Finger Lakes District, part 2
German, Polish, Italian? It’s all wine to me! We have thoroughly enjoyed our experiences in the New York Finger Lakes District. California wine owes a great debt to Italian, Spanish, Mexican and French immigrants. The Finger Lakes wine pioneers hail from Germany and Eastern Europe and brought their knowledge and wine varietals with them. Dr. Konstantin Frank (part 1) was from the Ukraine, and Herman J. Weimar came from Germany. These two adventurers understood the unique climate challenges in this region, and knew that the varietals that grew well in their home countries would acclimate to the Finger Lakes. Knowing that, and planting, growing, producing wine, and convincing others was of course much more challenging!
We started our day at Ravines Wine Cellars on Seneca Lake. We were blessed to be hosted by none other than Ed Jurkiewicz, former professional rugby player, wine educator, broadcaster and just one heck of a guy. Ed was raised in Buffalo, NY in a Polish/Sicilian family and great stories, descriptions and anecdotes poured as freely as wine. The most important lesson of the day was to appreciate the wine of the Finger Lakes for their own flavor profile, and not try comparing it to the same varietals from any other place.
Appreciate we did. Two California red wine snobs joyfully purchased dry Riesling and Cerise (a wine made from Pinot Noir and Cherry) that was quite lovely. Note to self, perhaps we should have tried to the Pinot noir cherry wine in Michigan?
Ed suggested our next stop, and what a great suggestion it was. We had a full education and wonderful wine tasting at Herman J. Weimar winery with Jarrod. I think we must have tasted the whole menu, with a few of the wines twice! There was not a wine we didn’t like, although our favorites were the dry Riesling, the Gewürztraminer, and the Cabernet Franc, especially the 2014 in magnum. Did we walk out with a few of each? Well, let’s just remember that we are camping for free :)
The Finger Lakes have several wineries, breweries and distilleries, so you need to be selective. If you want an education on wine in the region, and want to taste excellent wine, I suggest you head to Ravines, Herman J Weimar, and Dr. Frank’s. You really can’t lose, except for a few dollars in wine purchases of course!
