OF NEW YORK STATEWINES

INTRO TO WINESHAS A NEW PROF

THE REGION’S BEST FOOD AND BEVERAGE FESTIVALS

TASTING TIPS

LOCAL WINERIESGARNER RAVE REVIEWS

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Once a TA,Cheryl Stanley ’00takes over theHotel school’s venerable Intro toWines class

Stanley is speaking to an audience—a big audience. It’s a Wednesday afternoon inMarch, and she’s onstage in front of the 700 or so students packing Statler Auditorium forone of the University’s most popular courses: Introduction to Wines. As teaching assistantsclad in white lab coats circulate among the rows distributing bottles—each capped with adispenser that portions out a one-ounce pour—Stanley and her guest speaker, Bordeauxvintner Basile Tesseron, discuss his home region. Their topics range from decoding winelabels to the influence of the region’s gravelly soil to the distinctions between the Left Bank(bastion of Cabernet Sauvignon) and the Right (dominated by Merlot). “So often

Mother Nature gives the region of Bordeaux a different year every year,”says Hotel school lecturer Cheryl Stanley ’00. “We don’t talk much about

vintage variation when we get into the new world, likeNapa Valley, but we see this a lot in the regions of bothBordeaux and Burgundy.”

TastingNotes

By Beth Saulnier

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Uncorked: CherylStanley ’00 lectureson the merits of Bordeaux.

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PHOTOS BY LISA BANLAKI FRANK

consumers associate the region of Bordeaux with expensive wines,” Stanley observes. “Letme tell you, there are amazing bargains—everyday drinking, value wines—that come fromBordeaux.” In addition to imparting veritable casks of information, their tag-team presentation often has the audience in stitches. “To make a good wine, you need to be agood drinker,” the nattily clad, suavely accented Tesseron offers at one point. “A good bot-tle of wine is an empty one. If you don’t like to drink, don’t make wine.”

For many Cornell seniors—at least, those lucky enough to get into the class—this is aspring semester rite of passage. Every Wednesday afternoon, students toting the regulationtasting kit of three glasses in a small black case are a familiar sight around Central Campus. “When you start learning about wine, you start seeing how unique it can be,”says current student Quinn Cox ’15. “You could taste two wines from the same grape varietal that were grown on vines fifteen feet from each other and they can taste completelydifferent. That blows my mind.”

This is Stanley’s second year teaching the Wines class, and her first doing it solo. In2013–14, she co-taught it with the man whose name was synonymous with the course forthree decades: Professor Stephen Mutkoski ’67, PhD ’76. It was a passing of the torch similar to when Mutkoski took over from his predecessor, Vance Christian ’61, MS ’65.“Steve was Vance’s TA, and I was Steve’s TA,” Stanley says, chatting in her Statler Hall

In vino veritas: More than 700 students pack Statler Auditorum for Intro to Wines. Below right: Stanley with guest speakerBasile Tesseron, a French vintner. On the screen behind them is a chart that helps tasters assess color.

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office a couple of days after the Bordeaux class. “We keep it in the family.”Speaking of being a Wines TA: it’s nothing like serving as a typical teaching assis-

tant, called upon to grade homework and run section meetings. “It’s mostly just beinga waitress,” current TA Alex Faulkner ’15 says with a laugh. “I’ve gotten pretty quickat opening wine bottles.” Numbering about two dozen per semester, the TAs areresponsible for distributing the six wines—sometimes seven—tasted in each class.“When you’re dealing with hundreds of bottles of wine, being organized is the mostimportant thing,” says Faulkner. “Since the students have three glasses, as soon as theyfinish with the first wine, we bring out the fourth, so there’s essentially always a winein all three glasses. The timing has gotten super good, in terms of doing that effectivelywith the least interruption.”

A t the Bordeaux class, the first wine tasted is a 2013 white fromChâteau Bonnet, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon (plus someMuscadelle) that retails for about $12 a bottle. “Sauvignon Blancs incool climates tend to be very grassy and herbaceous,” Stanley says,

“so let’s smell this wine and see what we’re getting in the glass.” She asks the studentsto call out the aromas they encounter: bell pepper, honey, grapefruit, turkey. Then it’stime to taste. “They’re a perfect complement to each other,” Stanley says. “The Sauvi-gnon Blanc has that lean, crisp acidity, and then the Sémillon rounds it out.” She asksthe class to ponder the wine’s body and its finish, noting, “The Sémillon is kind ofhanging around in my mouth.” Stanley’s tasting style is accessible and unpretentious,as when she declares the white, “what my friend calls a ‘porch pounder’—you can siton your porch and enjoy it.”

