The great wine tour

Yesterday some of my friends, their friends, and I went on a big tour of wineries on the west side of Seneca Lake. The original plan was to see seven or eight wineries that were all recommended by my wines professor, but I didn't realize when we were planning that we would have ten people in our group, and we had to cut back. Still, we managed to have a great trip.

• First we visited Lakewood Vineyards, which seemed to offer more red wines than most of the local vineyards. They were out of Riesling, but they offered a decent Vidal Blanc. We were rather disappointed with their pinot noirs. They did have an interesting selection of wines made from native grape varieties (vitis labrusca instead of vitis vinifera). These all taste basically like traditional American grape juice (Welch's, for example, is made from Niagara grapes). I don't care much for grape juice, but some of the people in our group enjoyed them.


• Next on the list was Glenora Wine Cellars. If you have seen the movie Sideways, you will remember the mass-market winery they visited near the end of their trip. This winery was the first image that came to my mind as I watched one guy serve about 20 people around one table who were getting tastes that were too large, taking forever, and becoming quite drunk. I pushed for us to move on, but a few members of the group were excited about Glenora's ultra-sweet fruit-infused wines, so I was vetoed. I didn't particularly like any of this vineyard's wines, but the fruit wines were a big hit with the half of our group that doesn't normally drink wine. Our friend Matt said the Blueberry version just tasted like juice: not quite my idea of a good dessert wine.

• The third winery, Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard, was the highlight of my trip and has restored my faith in German rieslings. Wiemer emigrated from Bernkastel, Germany, where his family had been making wines in the Mosel valley for more than 300 years, back in 1968 and extended his wine-making skills to the tricky New York climate. Today, he makes the best local Riesling and has a booming root-stock business.

  Wiemer's wines are definitely crafted in the German style, and are even named following the German (translated) conventions. Every wine we tried was excellent. The chardonnay was subtle and refined, the sparkling wine was infused with crisp apple and cherry flavors and was well balanced, and the pinot noir and dry rose were sublime. This leaves us with the rieslings, for which there really aren't words. We tried the dry (kabinett-style), the semi-dry (spaetlese-style), the late-harvest (auslese-style), and the select late-harvest (beerenauslese-style). Now I finally understand all the buzz (and Becky's exuberance) about German rieslings. The wines we tried in class were grossly inferior to these. The sweetness was actually balanced by the crispness, and instead of being cloying, it was delightful. And best of all, the prices were decent compared to the German wines. The dry riesling is $16, and the late-harvest is $20. Wiemer's select-late harvest is $52, and the select-late-harvest ice wine is $39 for a half-bottle. I know these prices may sound high, but trust me, they're a good value.

  Wiemer was even a nice place to visit. It was small and staffed with a knowledgeable employee who did a great job telling us about each wine and how it was made without telling us what we were supposed to think about it. The shop was controlled, and the wine bottles were stored horizontally and were completely dust free. The actual winery is a barn (with the free-standing shop nestled within) designed by Cornell architecture students, and Wiemer himself lives in a beautiful house on the property. When all was said and done, Jud and I bought four bottles of wine (two each): dry riesling, late-harvest riesling, dry rose, and pinot noir. These wines sell for $20-$30 in the local stores, and we had never seen the Wiemer dry rose or pinot noir. They should last us a while.

• I knew the next winery would probably be judged poorly, but I tried to stay open-minded. Still, I tried to give Fox Run Vineyards, which turned out to be the last vineyard we visited, a fair shake. They offered a decent unoaked chardonnay, but overall, I wasn't impressed with this vineyard. They had a $40 meritage (meritage being the American bordeaux) that tasted like a cheap beaujolais. Bleach. :-P Still, they did have a lovely view and a nice cafe, and we were hungry.

Overall, we had a blast. Everyone managed to find a wine he liked, and that's always the most important thing. And I got to meet some really cool people.

And now, I return to making images for my conference presentation...