I wish I could, but it's impossible this year. The wines don't impress me, but the area and the people do. I've toured the wineries in the area several times, most recently last November. From your post, am I to assume you'll be there? If so, I'd be interested in reading your impressions.
Just one more sip.
Posts: 22431 | Location: NY | Registered: Oct 18, 2001
I was surprisingly dissappointed and on several fronts at that.
Based on my experiences at several NJ WineGrower events, the Virginia Wine Festival, and two or three Smith Mt. Lake Wine Festivals, I was not expecting to be crowded into two long, steel-sided buildings and one long tent with vendors cheek by jowl and patrons three to four deep into the (thus) relatively impassable aisles. To be at the Watkins Glen race track and not use all that space to create a more congenial atmosphere?! It didn't help that a goodly portion of the crowd, having parked their RVs in the "camping" area at the race track, were "partying/drinking" and not "tasting". A further negative of this arrangement was not being able to spend any time talking with the producers about their wine, vineyards, growing conditions, etc.
Again, given my prior East Coast festival experiences and with the knowledge that the NY wine industry is older than those of NJ and VA, I was underwhelmed by the wines. To avoid palate fatigue and with the memory of numerous reasonably well-made and rather tasty NJ/VA Cab Francs (a grape I think displays better quality/features on the East Coast than Cab Sauv or Merlot), I focused on that variety. The pickings were thin, light-colored, un(der?)-extracted and (to top it all off given the above...) way over-priced .
I could have focused on Riesling, but I'm more of a red wine person. I did taste a few (e.g., Dr. K Frank), but was not wowwed.
Hoping to make the day less than a total washout, I also tasted a few Pinot Noirs (a variety that may be finding a home in the Finger Lakes according to some) and found one for $11.50 that was relatively deep in color, had some weight to it, and showed nice secondary flavors behind the cherry and strawberry [Alsion Vineyards, Red Hook (Hudson Valley), using Seneca Lake fruit]. Most of the rest had the same problems as the Cab Francs.
In retrospect, I think that Finger Lakes wine-making is actually behind that of VA (certainly!) and NJ (possibly). I am fairly certain that many of their vinifera plantings are young (< 5yrs, having previously believed that only hybrids would do well in their climate). I suspect that quantity is a bigger driver when making vineyard management decisions (one grower said there was no need to do a green harvest to get flavorful fruit [then why isn't there any flavor in the wine!!!]). And I think the wine-makers are still feeling their way around.
Oh, well... it was good to see my brother and parents who live in Ithaca, and there was that one Pinot Noir...
I am sorry, but not necessarily surprised to hear your opinions on the festival. I am an unabashed booster of the FL wine region, though I am certainly not blind to some of the problems they are continuing to face (and not, apparently, solving).
A few of my own thoughts formed over my last few visits to the region...
First, I read through the festival website and was not immediately impressed by the site's or the festival's apparent organization. If I was in Ithaca on the 17th, I probably would have made the effort to go, but it just didn't seem promising enough to make the drive from Syracuse.
Second, of the 10 wines I brought home, none of them were red. The same is true for nearly all of the dozens upon dozens I've had since starting to drink wine there in '92. Back then, nearly all of the reds they were producing were "french hybrids" that really weren't more than a local curiosity. Since then, they have been producing increasingly more classic red vinifera varietals.
I have spent very little time and money experimenting with these "next generation" reds for a number of reasons: they are expensive (recouping recent vineyard planting costs?), they are still experimental (vineyards are still figuring out which, if any, reds will do well where), and finally, on a whole, the Finger Lakes wine industry is undercapitalized in that most wineries remain mom-and-pop hobby wineries without the cash to invest in modern production technologies.
I still consider a Finger Lakes Cab Sav as a novelty and will not put money down for one. As a coincidence, I was given just such a bottle as a gift for driving out from Kansas to attend the wedding- it will be an interesting (and free) experience to see how it tastes.
As for whites, like most regions, there remains a large spectrum of quality, again mainly due to lack of capital and experience. There are a few long standing wineries that produce relatively consistant good (or decent, depending on your opinion) rieslings and, to a lesser degree, gewurzs- Dr. Konstantin Frank, Hosmer, Hermann J. Wiemer, and perhaps Fox Run and Prejean. However, some of the best whites coming out of the Finger Lakes are from newer (and presumably better-funded) wineries such as Red Newt, Standing Stone, and Atwater Estate.
It is possible to find enjoyable, reasonably priced whites from the Finger Lakes, but I am the first to admit that it is frustrating that consistantly better wines are not coming out of the region.
Anyway, thanks for the report, and good luck in your next Finger Lakes experience...
cheers!
I certainly do not drink all the time. I have to sleep you know. -W.C. Fields
That's the one. My in-laws have a house there. This year's SML wine festival (16th annual...) is Sept 25 & 26. Link here. I could probably be talked into an off-line there on Saturday.
It sounds about like what I expected. After trying wines from the West Coast, Europe, and elsewhere, it's hard to find anything from the rest of the US and Canada that's worth buying. Oh, sure, there are a few isolated exceptions, but that's exactly what they are- exceptions.
Just one more sip.
Posts: 22431 | Location: NY | Registered: Oct 18, 2001
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and post.
To be at the Watkins Glen race track and not use all that space to create a more congenial atmosphere?! 
It didn't help that a goodly portion of the crowd, having parked their RVs in the "camping" area at the race track, were "partying/drinking" and not "tasting". 
A further negative of this arrangement was not being able to spend any time talking with the producers about their wine, vineyards, growing conditions, etc.