Stanley didn’t grow up in a household of wine aficionados. Her dad favored beer—“He had many dogs, and each dog had a different beer name”—and her mom nevermuch cared about wine until somewhat later in life, when she had what Stanley callsa life-changing glass of Sauternes while traveling on Air France. “It was my grand-mother who introduced me to wine,” Stanley says. “She always drank Louis Jadot

Stanley’s TipsHandy advice from the wine professor

I got to know, and I’d say, ‘You need to try this.’ It’snot necessarily going to be big names—it can bethose hidden gems.”

Be an active taster: “Move the wine around yourmouth, because you want to hit all of your tastebuds. Chewing also can be quite helpful, becausethose esters, those flavor molecules, can go upyour retronasal passage to your olfactory nerve.”

Gamble on a half bottle: “As consumers are drinking less but spending more, a lot of producersare bottling in half bottles. If you want to try something new, but you don’t want to commit to awhole bottle, have it in a half. It’s a perfect way togo to a restaurant and enjoy the whole procedureof opening the bottle, but only have two glasses.”

Drink what you like: “That’s the biggest thing. Imight be a sommelier and recommend you have aBordeaux with your steak, and I can talk about whyyou should pick it, but if you’re not going to enjoythat wine, don’t order it. If you like white zinfandel,more power to you—drink it.”

Ask for advice: “Don’t be intimidated by theamount of selection, both in retail and in wine lists.It’s okay to go with what you’re familiar with, butdon’t be afraid to ask questions.”

Try something new: “If you’re feeling adventurous,try something you’ve never had before, like aGrüner Veltliner from Austria, a Greco di Tufo fromItaly, or a Pinot Meunier from California. There aresome really fun varietals out there.”

Make friends with your wine seller: When Iworked at the Wine Cask [a restaurant and retailstore in Santa Barbara], I had clients whose palates

Perfect pour: Wine distribution isoverseen by about two dozen TAs.

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popular among graduating seniors in theirfinal semester, Stanley aims to spread theword about a little-known fact: it’s alsooffered in the fall, when there are emptyseats. And she wants to debunk the popu-lar misconception that non-Hotelies need tobe twenty-one to take the class; the onlyrequirements, she says, are that students bejuniors or seniors and at least eighteen.“We’re trying to have a marketing campaign on social media to encourage students to take the class in the fall semes-ter,” she says. “There are so many rumorsaround campus about the Wines class, andso much misinformation.”

Back in Statler Auditorium, the Bordeaux lecture is winding up. After six tastings—the white is followed by five reds,including one from Tesseron’s own ChâteauLafon-Rochet—Stanley ends with a seventh, a 2008 Sauternes from ChâteauLaribotte. As the students taste, shedescribes the Botrytis cinerea fungus—alsoknown as “noble rot”—that’s key to thewinemaking process. “Look at the berriesin the upper right-hand corner,” Stanleysays, indicating the moldy fruit in a Power-Point image. “That’s what you’re drinking.And let me tell you, it is liquid gold.”

‘We have wines aging in our cellars that are from the birth years of students who are coming down the pipeline.’

Mouth feel: Quinn Cox ’15 (left) and classmates taste one of seven Bordeauxwines. Each tray has three regulation glasses, along with a paper “spit cup.”

Calling Cornellian Wine Lovers!Would you be interested in buying a

“Cornell Red” or “Cornell White”wine? Share your views at

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Pouilly-Fuissé—until she turned ninety,when she switched to Crown Royal onthe rocks.” After graduating from theHotel school, Stanley worked at the FourSeasons in Newport Beach, California,and soon found herself in charge of theentire beverage operation, including awine list the length of a novella. She wenton to gain sommelier certifications fromthree different governing bodies, earn amaster’s in hospitality management fromTexas Tech, and teach as an adjunct at theCulinary Institute of America (CIA) beforereturning to the Hill in the fall of 2013.

