Weis Vineyards

​We limited our first day of winery visits in the dreaded Finger Lakes of New York to the northern region between the two largest lakes, Senaca Lake and Cayuga Lake.  On day two we took the long drive to Keuga Lake, located to the southwest of Seneca Lake.  Our target was Weis Vineyards.  Why Weis Vineyards?  Well, they were known to have a pretty good reputation for producing quality wines, as shown below:

​The terrain in the Finger Lakes area is quite flat and largely agricultural (fields of corn, et al.), but the fall colors helped break up the monotony.  The best was near Keuka Lake.  Bright reds, yellows, and oranges.  We eventually found the Weis winery, a rather nice, modern facility.

​I was hoping that the Gruner Veltliner would be very good so I could – it is the leading Austrian white grape and known to make very good wines.  However, of the wines we tasted, it was not one of the two that proved good enough to ship to California.  The first was their “K” Reisling, a wine made in the style of the German Kabinett Rieslings.  In Germany, the Rieslings are graded according to the level of sugar in the grape at harvest.  Wines labeled Kabinett have the least sugar, followed by Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, and Trockenbeerenauslese.  The first can be anywhere from dry to sweet; the last two are very sweet, dessert type wines.  The Weis “K” version is off-dry (has a bit of residual sugar) and quite nice.
If that confuses you, then the second wine we really liked will drive you over the edge.  It is made from a grape called the Heart of the Lake, a hybrid developed at Cornell by crossing Riesling with Cayuga, itself a hybrid developed at Cornell from two – you guessed it – two hybrids.  So Heart of the Lake is a hybrid of Riesling with a hybrid of two hybrids….  The result is a very nice, light, medium sweetness, extremely drinkable wine.  It was sweet enough to meet the approval of Livia, who is definitely not the first Empress of Rome.  Please ignore the fellow standing behind the wines.  He followed us home from a holiday party....