Points North

Why do wine drinkers take a shine to a particular region? It’s about quality and value for sure, but proximity can play a role. The Finger Lakes, in particular, which for many Keystoners lies within day trip or weekend getaway distance, has captured a demi-sized portion of the state’s figurative drinkin’ heart. According to the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance, Pennsylvanians rank second in visits to the region, trailing only Empire Staters themselves. Resident wine people know it, too. “It seems very logical that the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board should be interested in New York State because we’re next door,” said Bob Madill of Red Newt and Sheldrake Point wineries. “There’s room for cold climate positioning but it’s got to be, also, the fact that so many Pennsylvanians come out and visit.”

According to Heart & Hands Winery principal Tom Higgins, there’s been an “immense push from Pennsylvania,” which spurred the PLCB to come knocking a couple years back. The result: Orders for pallets of Higgins’s product, bound for Harrisburg.

If you can’t count yourself as already-visited, you can taste some of the Finger Lakes (FLX) fruits at home, a possible prompt for in-person exploration. To help in the process, I decided last year to venture north to visit producers whose wine is sold in Pennsylvania. These interviews and the majority of my tasting notes are from the late summer and fall of 2013.

Standing Stone Vineyards

Wacky weather patterns. You hear it from just about everyone. The inconsistent climate, a refrain in the Finger Lakes, has notched up in the past decade or so. It rendered extremely hot (and favorable) vintages like 2012, when wineries like Standing Stone on Seneca Lake picked all their grapes by Columbus Day weekend. “Totally unheard of,” confirmed owner Marti Macinski who also pointed out that weather patterns can vary radically between vineyards separated by just a couple miles. “Literally, people were getting three and four times as much rain as we got (in 2013),” she said.

Standing Stone is a bookend to Seneca’s so-called banana belt, the warmest, sunniest strip in the region, extending from Lodi south to Watkins Glen. Macinski’s vineyards are well-established plots originally committed to uninspired, mass-produced wines made of native grape varieties like Catawba. Macinski and her husband dug deep into the untapped potential of the land to evolve a brand known for expressive aromatic whites and zingy ice wines. As I’ve shared in the past, I’m keen on Standing Stone’s efforts.

Standing Stone Vineyards
9934 Route 414
Hector, NY

Heart & Hands Wine Company

I learned a lot about Tom Higgins, who grew up on Seneca and whose winery sits on three-plus acres along the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake, from Evan Dawson’s book Summer in a Glass. I arrived feeling I already had an appreciation for the then-37 year-old’s earnest approach. He left the tech industry (“Too many pages at three o’clock in the morning”) and invested his energies in selecting choice earth for his grapes, a topic we dove into within minutes of meeting. It’s a tidy lot of clay and silt loam, first planted in 2010, committed predominantly to Pinot Noir – seven clones worth. This, he explained, is because quality Pinot is a lot more difficult to cull. The remainder of the vineyard, about two-and-a-half rows, is Riesling. Higgins’s intent is to keep it simple. “You lead with one or two grape varieties that are going to grow consistently well and produce high quality for you.”

It’s hard not to admire Higgins’s subscription to the difficult, finicky Pinot Noir grape. He admits he’s “less stressed” about Riesling, with which he crafts a few variations, because of its adaptability and proven track record in the region. Regardless, he goes deep on Pinot, a potentially soul-crushing endeavor, to yield a variety – typically, five bottlings – including a white version and sparklers. He mitigates some of the risk connected to the iffy climate by relying on other growers on Skaneateles, Cayuga and Seneca lakes.

Another interesting topic of discussion, perhaps for the geek cloister, was about bottle closures. Higgins uses glass Vino Locs on the majority of his wines. Elegant and efficient, the glass stoppers rest atop everything but sparklers, select Rieslings and some barrel reserves. If you ever encounter one, hold on to it to use on more bottles to come. “I sleep much, much easier with this closure than putting it in cork,” Higgins said.

Heart & Hands Wine Company
4162 State Route 90
Union Springs, NY

Silver Thread Vineyard

Then there was Silver Thread, the boutique winery barely noticeable but for the roadside sign alerting passersby of its tucked-away position in Lodi. In his late thirties and a native of Saratoga Springs, owner Paul Brock walked me through his vineyard upon my arrival. It’s a site with history – 100-plus years under vine, said Brock. Abandoned in the 1930s when hurricane flood damage took its toll on the majority of the area, a resurrection by producer Gold Seal which planted Cawtawba grapes, and purchased in the Seventies by Richard Figiel who sold off some of the land and planted vinifera vines under the Silver Thread moniker. Brock and his wife Shannon purchased the land and winery from Figiel in 2011.

Brock is a man with little time on his hands. With a degree in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he joined IBM for a spell and Shannon taught school. They decided to abandon the bustle of the traditional working world and make wine their future. Paul attended Cornell grad school and moved on to FLX posts at Ravines Wine Cellars, Keuka Lake Vineyards and Lamoreaux Landing as primary winemaker. Today he’s head of the viticulture and wine technology program at Finger Lakes Community College. “I have a creative schedule,” he quipped.

Oh, and there’s his daily gig at Silver Thread. “Riesling, that’s the main thing,” he said. In addition to their homegrown grapes, the winery purchases Riesling from several sources including those on Cayuga, Keuka and decades-old plantings on the east side of Seneca. Also grown on-premise are Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Cab Franc, Cab Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. “The mix of grape vines down here were what we wanted to work with,” he said of the decision to buy the vineyard. “We wanted to make dry, European-style wines that were expressive of the place where we’re growing them.”

Lanky and perspiring, Brock kicked at the dirt, unable to restrain his movement despite obvious weariness. The sun was oppressive and the lifeless air sagged with moisture. He stopped for a moment and, ever so briefly, acknowledged the toilsome nature of the current growing season before realizing there was no benefit in dwelling on it. Concession was no option. “This year’s been relatively challenging because it’s been so wet. Ridiculous. But, for the most part, nothing to be concerned about.”

Silver Thread Vineyard
1401 County Road 149
Lodi, NY

In the next segment, I visit Ravines and Sheldrake Point, and review Finger Lakes wines found in Pennsylvania.