More Finger Lakes Riesling Invades California

The following is a guest post from Bob Madill, owner of Sheldrake Point Vineyards and Chair of the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance, who recently attended Copia's RieslingFest 2008.

Nothing like picking a few Finger Lakes rieslings to showcase in Napa, California at Copia.  What a novel idea.  A Riesling festival in the heart of Cab land. So on behalf of the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance (FLWA) country mouse traveled to Napa lugging cases of wine to pour at RieslingFest on October 19, 2008. Ten dry Rieslings from 2007 and all awarded a Wine Spectator score of 84+.

Copia, the "non-profit discovery center whose mission is to explore, celebrate and share the many pleasures and benefits of wine, its relationship with food and its significance to our culture," held a one-day festival dedicated to riesling and by golly the Finger Lakes was going to be there. And Copia and staff did a great job. Terrific organization and the tasting included some tasty morsels to accompany the wines.

The day started at 10:30 a.m. with a panel discussion about riesling in today’s market. Very encouragingly, rather than turning over in bed, 50+ participants turned out to engage in a discussion about the growth in riesling (the fastest growing white varietal in the United States) and the challenge in buying the right style given it’s range of sweetness. Imagine buying peanut butter and having to guess chunky vs. smooth. Jim Trezise of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation introduced the new ‘Riesling Taste Scale’ developed by the International Riesling Foundation (IRF). This graphic, which is meant to be included on a wine's label, includes a scale from "Dry" to "Sweet" to be marked appropriately by the producer. Now doesn’t that just spoil all the fun in guessing? The audience was very well versed in riesling speak and several mentioned their passion for dry and frustration with unknown sweetness levels.

Then for the tasting. There were 20+ producers from 15+ regions showing 60+ wines. Most were from California but New Zealand, Germany, Washington, Michigan, Oregon and mais qui, the Finger Lakes were also represented.  Under the moniker  ‘The Other White Wine’ an enthusiastic 110+ tasters enjoyed riesling in all it’s forms including bone dry to Ice Wine (I did sneak in our 2007 just for fun) with artisan foods ranging from sausage to sushi.

These were true Riesling fans. The quality of their interest was exceptional. The Finger Lakes wines were arranged from the driest of the dry to the not so dry of the dry. Tierce at one end and the Lucas at the other with at least two wines from each lake. And for the most part all of the tasters worked through all of the wines... to great acclaim. 

They liked our dry wines. Quel surprise! Not. The Finger Lakes was the least known region but attracted the spotlight based on the quality (and value) of the wines.

My overall conclusion was that Finger Lakes dry riesling wines have a terrific opportunity out in Cab land.  Maybe more so than in oh-so-sophisticated New York City. Our challenge has to do with the nature of the three-tier distribution system and the logistics involved.  

Stay tuned riesling aficionados. We are working on it.

Comments

[Don Giovanni]

Sub-prime scores...they should be higher...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGPSz3JtyYg

[Eno]

Don Giovanni (John Z.): What the heck are you talking about? What scores are sub-prime? Also...I followed your link and I'm also wondering what this riesling shoot out is. You make it seem like a big deal but there's no info about it anywhere, even on your own website. Are you the only one participating? Also, are you posting at 3:32 AM because you're up late or up early? So many questions...

[Jason Feulner]

Thanks, Bob. This must have been an interesting event and between your recent adventure and Lenn's, I'm sure many more Californians are talking about Finger Lakes rieslings.

Beyond the dry and sweet dynamic which seemed to headline this event, what qualities of the FL rieslings did the participants most admire?

[Don Giovanni]

Hello,

Eno...

FYI up Early...

The info...

So the place Verasions at Glenora ...Glenora Wine Cellars
5435 Route 14
Dundee, NY 14837 web site for directions Click On Me

7:PM November 8th 2008 our group will be 27 to 30 inc the 15 tasters...tasting first followed by dinner...dinner is Dutch treat...we will have plenty of wine...min 3 bottles of wine per entry so that's a total of 30 bottles of the Riesling shoot-out wine plus some other wines I will provide ... in short no shortage of wine...

[Bob Madill]

Hi Jason,

Good question.

I think most tasters were just reacting spontaneously to the style and balance of the wines. Most of them had not been exposed to a consistent flight of dry Riesling wines. Only a few of them had tasted Finger Lakes wines. The drier of the dry were the most preferred. The wines were ordered using the new scale from the International Riesling Foundation (based on a ratio of residual sugar to acid.

Bob