Interest?

[Thomas]

Van the Man,

Bring Nancy and Cort Parker with you if you can (The New England and Finger Lakes Wine Gazette). Need to talk to her, and she never returns phone calls.

East side, west side, all around the Finger Lakes...

I live on the west side of Keuka. In my extremely humble, yet equally strident opnion, Vinifera Wine Cellars' (just down the road from me) whites come the closest to Germanic of any in the FL, and the whites on Seneca definitely have different qualities than those of Keuka. It seems Keuka's are more Old Worldish while Seneca's have a distinct New World bent to them. I attribute much of that difference to climate and cloning -- the vines, not the winemakers.

Gene, if it is Gene, tells the truth about climate on Seneca, but in this region fifteen feet apart, especially with a slight dip in the terrain, can make the difference in a winter with extended snaps of arctic air -- or April arctic swings, not to mention drought conditions. I know one winery on seneca with particularly annoying drought conditions, even in a reasonably wet year.

So, it is difficult to make a blanket statement about east side or west side, with our topography and our fickle climate.

Having said all that, Seneca does provide the most reasonable climate in the region, and if I had known that when I began Cana Vineyards, I would have not situated it on Keuka -- but Shaulis and the others were still thinking Concord in those days, and I was a relative novice.

Incidentally Van, I made a "mean" Gewurztraminer that influenced at least two Seneca wineries to emulate, and I agree with you about Standing Stone's Gew. They have always been better closer to their vintage date; do not seem to hold up over long periods of time. Prejean's does much better.