We’ve been at this Finger Lakes wine thing for almost exactly ten years. Not coincidently, we spent our honeymoon on Seneca those same ten years ago. We had decided we liked drinking wine together, enough to know we wanted more experience, but we were mostly like buoys lost at sea, bouncing from one wine festival to another in a vast ocean of sweet wines. We graduated from wine festivals to state store tastings, to visiting individual wineries. We were primed for more knowledge, and our FLX honeymoon was the launching pad. We came home with the first of many carloads of wine, we enrolled in online classes, Amy stumbled onto the WSET program, and I followed her down that path as far as I could. She’s now holds the diploma and I managed the level 3 (if you don’t know what any of that means, trust me, you don’t need to, but it’s kind of cool if you’re interested.). It’s a long path from a hot Pennsylvania summer day, getting drunk on anything dry we could find, buying wine barrel furniture, and marveling at the necklace wine glass holders everyone was wearing, including us. It feels like a long journey, yet it’s barely begun…
I’ve long speculated that the only way to really get at the intimate details of wine, or anything else, is to specialize. To get to know a certain region at the level of the actual producers. This involves more than just going around and meeting them, although that is certainly important, it means tasting the wines through the years and contemplating deeply. It’s not for everyone, it involves spending inordinate amounts of time pondering things that you can no longer talk about with the vast majority of people you know, not without risking clearing the room. Is it any wonder that we felt the need to move here? Not just to be close to the wines, but to be close to people who understand them, to know the secrets they are willing to share, to wine and dine, and to be wined and dined, to talk of interesting things with thoughtful company. Friendships inevitably develop, cases are made (ha, ha) for one outlook or the other, and you eventually come to that ultimate understanding – that mastery cannot truly be obtained, because the subject is a moving target.
I guess that’s as good a way as any to come to the subject of vintages, one of those ever changing canvases upon which the wine is made, or grown, if you prefer. Vintages are a handful to get acquainted with, a proliferation of vintage charts aside, because the Finger Lakes have a climate that is called, both exasperatingly and lovingly, marginal. What that really means is that no one knows what the hell each year will bring, it’s even difficult to describe it in hindsight, what with macro, meso, and microclimates. A drought in the banana belt might be tempered by some timely rain over on the west side of Seneca. I know from talking to producers on both sides of the lake that the weather is rarely consistent across the region. I say this as I look out on the four inches of snow that we got “up top” between Keuka and Seneca, while our friends on Keuka got a dusting. All the lakes (and let’s not forget Ontario) make their own weather to some extent. How that flows into the wines and varies them in countless ways is a mystery we plan on spending our lives detangling.
To the point, we sit here tonight drinking a 2021 Billsboro Cab Franc, after finishing off a half bottle of 2021 Forge Chardonnay. (Yes, yes, Forge made a Chardonnay.) They’re both the best kind of wines, “pondering wines”, as I am wont to say. They both have beautiful structure, they are almost light in essence, the Cab Franc could be mistaken as a rose by sight. Put them in your mouth though, and they both have an intensity that is not always present in “difficult” years in the Finger Lakes. Hell, that kind of intensity is still not common in better years – I think it’s the last piece of the puzzle, how does one coax out the natural intensity of the grapes without destroying the nuance?Tough gig. I call these wines “amplified whispers” and I love them. If you’re looking for a pairing note, I would recommend drinking one while listening to a Mary Lou Lord album like Got No Shadow or Baby Blue. She is an amplified whisper as well.
I love these wines because they are what they’re supposed to be, a reflection of the vintage. 2021 in the Finger Lakes was not the hot, dry, epic vintage of 2020. More the opposite, creating a disease pressure that demanded ruthlessness in the vineyard – in most places, remember about those lakes and their effect. Still, one could generalize that 2021 was cooler and wetter than 2020. What did this produce? Grapes with more dilution, less tannins, less sugar and, oh by the way, lots and lots of them. 2020 wines have intensity that you don’t need to look for, it’s in your face, they’re delicious right out the gate and many have the structure they need to age, time will tell. 2021 wines are lighter, sometimes dilute, lower in alcohol, and most the time, less concentrated. This is a year where it comes down to producer, right where the rubber meets the road. If the essence of truly understanding the region comes down to producers (and it does), then this is a year for a master’s thesis on the subject. Those who know, know that there is a small (but growing) block of producers who make interesting wines, year in and year out.
We all have our list, I’m not giving you mine, but we all have our favorites. Some of you like a certain consistency in wine, and you will find those wines every year, sometimes remarkably consistent, but how exactly this is achieved I suspect makes the wine more of a chemistry experiment, or like a soft drink. (You don’t have to wonder what the fountain Coke from McD’s is going to taste like.) I respect this outlook, I don’t understand it, it’s nearly anathema to my view of wines, but I respect the view and understand that I am not burdened with your specific tastebuds, nor you with mine. Let us put aside our differences for a moment and, since this is my stage, let me sing of wines of the Earth from which they came. And at this moment I would like to paraphrase the inimitable Peter Bell, who once bemoaned to me (on the record) that some people just want to drink “the same goddamn wine every time”. Let us speak of other wines…
2021 Billsboro Cabernet Franc, Sawmill Creek Vineyard.
The wine could fool you into thinking it’s a rose. The color is lighter than some roses I have tasted, but that impression disappears when you smell and taste the wine. There is intensity here that belies the light appearance, There is a lovely, yet not overwhelming, herbaceousness the spotlights the variety. It is recognizable as a Cab Franc, the fruit is there, initially in the background but developing and intensifying as it airs. It is a truly enjoyable wine, and I suspect it will be drunk offhandedly at many a backyard barbecue, but this wine has complexity. You have to work at seeing it, but so much the better, it’s like a shared secret to anyone that will take the time. Open this wine at the start of an evening of cheese and charcuterie, or other relevant dish (I’m having it with mixed nuts and salted dark chocolate) and revisit it throughout the night. Savor its nuance. This is the Finger Lakes of 2021, caught in this magical, almost impossible time capsule. It really is a miracle.
2021 Forge Chardonnay, Caywood Vineyard.
This is an equally interesting wine, totally different, yet in some ways similar to the Billsboro. I’ve opened three bottles now, the one we drank tonight was a half bottle left over from an hour spent at Forge’s Salon yesterday. We drank the first at the Salon as well, and the second at home with friends. The two bottles from the Salon seemed the most enjoyable. I might attribute this to bottle variation, but more likely a variation in my still-recovering-from-Covid palate. Or possibly the environment of the Salon with some conversation with Rick, something like drinking wine in its birth place, with its maker. From the womb, perhaps? Regardless, this is another tribute to the 2021 vintage, albeit from a different mesoclimate. We could spend a few hours discussing vineyard site, but this is a post about vintage. The wine has beautiful structure, impressive weight, and that deep intensity hiding behind the finesse. A remarkable wine that will surely develop, either in the glass for a few hours, or a few years in bottle.
So there you have it. Two wines that are what they are. Amplified whispers. Reflections of vintage. However you choose to look at it. They are not imposters, they are not chemistry experiments on an industrial scale, they are small wines of place. A really incredible place, the Finger Lakes of 2021. They are little voices in the wilderness, crying out amongst the din of brands – follow us to this special place. We have something to say.
Cheers, Jerry.