Tasting a Treasure: Restaurant Turns Up Rare Bottle of 1966 Dr. Frank Riesling

By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor
Photos by Morgan Dawson Photography

I could barely believe the photograph, sent from a friend. The bottle in the picture said Dr. Konstantin Frank 1966 Johannisberg Riesling, but it did not make sense that a restaurant was selling such a bottle in December of 2009. 

In Florida.

My mind raced. How did the restaurant get this wine? How did they know it was still worth drinking? How could it possibly be worth drinking at 43 years old? If it was real, could I get one? And what would it smell and taste like?

A small stash of Dr. Frank 1966 Riesling had been unearthed deep in the prodigious cellar of Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa, Florida. In the 1970s, Bern Laxer built a wine collection for his restaurant that was unrivaled in its diversity. Bottles came from the most storied regions, such as Bordeaux, as well as the less-heralded places like New York's Finger Lakes and even the backwoods of the wine world, such as Michigan. Some unknown day in that fruitful decade, Bern acquired several bottles of the Dr. Frank wine during his travels. The bottles went to rest in ideal storage conditions, not to be touched for more than 30 years.

The current sommeliers at the restaurant knew it was a special group of bottles, but they might not have known that it was the first commercial vintage at the historic Finger Lakes producer. The oldest bottles of Finger Lakes wine that appear on any restaurant wine list are typically found at the Village Tavern in Hammondsport on Keuka Lake. Those bottles date back to the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

This was like discovering the Finger Lakes version of Lucy. 

Outside the Dr. Frank facility, where a few odd bottles reside in the cellar, no known bottles exist of this wine - or any preceding the 1980s. I contacted the Bern's sommeliers to find out whether they might part with a bottle. They told me that they had sold a bottle to a dinner party in early December, where it was met with high praise, as impossible as that sounds.

"People undervalue the importance of proper storage," Bern's sommelier Eric Renaud told me. "When a wine is stored in the proper conditions, it can retain its youthful character for much longer than most people realize. We've poured wines that are 20 years old at the restaurant and our clients think the wine is the current release."

Renaud explained that this was the last of the Dr. Frank collection and the restaurant would agree to sell me the bottle. He said that no one knew it existed because they don't publish their full wine list. "If we boast about rare bottles, there's a run on them," he said. "And besides, we enjoy the opportunity to bring a rare and special bottle to the table for a client who might have a special appreciation for it. We find great joy in those moments."

Friends occasionally ask why I cherish well aged bottles, even when they tend to be past their prime. The answer is that wine is a story, and a mature wine has so much to say. 

The bottle arrived in western New York last Wednesday, and considering its age I found the fill level to be right where I would expect it to be. The old label was classically beautiful. I asked current Dr. Frank president Frederick Frank why they abandoned the old label. He explained that it didn't display the family name prominently enough. The back label was also fascinating, written in an English that was at the very least odd, if not a bit broken. I wondered if Konstantin himself had penned the text, which reads as follows:

"Natur Spaetlese"

The delicious, fruity wine in this bottle represents a break through in the wine industry in the eastern United States. The grapes for making this "Natur Spaetlese" wine have been harvested many days after the general picking of grapes was ended. Without amelioration or any other additions or ingredients. Only this over-ripeness is responsible that these wines developed their natural finest actual bouquet and the most noblest individuality. After years of painstaking research in our vineyards overlooking beautiful Keuka Lake, one of the picturesque Finger Lakes of New York State, we have finally achieved the impossible and proven that our "Natur Spaetlese" wines made continuous since 1957 exclusively from the European grape varieties of genuine wine grape can be the peers of some of the "GREAT GROWTHS" of Germany, France, and many another part of Europe.

Saturday morning, before our New York Cork Report Wines of the Year tasting at Heart & Hands Wine Company on Cayuga Lake, I brought the bottle to see if it still had life. The cork came out largely in one piece. It looked like a spent shell, as Tom Mansell noted, with the top end covered in black mold but the bottom end solid and rather clean. 

The most captivating part of this wine was the color. 

On a recent visit to the Village Tavern, we ordered a bottle of 1993 Dr. Frank Riesling. It was beautiful but well on its way to oxidation and the color was a soft orange. The wine we were about to taste was 27 years older than the '93, which had already begun to turn. With time, oxygen turns Riesling brown or orange. 

This bottle of 1966 Riesling had remarkably remained a pale yellow. It had every appearance of a wine that was bottled last year.

Upon seeing the color I immediately amended my prediction that it would be only as good as vinegar for salad dressing. The yellow hue announced that it was still going strong. I poured short glasses for the small group in the room and we buried our noses into the wine.

