Michigan Peninsula Riesling and Gewurztraminer

[Thomas]

Last summer I opened the final bottles of Rieslings I had produced when I operated Cana Vineyards in the Finger Lakes. The vintages ranged from 1985 to 1991, the last year I produced wine. It was incredible how the wines had aged--the two best were the 85 and the 87 (the latter had won Best NY Riesling in 1988). The next best was the 88; the rest were still drinkable but not as good as the others.

They all had that wonderful petroleum quality on the nose; they had all integrated well between acids and fruit; they all had a lot of life remaining; they had all been produced dry: the 87 had 10 percent Vignoles (Ravat 51) blended in it and from 88 on up, all the wines had about 10 percent Gewurztraminer blended in.

Riesling is a queen among wine grapes.