Whenever we visit Finger Lakes wineries, we always make a trip over to Keuka Lake despite arranging our trips to often be Seneca Lake heavy.
One obligatory stop for us is the aptly named Keuka Lake Vineyards for its gorgeous views and even better wine.
After letting their Riesling Evergreen Lek age in our cellar for a few years, we popped it open to discover a rather delicious wine with notable petrol and tropical character!
We always have a soft spot to try orange wines as they typically offer a unique flavor profile that is a bit unlike anything else you can find. Throw in the fact that they can often be made of grapes (or blends of grapes) that are a bit more unusual to see and in some cases even fermented naturally, there really is a lot to love.
Smallfry's Tangerine Dream is one such bottle as it is a skin contacted white wine from the Barossa Valley of Australia made with Semillon, Pedro Ximenez, Riesling, Rousillon, and Muscat and offered some delightful flavors.
Normally when we think of wine aged in a solera system, our minds go to the fortified wine Sherry. But some still wine is also aged in solera style, with Johannes Zillinger “JZ” Revolution White Solera from Austria being one such bottle.
This blend of Riesling, Chardonnay, and Scheurebe came with an intensity that we honestly did not quite expect!
Whenever we visit Boundary Breaks, one of our favorite Finger Lakes wineries, we always love to see what new bottle of Riesling they have available.
In a recent trip, we stumbled upon their #356 Dry Bubbly bottle which was made via CO2 injection of an otherwise still wine (so not via the Champagne method like we're used to drinking).
It was a hit for us, we bought a bottle to enjoy at home, and popped it open for this review!
What we are about to say should have no ambiguity- if you are a Riesling lover you'll want to make your way to Hermann J Wiemer. This Finger Lakes winery is truly one of the best in the area, especially for this delicious white grape, and blows us away time and time again with every bottle that we open.
Naturally, we stop every time we are in the area, and our shopping haul from here is among our largest purchases every trip as well.
So when we opened the Hermann J Wiemer Magdalena Vineyard Riesling, we were excited to see what it was like after spending a bit of time in our cellar and it certainly did not disappoint.
While many tend to think that an Auslese Riesling is sweeter than other styles, this is not always the case. Auslese directly translates to ‘selected harvest' which is often done late in the season when the grapes have a high concentration of sugars in them (in fact, the sugar content of the grape is how the categorization works outright).
But sugar in the grapes does not necessarily translate to sugar in the glass. Some producers may ferment the sugar out while others (in our experience, the vast majority of others) may stop fermentation early to leave some residual sugar in place for you to enjoy in your glass.
Dr. H. Thanisch's Bernkasteler Lay Riesling Auslese is in the latter category and offers up both a sweet and complex German Riesling that we cannot get enough of.
We first heard about the wine classification trockenbeerenauslese in our WSET Level 2 class. We knew bottles of this dessert wine tend to be somewhat rare, so we were fairly surprised to find a bottle in a liquor store near us just a few weeks later.
So, what is it, exactly?
Trockenbeerenauslese in German translates to “dry berry selection” and is made from individually picked grapes that have been dried on the vine due to noble rot. In most cases having a fungus grow on your grapes is not a good thing, but proper growth of botrytis cinerea causes grapes to dry out which concentrates the sugars and allows for the production of some supremely wonderful, and sweet, dessert wines.
Hopler's Trockenbeerenauselese was just that.
Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery in the Finger Lakes has been a staple of the region for many decades, and with good reason. This one produces some fine wines that are quite representative of their styles and go down quickly.
So if you are in the mood for an easy-drinking off-dry Riesling, Dr. Konstantin Frank's Reserve Riesling should be right up your alley!
When we visit Finger Lakes wineries, we almost always make a stop at Heron Hill on Keuka Lake.
Apart from having a stunning view of the lake, the winery does a good job at producing an array of delicious wines that we think are quite representable of their respective styles. One such wine was the Heron Hill Reserve Riesling which is true to form for a cool climate Riesling.
Our first Trimbach Riesling was a Grand Cru sampled at Wine Bar George at Disney Springs in 2019. It was truly one of the finest Rieslings we've ever had and helped cement our love affair with all things Alsace.
A little while later, we found another Trimbach bottle in our local liquor store- the Trimbach Cuvee Frederic Emile 2011. While this one came with a fairly sufficient sticker price ($70 in 2020), we reflected on how much we enjoyed our earlier Trimbach, threw caution to the wind, and picked it up all the same.
Then we decided to crack it open on a Monday night just because we can.
