One of New York's Finest

Generally speaking, New York has not been at the top of the serious winedrinker's list.
Sure, there was the Brotherhood Winery, one of the oldest in the country, their wine tours were fun, their wines not!

In another post, Robin made mention of some of the wines from the Finger Lakes: Lake Country xxx, Widmer to name only a few. But there has always been and still is to an extent one wine that stands out. That comes from Dr Konstantin Frank. The winery is up in the Finger Lakes by Hammondsport. I tasted my first wine from there in the early '70s. My wine teacher told me to pay attention to this wine, because it comes the closest to any domestic wine made in the USA that can be compared to some of the German Rhines and Moselles. The climate, the terrain was almost a perfect match. Plus Dr Frank paid an enormous amount of details in making his wine. He has long since passed away and the wines that carry out his name are still great example of what an American Riesling can taste like. I may be partial, but they still dont compare to the ole man's wines

We plan to visit the Finger Lakes region in June. Any suggestions for wineries and tastings (also for tourist-y stuff) would be greatly appreciated. We will be staying first in Corning and then in the Seneca Lake area, but are not averse to driving.
Thanks for any info you can share with us.

[David M. Bueker]

Wiemer is better than Frank these days. They have some old vines that make Rieslings that even this dyed in the wool German Riesling fan can love.

I tried a Frank Riesling for the first time a couple of months back. Other than the plastic cork, I was very impressed.

I tried a Frank Riesling for the first time a couple of months back. Other than the plastic cork, I was very impressed.

I was disturbed to see the plastic corks in recent vintages of Dr. Frank - the wines can and do age well. I sent them a polite email outlining my experiences with the premature aging of other FL wines with these stoppers and a plea that they re-consider (or go to screwcaps). No response was obtained.....

[James Roscoe]

Ravines makes some excellent wine out near Hammondsport. There is a lot of very good Riesling all over the Finger Lakes region and up on the Niagara Escarpment as well.

When we lived in New York, we spent a fair amount of time trying to find good wines made locally. I have to say that the majority of wines made in the State were only of local novelty interest. I didn't visit the Finger Lakes but from the Hudson River Valley and Long Island I only found two producers who I liked. Those were Whitecliff and Wolfner. Whitecliff is based near New Paltz and has vineyards there but also buys fruit from the Finger Lakes. To me it stood out like an island in the sea of thin, astringent, foxy wines of the Hudson Valley region.