We recently had the good fortune at The Gourmet Gazette to taste some New York State wines: a red from the Lake Erie region, a rosé from the Finger Lakes and a white from Long Island, all showcasing the variety of the good earths of New York and its climates with influences as diverse as the Great Lakes, the delicate Finger Lakes and the sea with the Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean surrounding Long Island. 

From Six Eighty Cellars in the Finger Lakes we enjoyed the estate’s Pinot Noir Sandstone Vessel. The 100% Pinot Noir, a rich and bold wine, was aged in old world, traditional style amphorae that enhance the natural characteristics of the grapes. Six Eighty Cellars has imported these vessels from France and Italy and they clearly imparted a unique taste onto the Pinot Noir 2020 which was aged in a terre sandstone vessel from France. In a nod to Pinot Noir’s Burgundian origins, we opted to pair it with some hearty fare from that region, a rich terrine encased in flaky pastry. This was a robust, full bodied and ultimately smooth wine with a lovely deep red purple color. This is clearly a wine to enjoy with rich, hearty food. https://www.sixeightycellars.com/

An incredible surprise turned out to be an outstanding extra dry rosé. Hailing from the Lake Erie region —Lake Erie is one of the five Great Lakes that are in general on the United States-Canada border— Mazza Chautauqua Cellars The Perfect Rosé, was totally original. This is the third winery location for the Mazza family which has its roots and traditional winemaking heritage in Italy. They opened their New York winery in 2005 and The Perfect Rosé was just that, perfect. We enjoyed it with smoked trout, ours was from France, but Lake Erie is rich in lake trout. But what was unique to this wine ultimately came from its dry yet fruity grape variety, the Chambourcin, a French-American hybrid variety which apparently thrives well on the wilder shores of Lake Erie. https://enjoymazza.com/visit-us/chautauqua-cellars/ 

The Pinot Blanc 2019 from Palmer Vineyards in the North Fork of Long Island was a crisp, island wine with a nice mineral note to it. Palmer Vineyards is an estate winery and works to preserve the purity of and distinctiveness of each grape variety. It grows 13 varieties on its 49 acres of vineyards and this wine, as its name implies, was made with Pinot Blanc grapes. Pinot Blanc is a refreshing grape variety which tends to bring structure and body to wines and is often found in delightful sparkling wines and some champagnes. The house — one of the oldest on Long Island, was established by Robert Palmer in 1983 and now belongs to the Massoud family — adheres to sustainable wine growing practices. We served this delicious Pinot Blanc with an unctuous smoked marlin that we marinated in lemon and lime juice and extra virgin olive oil. Ours was smoked in France, but in the summer accomplished fisherman can catch this migrating and mighty fish in July, August and September off the coast of Long Island’s Montauk. https://www.palmervineyards.com/

New York is one of the oldest wine growing regions in America and the second largest producer after California. While the very first grapes were planted in Manhattan in the mid 1600s by Dutch settlers, the plantations didn’t exactly work out there so production spread to other parts of the state. Back in 1829 the Reverend William Bostwick planted a vineyard on the rectory green of the Episcopalian church at Hammondsport near Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes District and later distributed cuttings to neighbors and parishioners.

New York is the most geographically diverse wine-making state in America ranging from the varietals grown in the sea air and sandy soil of Long Island to the rich soils of the Finger Lakes where the famous ice wines, Rieslings, and some excellent sparklings are found. There are also the delicate wines of the Hudson Valley whose wineries use Native American, French-American and European grape varieties. Long island wines are relative newcomers to the New York wine producing scene.

As European immigrants began flooding in, vineyards sprung up with people producing wine for their own consumption. The first winery, the Pleasant Valley Winery, opened in the Finger Lakes in 1860 and it is still in operation today. Several of the early Finger Lakes wineries around Lake Keuka specialized in sparkling wines which were soon winning medals at the Paris Exposition.  There is even a hamlet in the region named Reims. And according to a number of wine experts, sparklings are not only part of the rich past of the Finger Lake vineyards, but also its future. https://newyorkwines.org/

©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette