Finger Lakes New York – part 2, Canandaigua to Geneva

It was a great day yesterday, very interesting and full of information that I will have to assess properly before I pass it on.

I spent the morning in Canandaigua at the lovely New York Wine & Culinary Centre where I enjoyed a presenttion and tasting of wines from the other regions of New York: Hudson River, Long Island, the Niagra Escarpment and Lake Eirie.

Remember, if you want to follow my journey you can refer to my piece about the region here, Uncork New York and my two maps – New York’s wine regions and the Finger Lakes region.

One of the most interesting wines was:

2008 Leonard Oakes Estate Frontenac
New York State

Lovely bright blackberry colour.
Jammy and attractive, but simple, slightly fragrant.
Soft and juicy and jammy, well balanced and attractive – blackberry fruit and some cherry acidity too.
Simple, but fun and drinkable and attractive with nice fruit and some length too.

I enjoyed this wine and found it all the more fascinating because it is made from one of the hardy ‘Minnnesota’ hybrid grape varieties that was bred in order to be able to cope with the harsh conditions in Minnesota, but it was good.

I was also able to sample some lovely local beers that would really astonish those of you who think all American beer is Budweiser. My favourite was the delicious and fragrant Ithaca Apricot Wheat beer, which is a wheat beer with natural apricot flavouring included in the brewing process, somewhat like Hoegarden.

I then went on to a another seminar at Cornell University College of Agriculture which breeds grape varieties and carries out extensive research for the wine industry across the whole eastern United States.

More to follow.