Better Wines - Central New York or Finger Lakes? (Schoharie: home, rapes)
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Which region's wines taste better? If so, is there a scientific/geological reason for this? I've liked Finger Lakes whites like dry Reisling and Pinot Gris, but is there a good place to get reds?
I was just in WNYS for about 3 weeks and went to Midnight Run Wine Cellars in Ransomville NY. I sampled many of their wines and really enjoyed them. My favorite were the Merlot and the Niagara Gone Dry. Well worth the trip to stop there. Had some sent back home to San Antonio for myself.
I noticed in NYS that the whites are usually better than the reds. For reds, the wineries have to do some blending to make the taste acceptable to NYCers.
That area is more accurately termed the "Leatherstocking District." And I agree that white wines especially the Rhine wine types are the better New York State wines and the Dr. Frank Winery even produces an excellent "methode champenoise" champaign.
Huge Finger Lakes wine fan here. In general, the FL wines are very sweet. Way more sweet wine options than dry, both for red and white. Different climates produce different types of grapes so it will be more climatological than anything else. Shame you didn't ask this question a few weeks ago - the Finger Lakes Wine Fest was just held in Watkins Glen 2 weekends ago. Best way to find drier wines since there were over 80 wineries there.
ETA - off the top of my head, 2 wineries that definitely have drier wines are Billsboro and Monello
Last edited by Becca8377; 07-20-2015 at 07:53 AM..
I agree with others, Whites and Riesling are what the Finger Lakes does extremely well. Now having said that, and being a huge red wine fan myself, I did recently start finding some of the Finger Lakes red blends that actually impressed me. It may be that the Finger Lakes wineries are becoming sophisticated enough that even though we don't have the best climates for dry wines, they are getting very good at finding the right blends to make respectable reds.
I agree with others, Whites and Riesling are what the Finger Lakes does extremely well. Now having said that, and being a huge red wine fan myself, I did recently start finding some of the Finger Lakes red blends that actually impressed me. It may be that the Finger Lakes wineries are becoming sophisticated enough that even though we don't have the best climates for dry wines, they are getting very good at finding the right blends to make respectable reds.
I was just in WNYS for about 3 weeks and went to Midnight Run Wine Cellars in Ransomville NY. I sampled many of their wines and really enjoyed them. My favorite were the Merlot and the Niagara Gone Dry. Well worth the trip to stop there. Had some sent back home to San Antonio for myself.
That is the Niagara Wine Trail and totally different than The Finger Lakes. Different climate, different grapes.
Try Keuka Lake/ Seneca Lake wine trail: Konstantin Frank/Salmon Run, Fox Run, Keuka Lake Winery ( cannot miss that - enormous cask out front!) and Anthony Road. Hunters Run used to be good; they changed the winemaker, I think. Go to tastings. Rooster Hill has some good wines. I am partial to white and rose, but they have dry reds.
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