The aromatics were gorgeous and mature. Baked apple, creamy almond and petrol. Over several hours the petrol edge softened a bit, allowing more of a green apple aroma to come forward. We were dazzled.

We were considerably less dazzled when we put the wine in our mouths. Its acidity was sharp and off balance, but the flavors neatly matched the nose and an ending note of that creamy almond helped mellow the sensation. Still, we wondered why Dr. Konstantin Frank hadn't left more residual sugar in the wine. 

But our criticism of the taste of the wine quickly dissipated. We were simply thrilled to experience this wine. It didn't prove that 1960s Finger Lakes Rieslings were world-class, but it demonstrated that Konstantin had the right idea in planting Riesling on the slopes above the various lakes. It told a simple, wonderful story: The winemaking in 1966 was perhaps less precise than we'd expect today, but it was happening in the right place. The wine was like a window into the past, a chance to experience the challenges and triumph of an awakening region. As for Rielsing, this was the right grape in the right spot. 

I asked Fred Frank for more information on that wine. How exactly was it made? What did it cost on release? How much did they make? Those questions will remain a mystery. Fred replied that he could not find much, but he wanted to add, "We have held several vertical Dr. Frank Riesling tastings and results have indicated the wonderful ageability of our Rieslings. The combination of the old vines, cool climate resulting in higher acidities and lower pH values and the rocky soils contribute to a great aging profile."

Years from now someone else will discover an old Finger Lakes Riesling with less doubt and more confidence that we held for the '66. Perhaps they'll dig up a bottle from 2008 knowing that it has the staying power and quality to show beautifully even several decades later. This 1966 Dr. Frank is an unlikely forbear, having traveled to Florida and back before finally getting a chance to tell its story.

Comments

[Steve]

Great story.

[Lenn Thompson]

I was one of the lucky few who got to taste this wine on Saturday. As I told Evan at the time, even if it had turned to vinegar, it still would have been one of the more amazing wines I'd tasted.

Of course, when the cork was removed and Evan started pouring it into our glasses, we were STUNNED at how youthful it looked. And of of course none of us could believe how it smelled or tasted either.

With the still-tart acidity, we wondered aloud how drinkable it may have been when it was released, but who cares? It was a great tasting experience. Thanks for sharing, Evan.

[Andy Freedman]

Great piece! This is what it's all about. Love how bottled wines leaving the winery is akin to a great diaspora...you never know where an old bottle like this one is ever going to pop up, if ever. Would love to hear other people's stories of happening upon great old bottles in the most unexpected of places.

[Evan Dawson]

Andy - Great point... Wineries create something but they lose control of the product when it leaves their doors. Certainly there must be some spectacular trove of similar wines, somewhere, but who knows if the current owner is even aware? It's always a pleasure to hear about when they turn up.

And yeah, it would be very cool to hear similar stories of bottles that survived implausibly.

[Hudson Valley Wine Goddess]

Fantastic label on that wine bottle! I hope you saved it. Great post!

[Kori]

Great story! It's fascinating to see a wine's story unfold over time.

[john Witherspoon]

very cool!! Wish I was there for that - similar experience for me finding a 1984 Riesling from Virginia, from a winery that has since been swallowed up by a larger entity. Excellent writeup as usual Evan

[Evan Dawson]

Goddess - We're keeping the bottle in our cellar... the rare, special ones we hang on to! I told Fred Frank that it would be an excellent idea to use that label on special release bottles. I love it.

Spoon - Remind me again how that '84 was for you? It's the kind of wine where it's a bonus if it's great; it's cooler just to see it still have life.

[Peter Bell / Fox Run]

The photo on the label may look like Keuka, with some stand-ins dressed in fairly ridiculous German garb, but it actually came from a post card of the Rhine, or so Willy Frank told me years ago.

[Jeff Houck- Lucas Vineyards]

Interesting to note Evan the number of Finger Lakes wineries bottling their rieslings under synthetic corks. I guess you wouldn't like to try any of those 40 years from now. Thanks for a great story about one of our best wineries early efforts.

[Evan Dawson]

Peter - I think that's right, as I believe Fred relayed a similar story.

Jeff - I'd agree with this, though I know there are synthetic defenders out there who would have something to say. But yeah, I prefer natural cork for laying bottles down.

[Lenn Thompson]

Are their really synthetic defenders who think they are appropriate for aging beyond 5-10 years? If so, I'd love to hear from them.

From what I've heard, various synthetic closures start to "fail" after 3-5 years. I don't have any science behind that though.

I wonder if this wine was crafted with the intention for long-term aging. If synthetic closures were back available then, would they have been used?

