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

Comments

[Jac]

Cool! So let us know how the wines were this weekend. Thanks!

[Melissa Dobson]

Will do, Jac. I'll be attending and plan on a follow-up post next week.

[Jason Feulner]

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.

[Jeff]

Interesting experiment but success(economic)=respect. Continue to grow the region and brands by selling more. Capitalism works in the wine world as well.

[Brian Vieselmeyer]

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

[Lenn]

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!

[Jesse Porter]

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.

[Melissa Dobson]

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!

[Morgen McLaughlin]

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.