Saturday, September 24, 2011

Finger Lakes Wine Country Rieslings

The mayor of Geneva, NY has declared September 22, 2011 as "Riesling Day".  Over the next few weeks, I will be posting six Riesling which I received from the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance.  Each of the wines are from the 2010 vintage.  Before I get started, here is an overview of this vintage as provided by the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance (www.fingerlakeswinealliance.com).

The 2010 Finger Lakes harvest was the warmest growing season in nearly forty years and the wettest since 1973.  Combined with the early bud break in April and adequate rainfall throughout the summer and fall, the wines from this vintage are varied in style but with a slant towards lower acid, intense fruit and wonderful ripeness.  Some vineyards harvested Rieslings early while others chose to let their fruit hang through the end of October resulting in differing styles from the variety.

Riesling grows well in cool-climate and the varied soils of the Finger Lakes.  The lakes and sloping topography create a macro climate protecting the vines from the region's typical cold winters while warding off the high humid levels found in other non-arid wine regions.  Between the lakes, the varying meso and micro climates create Rieslings with incredible diversity and range.  Overall, the region produces wines of outstanding quality and value with most Rieslings retailing for under $20 per bottle.

The Finger Lakes is home to 96 of New York's 231 wine producers.  Although Rieslings are the most recognized wines in this region, other white's that are gaining attention include the chardonnay and the gewurztraminer.  The Rieslings are generally dry, semi-dry, semi sweet or sweet. 
In southern CT, we don't find many wines from the Finger Lake region so I am looking forward to trying these six bottles.   Stay tuned.

3 comments:

  1. Is there a good distribution company who believes in the sale of local wine in CT? I believe it would be a strong market for the winemakers of NY (and CT for that matter).

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  2. I agree Greg. many of my wine drinking friends from CT and NY have never had a Finger Lakes wine. More local tastings are needed.

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  3. We first heard about Finger Lakes wines through Twitter. We're in RI, which we consider pretty local to NY in the wine world, and still never had a FLX wine. We had a chance to taste 12 different wines from Hunt Country Vineyards, and we were very impressed. They are great wines!

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