[Evan Dawson]

Lenn - Given the extremely traditional nature of the Dr. Frank winery and Konstantin himself, I can not possibly imagine him going with synthetic. And when I talk about synthetic advocates, I'm just referencing the fact that every time I think the debate is settled, someone jumps in to say synthetic might be a better option, etc. Not that I buy it.

[john Witherspoon]

Evan - still had acid and nice diesel fuel aromas but all the fruit was gone on the palate - faired better tahn I thought it would
http://anythingwine.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/kickin-it-old-school/

[Peter Bell / Fox Run]

I am not casting any aspersions here by any means, but the wine's extraordinary longevity might owe something to having been bottled with a LOT of sulfites. When I started at Dr. Frank's 20 years ago, I found, in the original lab, three Cash stills (used to measure volatile acidity) and zero apparati for measuring SO2. Konstantin's method had been to dump in a scoop of potassium metabisulfite every few months and hope for the best.

Incidentally, this very phenomenon is what guided early wine writers to describe Chablis wines as having a "gun flint" aroma. All it was was a very high free SO2. Ha.

[Evan Dawson]

Peter - Fred Frank himself agreed that there was probably a large amount of sulfur in play with this wine. Your description of the measuring system - or lack thereof - is pretty damn funny. And no doubt that contributed to the longevity of this wine.

[Tom Mansell]

Peter:

I suspect you are absolutely right. I definitely got a whiff of SO2, much to my disbelief. I wondered if at the time there had even been legal limits on SO2 in place. I have also seen SO2 as a possible explanation for aspects of "minerality" but that is another topic entirely.

Re: synthetics:

Cork is a natural product, so there is wide variation in its performance. That's in addition to the significant risk associated with TCA.

Synthetics are uniformly worse than the average cork for long term aging. Their oxygen transfer rates are much higher (roughly 10x above cork and 100-1000x above screwcap).

Direct comparison:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf0706023

Review of oxidation in general:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a918156571~tab=content~order=page

[Sean O'Keefe]

Hey, that "backwoods of the wine world" Michigan wine you mention was either our 1981 Old Mission Peninsula Chardonnay or 1982 Botrytis Berry-Select Riesling. I'm glad that the Finger Lakes is feeling good about itself these days, but honestly we inhabit the same obscure "backwoods" in most people's eyes.

Sean O'Keefe
Chateau Grand Traverse
Traverse City, Michigan

[Evan Dawson]

Sean - I hope you'll understand that in the eyes of much of the wine world, the Finger Lakes has been the "backwoods" for years. For many people, it still is. But it's also fair to say that the Finger Lakes is finally rising in stature. Michigan is certainly considered wine world backwoods to most wine aficionados. A diner at Bern's would likely have very little experience or thought for either the Finger Lakes or Michigan.

That's all I was saying. The fact that Bern's has wines from these unheralded places is very cool. But to your point, "unheralded" is a softer term. And I don't view Michigan as wine world "backwoods," so I apologize for any misunderstanding.

[Susan Higgins]

Evan,
Beautifully written... and a truly unique experience. Stories like these truly reflect what makes wine so special...what other product can you open 40 some years later and be transported back in time in this way?

I think the NYCR should start take a page out of Dottie and John's former WSJ column and do some form of an "Open that Bottle Night" at some point in the future. A fun way for both editors and commenters to share their experiences...

[Evan Dawson]

Susan - Very interactive, a cool idea. What say you, Lenn?

[Dana Estep]

Evan - thanks for a very interesting post and for the comments it generated. I'm going to take a couple of my bottles of better FLX riesling and put them aside for 8 - 10 years and see what happens. I don't have the ideal cellar conditions to go for 20 - 30 years - let alone 40+.

Susan - I've been hoping someone would pick up the "Open That Bottle" Night banner for Dottie and John. An NYCR initiated event focused on NY wines would certainly be a good start.

[Lenn Thompson]

What do I say? I say let's rally the contributors and readers and make it happen.

[Rowland]

so this question if for tom I guess but all feel free to chime in. What is the deal with the mold growing on corks? Obviously my basement would be the best place to store wine, but there is like every mold in the world down there. Ive put wine down there, on its side, but the corks get moldy. its green dusty mold by the way. whats the deal?

[Tom Mansell]

Rowland: It's unfortunate, but that the same conditions that are ideal for wine storage (cool and dark with slight humidity) are also ideal for mold growth.

Mold is ubiquitous, but it thrives in moist conditions. Maybe humidity is an issue down there. Some molds are light-sensitive (even powdery mildew is sensitive to UV light), so dark places are ideal. Maybe get a dehumidifier?

My guess is that mold ends up on the cork because corks contain cellulose. Many molds have cellulases, which can turn cellulose into sugar. In fact, many mold cellulases are being studied for conversion of cellulose biomass into sugar for biofuel production.