Text 35684, 124 rader
Skriven 2013-04-05 02:03:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: wine country 375
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Dorothy of Steve and Dorothy fame had a free day and was antsy
to go someplace, so we went with her on a short field trip to
Hammondsport, a hundred miles (2 hr) mostly up US 15, formerly
a rather daunting mountain road, now mostly a freeway. The
Steam Valley and the Fry Brothers restaurants zipped past us,
and though it turned out Dorothy hadn't had breakfast, her
mild questions as to our state of hunger were not properly
interpreted. By the time we crossed the quaint but apparently
down-and-out town of Bath, it was almost real lunchtime, but
we didn't see anything open, and even in the relatively
metropolitan Hammondsport we couldn't see anything.

The first thing we looked for and found south of town was the
Finger Lakes Beer Co., whose sign said it would open at noon,
but it wasn't noon yet; then we went into the village itself,
where nothing seemed to be open either; so we decided to go
northward along Keuka Lake and see if we could find a place
to eat on the way to our primary destination, the Konstantin
Frank winery.

Dr. Frank was the first proponent of growing European grape
varieties in the relatively cold and forbidding climate of
the northeast: the subject of his dissertation in the Ukraine
had been the production (by grafting, I believe) of temperature-
hardy Riesling vines. At some point, there were wars going on
in Europe, and like many sensible folks he gathered up what
little he could and escaped to the US, where he existed on
the fruits of manual labor until he found someone at one of
the Finger Lakes wineries willing to give him a shot at
making vinifera wines in a labrusca climate. This he proved
possible but not profitable, so he was encouraged to leave
and found his own money-losing operation up on a hill
overlooking Keuka.

When I first found his wines, he was charging as much as the
more famous German winemakers for product that was almost as
good, not better: the only reasons for buying were to support
US wineries and to support the old loony. Luckily, his
technique and his adaptations to local variations improved,
so by the time he died in the 1980s, there was a good base
from which his more business-savvy son could build a business.

It's hard to find the place if you ignore me: despite there
being 2 GPSes in the car, using different databases, several
wrong turns were made despite my protests, and it took us
half an hour extra to get there, during which time we passed
two restaurants that appeared open but turned out not to be
serving lunch in the offseason.

We eventually pulled in there and found the tasting room,
where young George, a Philadelphia boy who had for reasons
unknown attended Lycoming College in Williamsport, poured
for us. He was tickled that people from his college town
were up to visit.

You get 5 free samples apiece out of about 25 or 30 bottles;
what I usually do is split tastes with someone or two and
thus get 10 or 15 small tastes. In this case, Dorothy pled
designated driverhood, thoughtlessly depriving us of 5
tastes, but as it turns out George would have been happy
to offer us as many tastes as we wanted, and instead of
doing the one glass per person thing he ended up doing
one glass per wine, which made for more work but impressed
us more.

Chardonnay 10 - pretty dry, not so much as they claim (the
eastern wines traditionally are sweeter than the California
ones), rather pleasant but with that cooked taste that I
find peculiar in and to wines of less than first rank.

Dry Riesling 12 - ditto on the dryness; scent and taste
of lemon-drop plus sour apple hard candy. A little
unconcentrated. Annie really liked this and got four or
six bottles of it.

Sauvignon Blanc 11 - lots of pee, very green tasting, I
don't know, parsley and sage, no rosemary or thyme; I
thought, as Annie buys lots of SB, she would like it, but
that was wrong; it turns out she has never tasted the
stuff and started buying it for guests on a state store
clerk recommendation or something. It was typical, very
acid, showing both the good (tropical fruit, citrus) and
bad (urine) characteristics of the variety.

Gewurztraminer 11 - very pleasant though not very spicy;
I thought it a little no-dimensional, but Annie loved it
and got either six or four bottles of it.

Semi-dry Riesling 12 - none of that Lifesaver flavor, very
well made in the Rhiny way that I remember from the olden
days; I would guess that the winemakers have preserve the
style in remembrance of the old man.

Muscat Ottonel 11 - a strange plasticky taste, not very
fruity, an attempt to make a dryish wine out of a grape
suited to sweetish wines; I thought kind of unsuccessful.

Reserve Gewurztraminer 11 - moderate sweetness but didn't
seem as concentrated as a reserve wine should be; surprising
citrus, just a hint of spice and honey. I liked it okay.

Pinot Noir 10 - Dorothy's daughter Elise likes this a lot,
so I took a pro forma taste. Plums, chocolate, a touch of
meat broth; I would have guessed Oregon. George said that
the grapes were from the second oldest planting of Pinot
in the country. Dorothy bought a bunch of this but mostly
for her daughter.

Merlot 10 - high acid, somewhat herbaceous, not a bad wine
but nothing I wanted much more than a sip of.

Cabernet Franc 10 - bit of taint, otherwise a vigorous and
pleasing quaff, one of the best New York reds I've had.

Cabernet Sauvignon 10 - very refined, cherries and berries,
though a bit thin and brothy. George said it was his favorite,
so I gave it a second chance, but it still didn't move me.

Blanc de Blancs 07 - to me a little thin, lemony-metallic,
but Annie liked it and got a couple bottles.

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