Great essay, Steven.
Barboursville wines are excellent, as Max commented, as are many Virginia Viogniers and red Bordeaux blends. The hybrid Norton is routinely excellent and the Italian winemaker at Barboursville is excelling with Nebbiolo, et. al.
--------------------------------------------------------
I like your point #16.
If the Finger Lakes Viticultural Area is so old, why are 95% of their 120 wineries under-performing?
The NY Farm Winery act was passed in 1976 as an emergency measure to allow growers to make wine in limited amounts. The big companies, Taylor, Canandaigua, etc weren’t buying grapes and the Mom & Pop farmers were going bust. They had to go into the winery business. As a hedge against a hard winter (where their entire annual income would be lost) these wineries always retained a high proportion of Labrusca and Hybrids. Locals, tourists, and unsophisticated Americans liked the grapey, and necessarily semi-sweet wines. And to this day they still do - to a point where most wineries can only sell 50% of their wine as dry Vinifera wines.
Meanwhile, 10 years later, wineries in Canada’s Niagara Peninsula started popping up with huge capital investments (as California wineries do) and they planted the right cool-climate Vinifera varieties well suited to the Northeast. The wines are stunning and very French/Northern Italian/ Germanic.
Further North, in Ontario’s Prince Edward County, growers have to bury every cane each winter to keep Vinifera plants alive, but the wines are stunning as they usually are at the climatic limits of viticulture.
Back on Seneca Lake, the new Redtail Ridge Winery grows stunning Vinifera (including Teraldogo) and the owner/winemaker is the ex-Research Winemaker from Gallo in Modesto.
Where I live in the Hudson Valley, Millbrook planted 50 Vinifera varieties in the 1980’s and now is down to 4 or 5 survivors including what they still call Tocai Friulano - it is different every year but always world class.
More on American Wine History Here:
alumni.virginia.edu/.../friday-forum-richard-leahy
This is an online recorded webinar that can be downloaded as an mp4 for mobile devices.
The presenter is Richard Leahy. He is an amateur winemaker, wine professional, author, and expert on Virginia wines. Richard G. Leahy has written on Virginia wine since 1986. He is a regional editor for the Oxford Companion to the Wines of North America. Leahy’s 2012 book is entitled Beyond Jefferson’s Vines. Beyond Jefferson’s Vines, covers the state’s history and features interviews with the Virginia’s top wine industry members and members of state government. Included are updates on the latest industry developments.
The Webinar is based mostly on Beyond Jefferson’s Vines, Kevin Zraly’s American Wine Guide, Leon Adams’ The Wines of America. The Webinar shows the rise, fall and rise again of the American wine industry from the ashes of Prohibition, including the rise of the non-West Coast wine industry.
Leahy recently brought a bunch of Virginia examples to the London trade to rave reviews.
http://www.richardleahy.com/
VA Wines Beat France in “Judgment of Virginia” Blind Tasting At RR Smith Museum on 10/14.
saartcenter.org/.../richard-leahys-wine-report-va-wines-beat-france-in-judgment-of-virginia-blind-tasting-at-rr-smith-museum-on-1014
Also visit www.virginiawine.org/.../marketing-office
Rick Schofield
Port Ewen, NY