These days, wines and spirits area family affair: Stanley com-mutes to Ithaca from the Pough-keepsie area, where her husband

teaches courses on beers, spirits, andmixology at the CIA. (Their honeymoon,appropriately enough, included stops inOporto and Champagne.) In addition tothe Wines class, she also teaches courses inbeverage management and catering, andhelps oversee acquisitions for the Hotelschool’s cellar. “When Steve taught thecourse—and this is something I want to doas well—he didn’t just think about thesemester or even the next five semesters.He thought long-term,” Stanley says. “Wehave wines aging in our cellars that arefrom the birth years of students who arecoming down the pipeline.”

While the Wines course is famously

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SENECA LAKE WINE & FOOD May 30 & 31This weekend-long event held inClute Park in Watkins Glen featuresmore than 200 wines from twenty-five participating wineries. It alsoboasts waterfront views, live music,and food vendors touting Italian,Mexican, and grill options, amongothers. senecalakewineandfood.com

BARBECUE AT THE WINERIESJune 13Eight wineries on Keuka Lake play host to this culinary event, witheach concocting its own barbecue dish with a special sauce, marinade, or rub. corningfingerlakes.com/events/barbecue-wineries

FINGER LAKES WINE FESTIVALJuly 10–12

The three-day event at WatkinsGlen International raceway features tastings from more thaneighty wineries, making it thelargest single showing of winesproduced in New York State.The festival boasts food andcraft vendors, wine seminars,and culinary classes, in addition to demonstrations insuch arts as painting and icecarving. flwinefest.com

NORTHEAST JAZZ & WINE FESTIVALJuly 24–26Touted as the only festival of its kind east of the Rockies, the event features nightly jam sessions, performances by international stars, wine tastings, and numerous food andcraft vendors. It’s a fixture of Syracuse Artsweek, which attracts more than 66,000 visitors to the city’s downtown.cnyjazz.org/nejwf

FINGER LAKES CHEESE FESTIVALJuly 25Held at Sunset ViewCreamery just outsideWatkins Glen, this annual event offers the opportunity to samplethe many wares of the Finger LakesCheese Trail. Other highlights include cooking lessons, a grilledcheese cook-off, and ricotta-makingclasses. flcheesetrail.com/Cheese_Festival.html

GRAPEHOUND WINE TOURJuly 30–August 2This four-day celebration of greyhound adoptionis headquartered atPompous Ass Winery,part of the SenecaLake Wine Trail.

Registrants can bring alongtheir dogs, regardless of breed,as they visit the tasting roomsat more than twenty participating wineries. Proceeds benefit greyhound adoption groups throughout the Northeast. grapehounds.com

CORTLAND ARTS & WINE FESTIVALAugust 1Held at Courthouse Park in downtown Cortland, this festival featurestastings from more than twenty wineries, plus cheese pairings, foodvendors, live music, a car show, art displays, and more.cortlandartsandwine.org

CENTRAL NEW YORK TOMATOFESTSeptember 12 & 13The thirtieth annual event, at Emerson Park inAuburn, celebrates America’s favorite red vegetable (or, rather, fruit) while raising money for

local food pantries. cnytomatofest.org

HARVEST CELEBRATION OF FOOD & WINESeptember 19 & 20

Fall-themed dishes are on the menu at Keuka Lake wineries thatpair their creations with locally sourced cuisine.

keukawinetrail.com/harvest

APPLE HARVEST FESTIVALOctober 2–4The Ithaca Commons is home to this popular homage to the apple, with numerous growers, bakers, cider-makers,and more on hand to sell their wares. This fall’s event is the thirty-third.downtownithaca.com

FINGER LAKES BEER FESTIVALOctober 24Watkins Glen International hosts fifteen New York State craft breweries sampling their wares. Admission to the indoor event (heldin the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Garage) includes tasting couponsand a commemorative glass. fingerlakesbeertrail.com

IF YOU’RE VISITING THE FINGER LAKES THIS SUMMER OR FALL, CHECK OUT SOME OF THE REGION’S FOOD AND BEVERAGE EVENTS

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To the delight of many, Wine Enthusiast magazine hasnamed the Finger Lakes region one of this year’s tenbest wine travel destinations. “Known particularly for

world-class Riesling, it’s also home to an increasingly diversearray of wines, from Grüner Veltliner to Teroldego,” the magazine notes in its February 2015 issue. The Enthusiast alsocites scenic beauty and an evolving food scene as two more reasons for visiting the area. The article lists a dozen wineries ofparticular interest, including stalwarts Hermann J. Wiemer andDr. Konstantin Frank as well as newcomers like Kemmeter,Keuka Lake Vineyards, and Bellwether. It praises the improvingquality of Finger Lakes reds and deems them increasingly distinctive in style and worthy of attention.

