Saturday, December 8, 2007
WHERE DID THE YEAR GO?! I can’t believe it’s December 8, with just a few weeks until 2008. If time goes faster as you age, I’m aging real fast.
CONGRATULATIONS to Fox Run Vineyards and Prejean Winery, both on Seneca Lake, for recent awards and nice related press coverage. Fox Run 2006 Riesling Reserve was one of only 13 Jefferson Cup winners (out of 650 entries) at the recent Jefferson Cup Invitational Wine Competition organized by Doug Frost, who is both a Master of Wine and Master Sommelier. Detroit News wine columnist Sandra Silfven wrote about it on her blog, while the Chicago Tribune’s front page of the food section featured Prejean’s 2006 Semi-Dry Riesling and 2006 Semi-Dry Gewurztraminer as two of ten “top value” wines for the holidays based on the Beverage Testing Institute’s “World Value Wine Challenge”. Prejean was the only winery with more than one winner. In addition, Lakewood Vineyards 2006 Riesling is part of a Wine Enthusiast (November) article on Semi-Dry Riesling, along with a recipe from Chef Dan Martello of the New York Wine & Culinary Center and a quote from the Center’s wine coordinator Shannon Brock. Other recent media coverage includes a major piece (“Fanatical about the Finger Lakes”) in Canada’s Wine Access magazine; another long piece about the Finger Lakes in Limited Edition magazine in England; and California-based trade magazine Wines & Vines’ articles on “Organic Vinifera in the Northeast” and “Wine Competitions that Help You Sell”, including several photos from our 2007 New York Wine & Food Classic. It used to be that press coverage of our industry was limited to local newspapers, but now it’s truly international.
RIESLING AGING POTENTIAL was dramatically illustrated last week when wine journalist Dan Berger shared his last bottle of Gold Seal Finger Lakes Riesling from 1975(!) with attendees at the International Riesling Foundation formative meeting in San Francisco. The 32-year-old white wine was real good, and the label bore the name of French-born winemaker Charles Fournier, one of the finest gentlemen I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and a true pioneer in our industry. Equally fascinating was the range of wines from different places—Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Alsace, California, Oregon, Washington, New York, Michigan, Canada—that were all Riesling, all different, and all great. It is truly an amazing grape variety.
THE BIG APPLE is the world’s toughest wine market, but the little grape (New York wine industry) is ready for Broadway. New York is the #3 wine state in the U.S. after California (90% of the total) and Washington (about 3% like NY), but we still make only 0.2%--two-tenths of one percent—of wine worldwide. And the rest of the wine world wants our market. While we have had some programs aimed at New York City (like New York Wines & Dines in October), we hope (budget permitting) to launch a larger coordinated effort next spring, starting with participation by 30 wineries at the first ever New York Wine Expo at the Jacob Javits Center. For the moment, we are working with John Gillespie of Wine Opinions and Rory Callahan of Wine & Food Associates on targeted market research to guide our future efforts. Results of that research and much more information will be presented at our Wine Industry Workshop on March 26 in Geneva, followed by a major “New York Wine Month” promotion in April.
WOMEN WINEMAKERS are a growing part of New York’s wine industry, with one veteran and several newcomers. Fumie Thorpe of Thorpe Vineyards on Lake Ontario is the veteran, now joined by Theresa Dilworth, owner and winemaker at Comtesse Therese on Long Island; Nancy Irelan, a California transplant from Gallo, who with her husband Mike Schnelle owns Red Tail Ridge Vineyards on Seneca Lake; assistant winemaker Tricia Renshaw of Fox Run Vineyards right next to Red Tail Ridge; Alie Shaper of the very new Brooklyn Oenology winery in that great borough; and Nancy Tisch of Bet the Farm Winery on Cayuga Lake. We’re also taking a survey to determine all the California winemakers who have gravitated to New York, which may be more than you think. Stay tuned.
CLINTON VINEYARDS owners Ben and Phyllis Feder presented Senator (and Presidential candidate) Hillary Clinton with a special bottle of “Victory White” at this year’s New York Farm Day in Washington, with the photo featured in the current edition of Wine East. One of the Hudson Valley’s (and New York’s) oldest wineries, Clinton Vineyards specializes in Seyval wines and, more recently, luscious dessert wines made from various fruits. The tiny, charming winery received national recognition in 1992 when Bill Clinton was inaugurated and their wines were served at all the delegates’ hotels. Could this be, as Yogi Berra so eloquently put it, “déjà vu all over again”?
IOWA is in the news a lot these days with the Presidential caucuses just a few weeks away, but a refreshing change of topic was a recent Des Moines newspaper article on the birth of the Heart of Iowa Wine Trail, modeled after the wine trails that began in the Finger Lakes in the early 1980’s (Cayuga was first, but now there are five, plus six more in other regions). Iowa now has over 50 wineries, and 15 form the new wine trail which includes over 400 miles of rural roads around Des Moines and becomes the fourth wine trail in the state. Sounds fascinating; maybe I’ll go out there to visit.
TABLE GRAPE SALES from New York this fall were by far the best in many years, according to industry sources, though we don’t have exact figures. We also don’t know why, but it could be a combination of factors—a great harvest, better marketing, and hopefully some impact from our table grape promotion program and even some spinoff from our Concord grape juice promotion program (since 90% of New York table grapes are Concord). Regardless of the reason(s), we’re delighted for our growers.
ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE (AD) may be diminished by the consumption of Concord grape juice, according to recent presentations at the Neuroscience 2007 conference in San Diego. Two recent population studies associated moderate red wine and 100 fruit juice consumption with lowering the risk of AD dementia (wine) or delay in AD onset (juice). Those studies were buttressed by research presented by Dr. Lap Ho of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine showing the potentially protective effects of Concord grape juice and Cabernet Sauvignon polyphenols to slow the formation of plaques in the brain that lead to AD. Dr. Ho was one of several top scientists who gave presentations to media representatives on the health benefits of Concord grape juice in October at the New York Wine & Culinary Center.
A Votre Santé To Your Health
Jim Trezise