Sheldrake Point Vineyard and the Finger Lakes

Recently Joy and I made our first trip up to the Finger Lakes Wine Country in upstate New York. Our trip also wonderfully enabled us to visit our friends, Rachel and Owen, who had just moved to Ithaca the previous week. Friends and wine... doesn't get much better! One of the main reasons I have wanted to visit the Finger Lakes is their use of native vine species, hybrids, and crosses. As I understand it, you're unlikely to see much Cayuga, Niagara, Baco Noir, Concord, Svenska, and many more outside of New York. Interestingly, according to Karen MacNeil's Wine Bible, New York has approximately 31,000 acres of vineyards, but only 12,000 are used for wine. What do they do with the rest? Ask Welch's! New York is the largest producer of grape juice. The Finger Lakes have three main wine trails around three of the lakes, which makes for beautiful scenery. Since we were staying with Rachel and Owen in Ithaca, we decided to limit our trip to the Cayuga Trail.

After the five hour drive up from NYC on Friday, we stopped at our first winery,
Six Mile Creek Vineyard, located just south of Ithaca. I will be include further reviews in separate posts. Then on Saturday, we visited Lucas Vineyards, Swedish Hill Winery, and an ever-so-brief wineless stop at Thirsty Owl Wine Company. One problem is the wine tours. When we pulled up at Thirsty Owl, there were four stretch limos, a small bus, and two huge vans, not to mention the regular cars. It was SO crowded and the layout was poorly designed, so after attempting to squeeze up to the counter and not getting any staff to notice us, we left. The scene which said it all was the college-age guy holding the door for his group to go in before us had to finish chugging his can of Miller Lite first.

Anyways, we finished our day at Sheldrake Point Vineyard, and it saved the day for us. First of all, we had lunch at their bistro, and it was quite excellent. Sheldrake Point is a bit different from the other Finger Lake wineries in that they only produce Vitis vinifera (the classic European varietals). And they have been doing a good job as well, gaining some nice awards of late, including one of Wine&Spirits top12 value brands in the US. I also appreciate how they offer free shipping on 6 or more bottles.

On to the wines!

WHITES
2007 Waterfall Chardonnay ($12; on sale $8): nice, strong aroma of apples
Simply White ($13; on sale $9): their table white, incredibly drinkable, nice citrus aromas
2007 Summer White ($10): very good, sweet and tart
2007 Dry Riesling ($16): classic dry Riesling
2007 Pinot Gris ($15; on sale $10): okay, rather flat finish
2008 Gewurztraminer ($18): just great, strong aromas of tropic fruits, and I think it tastes like roses
2007 Riesling ($15): 2% RS, citrus with honey aromas

BLUSH
Summer Blush ($10): emminently drinkable, great picnic wine
2008 Dry Rose ($12): very nice nose, nicely tart

REDS
2007 Luckystone Red ($12; on sale $8): their table red, and its yummy, great red fruit
2007 Gamay ($18): smooth with oak and vanilla finish, great
2007 Pinot Noir ($18): clear smoke aromas, very nice
2007 Cab Franc ($19; on sale $14): dull nose, but nice structure
2007 Merlot ($19): tasty and well-balanced

DESSERTS
2008 Cab Franc Ice Wine ($45; on sale $30): GREAT!, wonderful strawberry jam flavor, but not excessively sweet
2007 Riesling Ice Wine ($65): fantastic bouquet, and deliciously layered

SUMMARY: If you are on the Cayuga Wine Trail, you would be missing out if you did not stop at Sheldrake Point. Without a doubt, they were my favorite winery of the trip. Great bistro, very nice staff, and delicious wines. Their table wines are wonderful for everyday drinking, and if your pocket book allows, their ice wines are heavenly.

UPDATE
Revisiting these wines over the last year has inspired me to post some follow-up. First, the cab franc ice wine that we took with us delivered everything we loved about it in the tasting room. That said, I was a bit disappointed with the Luckystone Red. It just seemed a bit hollow. About the same time that I opened it, I also drank the last of my David Hill Farmhouse Red from Forest Grove (just outside of Portland, OR), and the DH just blew it out of the water.