Back in 1976—the year of the New York Farm Winery Act—it would have beentough to imagine this degree of enthusiasm for Finger Lakes wine expressed in a nationalpublication. At that time, Dr. Konstantin Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellars and Gold SealWinery were virtually the region’s only producers of wine made from vinifera grape vari-eties such as Riesling and Chardonnay. They were soon to be joined by the likes of HeronHill Winery, Glenora Wine Cellars, and Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard, slightly increas-ing the size of a tiny playing field.

Today, there are well over 100 wineries located in the Finger Lakes. Positive reviewsin publications such as Wine Enthusiast, Wine & Spirits, Wine Advocate, and WineSpectator have raised their reputation. The latter, the highest circulating wine publica-tion in the U.S., issued its first full tasting report on the Finger Lakes in a winter 2013issue. In recent years the Spectator has reviewed increasing numbers of Finger Lakes wines,and its website now contains more than 2,500 searchable reviews of the region’s offer-ings. In March, Robert Parker’s influential Wine Advocate—whose coverage of the region

has been spotty at best—announced that acritic would be assigned to cover the Fin-ger Lakes. Additionally, tasting notesposted on wine-related forums such asMark Squires’ Bulletin Board and WineBerserkers have piqued the interest of wineaficionados across the nation.

But perhaps the best way to keep upon what’s happening in the Finger Lakesis by perusing the excellent New YorkCork Report blog. Its main contributorsare Lenn Thompson, former editor of theLong Island Wine Gazette, and EvanDawson, author of Summer in a Glass, anexcellent book about Finger Lakes wine.Founded in 2004, the blog follows all ofthe state’s wine regions, and its coverageof the Finger Lakes is particularly timelyand incisive. The reviewers are refresh-ingly miserly with their ratings: if a wine is well reviewed by these guys, it’s definitely worth investigating.

RIESLING RULESMuch of the attention to Finger Lakeswines is showered on Riesling, generallyconsidered the region’s forte. In his 2014

As the Finger Lakes wine industry continues to expand, the wider worldis taking notice

Bigger&Better

By Dave Pohl

Good grapes (from top): The tastingroom at Red Newt; Standing Stonebottles; and barrels at Ravines

PRO

VID

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book The Best White Wine on Earth,British wine journalist Stuart Pigott beginsa survey of Riesling around the worldwith a largely laudatory discussion of theFinger Lakes. The wineries that Pigott features include Dr. Konstantin Frank, Lamoreaux Landing, Red Newt, Her-mann J. Wiemer, Standing Stone, BloomerCreek, Bellwether, Silver Thread, RavinesWine Cellars, Sheldrake Point, AnthonyRoad, Kemmeter Wines, and Fox Run.

A sampling of the Rieslings from anyof these producers would certainly makefor an exemplary introduction to thewines of the Finger Lakes. One could addto Pigott’s list many other notable Rieslingproducers including relative newcomerssuch as Forge, Heart & Hands, KeukaLake Vineyards, Red Tail Ridge, andBoundary Breaks as well as seasoned veterans like Hazlitt, Glenora, Heron Hill,and Lakewood. “There is fine potentialhere for the aromatic varieties of Alsaceand Germany,” says Dave Breeden, wine-maker for Cayuga Lake’s Sheldrake PointWinery, “not just Riesling, but Pinot Grisand Gewürztraminer as well.”

Konstantin Frank’s grandson FredFrank, while producing excellent Gewürz-traminer, is particularly excited over theprospects for the Austrian Grüner Veltlinergrape. Frank, now President of Dr. Kon-stantin Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellars, feelsstrongly that the variety is capable of pro-ducing some of the finest wines in the Fin-ger Lakes. He puts his money where hismouth is, as he now has more than tenacres of it planted on his Seneca Lake prop-erty. And in a 2014 blind tasting of Aus-trian and Finger Lakes Grüner Veltliners atIthaca’s Northside Wine & Spirits, the Dr.Frank Grüner acquitted itself nicely, its style indistinguishable from the Austrian

examples. Other wineries producing thisvariety include Ryan William, Hazlitt,Fulkerson, and Hermann J. Wiemer.

