Finger Lakes Wine: Will Old Wines Mean New Respect?
By Melissa Dobson, Finger Lakes News Correspondent
In an effort to continue to establish the Finger Lakes wine region as a producer of world-class wine, a first-time older vintage tasting of almost 70 wines produced from 1988-2003 will be held tomorrow, Friday, November 14, 2008 at Red Newt Cellars and Bistro on Seneca Lake.
This tasting of a diverse collection of wines from past vintages is an important step for the wineries of the Finger as they travel the road toward carving out a place amongst the top wine regions of the world. Prior to this effort, there was no strong collaborative of wineries looking ahead to take the steps necessary to put themselves in line for consideration in future Wine Spectator Vintage Charts.
Now there is a strong desire to carefully plot a path toward becoming a recognized world-class wine region with strategies that include establishing a vintage chart via the older vintage tasting and Wine Spectator submission.
The idea of an older-vintage tasting of Finger Lakes wines was born when Morgen McLaughlin, President of Finger Lakes Wine Country Tourism Marketing Association, picked up a copy of the Wine Spectator 2008 Vintage Chart and noticed that Washington, Oregon and California were included in it, but not New York or the Finger Lakes. She then called Wine Spectator's senior editor and Finger Lakes wine reviewer, James Molesworth to get more specifics on why the Finger Lakes region was left off the the vintage chart.
Among the reasons he gave were that "the vast majority of Finger Lakes wines are meant for immediate consumption, and the handful of rieslings that might show well with bottle age doesn't create enough of a critical mass to warrant a historical record via a vintage chart." And "if I feel like a body of wines I'm tasting every year suddenly merits a vintage chart, or if I feel like the readers are clamoring for one, I'll certainly take it into consideration…"
So with those guiding words and a visit to James Molesworth's office to discuss the logistics of putting the Finger Lakes older vintage tasting together for submission to Wine Spectator, several wineries in the region opened their wine libraries up to submit their wines for this momentous tasting.
Although these older vintage wines are rather rare in the Finger Lakes, there will be a strong showing of wines including:
Gewurztraminer
- Standing Stone
Gewurztraminer
2000 - Atwater
Gewurztraminer
2001 - Lamoreaux Landing
Gewurztraminer
2001 - Sheldrake
Gewurztraminer
2002 - Standing Stone
Gewurztraminer
2003
Riesling
- McGregor
Vineyards Riesling
1988 - Lakewood
Vineyards Riesling
1990 - Dr. Konstantin Frank
Riesling, Dry
1991 - Lamoreaux Landing
Riesling, Semi-dry
1991 - McGregor Vineyards
Riesling
1994 - Dr. Konstantin Frank
Riesling, Dry
1995 - Dr. Konstantin Frank
Riesling, Semi-dry
1995 - Standing Stone
Riesling
1995 - Dr. Konstantin Frank
Riesling, Semi-dry
1996 - Lakewood
Vineyards Riesling, Dry
1997 - Red Newt
Winery Riesling, Off-dry 1999 - Red Newt
Winery Riesling, Off-dry 2000 - Atwater
Vineyards Riesling, Dry
2000 - Red Newt
Winery Riesling, Off-dry
2001 - Dr. Konstantin Frank
Riesling, Reserve
2001 - Red Newt
Winery Dry Reserve Riesling
2002 - Sheldrake
Point Vineyards Dry Riesling
2002 - Ravines Wine Cellars Dry Riesling
2002 - Heron Hill
Riesling, Ingle Vineyard
2002 - Heron Hill
Riesling Reserve
2002 - Sheldrake
Point Vineyards Riesling
2003 - Red Newt
Winery Dry Reserve Riesling
2003 - Sheldrake
Point Vineyards Riesling
2003
Pinot Noir
- McGregor
Vineyards Pinot Noir
1999 - Dr. Konstantin Frank
Pinot Noir
1999
Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon
- Lamoreaux Landing
Cabernet Franc
1997 - Dr. Konstantin Frank
Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve
1999 - Red Newt
Winery Merlot
1999 - McGregor Vineyards
Cab. Franc/Cab. S./Merlot
1999 - Sheldrake
Point Vineyards Cabernet Franc, Barrel reserve
1999 - Standing Stone
Vineyards Merlot
2000 - Atwater
Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
2001 - Red Newt
Winery Merlot
2001 - Sheldrake
Point Vineyards Merlot, Barrel reserve
2001 - Sheldrake
Point Vineyards Meritage
2001 - Lakewood
Vineyards Cabernet Franc
2001 - Atwater
Estate Merlot
2001 - Heron Hill
Cabernet Franc
2001 - Red Newt
Cabernet Franc
2002 - Hazlitt
1852 Winery Cabernet Franc
2002 - Sheldrake
Point Vineyards Cabernet Franc
2002 - Standing Stone Vineyards
Pinnacle
2002 - Sheldrake Point Vineyards
Meritage, barrel reserve
2002 - Ravines
Wine Cellars Meritage
2002
Other and Dessert Wines
- McGregor
Vineyards Black Russian
1998 - McGregor
Vineyards Late Harvest Vignoles
1993 - Standing Stone
Vineyards Vidal Ice
2000 - Standing Stone
Vineyards Cailloux
2002 - Heron Hill
Late Harvest Riesling
2002 - Heron Hill
Riesling Icewine
2002 - Standing Stone
Vidal Ice
2004
Chardonnay
- Lamoreaux Landing
Chardonnay
1993 - Lamoreaux Landing
Chardonnay Reserve
2001 - Heron Hill
Chardonnay, Ingle Vineyard
2002 - Ravines Wine Cellars
Chardonnay
2003
Cool! So let us know how the wines were this weekend. Thanks!
Will do, Jac. I’ll be attending and plan on a follow-up post next week.
This looks like a very interesting experiment whether it will form a consensus about certain vintages or not. It’s nice to see everyone banding together for this type of tasting event.
Interesting experiment but success(economic)=respect. Continue to grow the region and brands by selling more. Capitalism works in the wine world as well.
That is quite a lineup of Finger Lakes wine. My wife and I had the opportunity of doing a Riesling vertical at McGregor’s this past spring and were pleasantly surprised by their ability to age very gracefully. After reading this article I reviewed my tasting notes from that day and actually found that the 1988 and 1983 had shown the best. It will be interesting to see the results of this event. The 1988 has developed a beautiful golden hue, displaying a nice nose of petrol and granny smith apple. The palate was malty and nutty but was kept fresh by a nice amount of lemony acidity. By tasting older vintages the indelible mark of each vintage becomes increasing apparent. It became evident to me that McGregor’s Rieslings take 10-15 years to really hit their stride. The petrol nose so commonly associated with aged Rieslings seemed to become better integrated in the older bottling.
Looking forward to the results!
Cheers,
Brian
Melissa: I’m glad that you’re going to be able to report back on this sure-to-be-interesting tasting.
Being able to taste the history of the region, even on a limited basis, had to be interesting and fun.
AND, if the FL region is anything like Long Island, they’ve no doubt learned how to make better wines (even with similar growing years) than they were doing back in the 80s. So, if those older wines are showing well…my guess is that 20 years from now, our current releases will show even better.
Unfortunately, depending on the results of this tasting…people are going to be clamoring for these older vintages, and it’s my understanding that few wineries have much inventory. Apparently they haven’t held back large lots because of lack of storage space and the need for cash flow.
Can’t wait to see the results, Melissa. I’m bummed out that I couldn’t attend myself!
Looking forward to hearing how it went! The Young Winos started their journey at Ithaca College, after all…. a lot of those names are near and dear to our hearts.
All,
I wasn’t able to attend the tasting but will post a follow up as soon as I receive notes from some of the attendees. Thanks for your patience!
The tasting went very well. It was exciting to taste these wines because unfortunately very little of our region’s older wines are available for sale. I think these kinds of tastings open up the discussion about ageability and the need for wineries and consumers to put certain ageable wines into libraries and cellars. As the region develops, having a historical perspective of the wines and vintages becomes incresingly important.