NYTimes: Asimov On Blaufrankisch

Rather nice article by EricAsimov in today's NYTimes on Blaufrankisch wines:
Asimov/Blaufrankisch

I thought it was rather clever how he tied peoples reluctance to try Blaufrankisch to their fear of the dreaded umlat.

And he neglects to mention in passing WashState's sucess w/ Lemberger. But a good article anyway.

Tom

Thanks! I began my winemaking career in the Yakima Valley in 1982. At that time, there were a few Lembergers being produced, and the examples seemed to me to be positioned as Beaujolais substitutes-- decent early drinking wines of no particular character, just a quaff with food or on their own. I dismissed them then, and with my subsequent career change to Sonoma County, forgot about Lemberger entirely. Thanks to this article and your bringing my attention to it, I now see that there is reason to question my initial ambivalent feelings towards this grape. Unless one chooses to jump on the bandwagon and systematically explore the ins-and-outs of a particular grape, testing how each potential winemaking treatment interacts with the fruit, one is left judging it by the examples available on the market. There was nothing particularly remarkable then. There seems to be, now.

Lemberger/Blaufrankish is being sucessfully grown in the Finger Lakes as well as the NW. Some in the FL are still debating which name is best to use, but many of the producers need to lay off the new oak (somthing that Asimov found troubling in the Austrians, too). Funny how the locavore thing stops being so important when it comes to wine - Asimov can't be bothered to even mention the US versions.