Video: Riesling Month Winds Down. Interview With Dave Breeden, Winemaker, Sheldrake Point Vineyard

My Flip cam makes its video debut, but there are still some kinks; I have yet to figure out how to lay in b-roll. Bummer. We shot some extra video during the tasting and intended to lay some in. Next time.

With the growing focus on aged Finger Lakes rieslings, and with so many wineries hosting riesling verticals this year, I thought it would be instructive to hear from Sheldrake Point Vineyard's winemaker about several topics, including:

• His thoughts on this tasting, and how the oldest riesling showed
• His thoughts on trying to find the perfect time to open a bottle
• The answer to that age-old question, "If I hold this riesling too long, will it become Yellow Tail?"

The tasting included Sheldrake's 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2008 semi-dry rieslings. They ranged in RS from 2.3 to 3.6.

Video courtesy of Morgan Dawson Photography, all rights theoretically, if not actually, reserved.

Comments

[Lenn Thompson]

Great work, Dawsons. I think this means its time for me to throw my Flip cam into Peconic Bay and leave the video to the pros.

I guess we need to pick a way to say LENNDEVOURS and go with it, eh?

Great work...love it.

[Evan Dawson]

I think one of the great mysteries of LENNDEVOURS is in the pronunciation. I have literally heard five different ways. To each their own!

[Melissa Dobson]

Nicely done, guys. I love how Dave references that it's not a "tragedy" if you miss the window of peak drinking.

Evan, personally, I don't think b roll is all that desirable for a video blog post. Rough, off the cuff, unrehearsed like you did here is my preference. :)

I'd been pronouncing it just like you, Lenn-deavors for the last year until I heard Lenn call it DEVOURS during his Atwater tasting video...

[Evan Dawson]

Melissa,

Thanks for the thoughts on video. It's a learning process for all of us. I should say that I wasn't planning to cover much -- perhaps 15 seconds here and 10 seconds there, using video to match the comments. Would have been nice to show a couple shots of the room swirling, sipping, writing, etc. But I guess it's not mandatory!

[Jason Feulner]

This is flippin' cool.

[Morgan Dawson]

Sorry for the slight video shake - I'll do better next time!

[Lenn Thompson]

Morgan, for 10 bucks or so, you can buy a little tripod made for the Flip!

[Morgan Dawson]

I actually have one, but didn't think to bring it. Next time for sure :-)

[David Whiting]

Fun, fun, fun. Picking the 1,3,5,7 8 vintages covers about the entire spectrum of ripeness for the last decade of Finger Lakes Riesling vintages. Would anyone like to share some interesting highlights/insights from their tasting notes?