro was a kind of outlier.
The point is not to harangue the Aliperti family into scouring their own cellar to fulfill a long-ago purchase. It’s to ask you, our readers: What wines are YOU laying down? What is the single Finger Lakes wine you own the most of? Which producer? Which vintage?
And I’m happy to start. I’m not going to list everything Finger Lakes riesling I own, but I’ll choose a special year for me. The 2008 vintage was the one I spent the most time working the harvest and preparing to write Summer in a Glass. It was likely the best riesling vintage of the past decade, too. There are some dynamite rieslings, from dry to dessert and everything in between, that came out of this region that year. And most are holding strong, still very fresh and primary, barely budging into their fifth year.
I don’t own Billsboro, but I hope to! Beyond that…
Ravines 2008 Dry Riesling
Ravines 2008 Argetsinger Vineyard Riesling
Anthony Road 2008 Semi-Dry Riesling
Fox Run Vineyards 2008 Reserve Riesling
Fox Run Vineyards 2008 Riesling
Sheldrake Point 2008 Riesling
Hermann J. Wiemer 2008 Late Harvest Riesling
Hermann J. Wiemer 2008 Dry Riesling (magnum)
Hermann J. Wiemer 2008 Magdalena Vineyard Dry Riesling
Hermann J. Wiemer 2008 HJW Vineyard Dry Riesling
Heron Hill 2008 Ingle Vineyard Riesling
Tierce 2008 Riesling
Lamoreaux Landing 2008 Dry Riesling
Hosmer 2008 Riesling