Finger Lakes Wines Won't Stay a Secret for Long

Every summer I went to camp. It was in the White Mountains. The food was okay. In the summer of 1968, during the Days of Rage at the Democratic Convention and the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia, we campers whittled and made gimp lanyards, oblivious to the outside world.
A tradition at Camp Ossipee was announcing the meals over the PA system by playing music. For most of the summer, we were piped to the mess hall by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass's "A Taste of Honey." Then the cook smashed the record. He just couldn't stand it anymore. After that, we never knew what song would call us to eat. I do remember Chicago, the Beatles, and an obscure banjo quintet called The Finger Lake Five. The only time I've heard anything like it was 20 years later on the New Orleans Moon Walk where we were serenaded by banjo-playing street musicians.
Like banjo music, I didn't appreciate New York State wines. I'd dismissed them as all like Taylor Lake Country Pink. A fruity, light jug wine, great for picnics or making wine coolers, but certainly not serious wine. That's all changed. From Long Island to the Finger Lakes District, superb wines are emerging--well-crafted beauties that bury the old climatic notions that it's too cold or the soil's not rich enough to make anything but commercial grade plonk.
Much of the growth in production and quality in the Finger Lakes Region can be traced to Dr. Konstantin Frank, a German immigrant with a doctorate in winemaking. He brought in new varietals that hadn't been planted in New York. Originally, the Finger Lakes produced hearty, rustic wines, like the kind you get in the little trattorias in Italy, where you have to bring your own container. They were made with native Concord or Catawba grapes. The wines were good, but not structured and mysterious, so when the American wine palate shifted in the late 1960s, California eclipsed the Finger Lakes. But not anymore.
Dr Frank's award-winning Pinot Noirs are delicious and hard to find. He first made his mark with Riesling. This low alcohol white wine grows well in northern climates and the Finger Lakes; Cayuga, Seneca, and Keuka provide the same conditions as the Rhine region in Germany. Other varietals include champagne, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Rkatsiteli, a rarely seen spicy white from Armenia.
Easier to find are the wines of Bully Hill Winery. It was once the premier arm of Taylor Winery, but there was lots of litigation and corporate acquisitions and somehow Coca Cola got involved and it turned into a worse grape fight than the one in that I Love Lucy episode. Now it can't actually come out and say it's fifth generation Taylor's on the label, but it does on its website. The winery makes 46 different varieties of wine. Some are traditional northern climate varietals such as Seyval Blanc, Marchal Foch, and traditional Catawba Blush. And some are exotic, like Oh, Be Joyful, named after a brand of Civil War era moonshine and my favorite, Space Shuttle Red. This blend of baco, Leon Millot, Rougeon, and colobel grapes offers an adventurous alternative to Merlot.
Also worth a taste from Keuka Lake are the wines from Yates Cellars. I mention this winery because I was lucky enough to get a glass at a liquor distributor's Holiday Open House. Yates, while not as sought after or as crafted as Screaming Eagle, also produces a very limited amount of wine, about 300 barrels a year. However, it's much cheaper. Thee Pinot Noir is reminiscent of an early Oregonian, and you can pick up a bottle at the Bluff Point winery for $22.99 rather than wait years to get on the Screaming Eagle mailing list or pay $533 at auction.
Even though it's hard to find Finger Lakes Region wines now, that will change as the quality increases and the demand goes up. In the meantime, look for these Finger Lake wineries:

Thirsty Owl Winery on Cayuga Lake - New age winemaking without the Big Sur price. Try the Riesling, $11.95

Nagy's New Land Vineyards and Winery - Nagy's got old-fashioned Hungarian winemaking know-how. The Sauvignon Blanc is decent and only $13.

Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards on Seneca Lake - The Schooner White and Riesling wines are high prized and sold out, so I recommend their Cabernet Franc, $18, which won the double gold medal at the New York State Fair or the Schooner Red, $9, which won best of class at the New York State Fair. Somewhat fruity, but with heaviness that you'd get with a beaujolaise/barbaresco hybrid.

You can always jump in the car and drive the 330 miles to the Finger Lakes for some winery tours! Wait, on second thought, buy the Screaming Eagle at auction, it's probably cheaper.