REDS ON THE RISEWhile the quality of the best Finger Lakeswhite wines is not disputed, the region’sreds are perhaps more of a work inprogress. In general, it is safe to say thatthey are improving, though opinion is stilldivided on which varieties show the mostpromise. There are, broadly speaking, twocamps: the Cabernet Franc advocates andthe pro-Pinot Noir contingent. Those favoring the juicy, red-fruited CabernetFranc would say that the area’s cool climateis just the thing for producing wines in thestyle of those made from that variety in thecool Loire Valley of France, where it is thesingle grape used to produce wines such asChinon and Saumur-Champigny.

Cabernet Franc has certainly seensome great success in warmer vintagessuch as 2007, 2010, and 2012. Particu-larly good examples have emanated fromRavines, Hermann J. Wiemer, Shalestone,Red Newt, Damiani, Bloomer Creek, andAtwater, among others. In a blind tastingof French and Finger Lakes CabernetFranc wines at Northside, the deeplyfruited Wiemer 2012 tied with a verygood Chinon for top honors.

Results with Pinot Noir have been abit spottier, which may have as much todo with soil as climate. Pinot Noir likeslimestone, and it is notable that one of themost successful Pinot producers, Heart &Hands, has its estate vineyards planted onlimestone-rich soil. Based on owner-winemaker Tom Higgins’s successfulefforts, the key to future successes withthe grape will depend on finding sites thatcombine a warm enough microclimate

NEW YORK WINE AND GRAPE FOUNDATION

Keuka Lake

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with limestone-rich soil. Forge, Damiani,Shalestone, Billsboro, Bloomer Creek,Bellwether, and Ryan William have alsoproduced successful Pinots.

A third variety favored by some producers is Syrah. This smoky, dark-fruited variety seems to do particularlywell in Jim Hazlitt’s Seneca Lake SawmillCreek Vineyard. Other wineries that havehad success using Sawmill-grown Syrahgrapes include Atwater, Billsboro, RedNewt, and Hector Wine Company.

GROUP EFFORTSThese are exciting times for Finger Lakeswine, with newcomers and old-timerscoaxing better and better results fromtheir vines. It is heartening that theregion’s increasing success has been drivennot so much by competition but by aspirit of cooperation. That spirit isnowhere more apparent than in theannual production of a wine called Tierce.

Tierce is the brainchild of three FingerLakes winemakers: Dave Whiting of RedNewt Cellars, Peter Bell of Fox Run Vineyards, and Johannes Reinhardt ofKemmeter Wines (formerly of AnthonyRoad Wine Company). Each year since2004, the three have combined forces tocreate a wine, usually a Riesling, that isblended from the production of their threeoperations. “I thought this would be agreat idea, not only for the reason of making good wine, but also to serve as ametaphor for what goes on in the FingerLakes, which is all about collaborationamong winemakers,” Bell told WineReview Online in 2012, adding, “Wedon’t consider each other competitors;we’re collaborators and co-conspirators.”The trio spends hours tasting and blend-ing tank samples until they achieve a char-acterful, well-balanced wine worthy of theTierce label. In 2013, their efforts wererewarded by the selection of the Tierce2010 Riesling for service at the InauguralLuncheon for President Barack Obama.

That success is indicative of a regionwhere it is not uncommon for wineries toshare expertise, equipment, and facilities.A significant role in this regard is playedby Cornell Cooperative Extension, whichshares a great deal of data and expertiseas well as serving as a focal point for discussion and experimentation. In theend, one of the advantages of the FingerLakes wine community is a feeling thatsuccess for one is a success for all. Tiercecollaborator Reinhardt summed it upnicely in a 2009 interview with WineSpectator: “In my career, I have yet toexplore a region where people have beenmore humble, down to earth, and willingto work together.”—Dave Pohl, MA ’79, is a wine buyer at

Northside Wine & Spirits in Ithaca

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