A New Vintage of Riesling

It's harvest time. And that means it's also time to see new releases from last year's vintage. The Finger Lakes Wine Alliance is sponsoring a month of events to celebrate the release of the 2011 Rieslings from the Finger Lakes region in upstate NY. Among the special events was a virtual tasting; wine was distributed to media folk, and an evening of tasting was hosted, via Twitter. And given our proclivity for Finger Lakes Riesling, we jumped at the chance to participate.

With six wines to taste, and dozens of participants, it was a hectic Wednesday night on the #winechat channel in Twitter. We tasted through the wines, sharing out thoughts on each wine, and the vintage in general. We also chatted about the Finger Lakes region, those of who knew more about it sharing thoughts with people who were less familiar, even a few who had never really enjoyed a Finger Lakes Riesling before.

Comments on the wines ranged from the simple, like "Yummy", "Beautiful", and "Clean citrus" to thoughts on pairings, to some insightful tidbits about the subtle scents and flavors. Others compared the wines to previous vintages. Others wanted to discuss the wines in comparison to other regions. With each wine, we took about 10 minutes to taste, and then shared our thoughts. For me, there was a lot of conversation to follow, while I was tasting each wine, taking notes, and deciding what I wanted to add to the conversation.

It was interesting to share the experience with a crowd of experienced wine professionals. We've shared tastings with quite a few groups of people, but never with a crowd that was so willing to share their thoughts. And it reminded us that even among those who are experienced with wine, there is no such thing as a correct answer when tasting a wine, as people's interpretation of the flavors can vary significantly. But one thing we could all agree on was that the evening's wines were a great showing, and displayed the great things that are coming out of the Finger Lakes these days.

To read the entire winechat, follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/winechat