Lamoreaux Landing Estate Red (Non-vintage)
Posted by Neil Brody Miller on March 12, 2010
I’ve been thinking this week about two interrelated issues effecting Finger Lakes winemaking. First, I was excited to read James Molesworth’s article in this month’s issue of the Wine Spectator, in which he celebrates the quality of Finger Lakes wines and shines a spotlight on Sam Argetsinger, owner of the celebrated Argetsinger Vineyard on Seneca Lake, Lou Damiani of Damiani Wine Cellars, and Rob Thomas of Shalestone Vineyards. Molesworth rated several Finger Lakes Rieslings 90-91 points, including the Ravines Argetsinger Vineyards Riesling, the first Finger Lakes wine to receive two back-to-back 90+ point ratings. As significantly, Molesworth also rated several Finger Lakes red wines – the Ravines Meritage, Shalestone Cabernet Franc, and Damiani Cabernet Sauvignon, among others – between 88 and 89 points.
All this is a well deserved affirmation of the efforts of Finger Lakes winemakers to produce world-class wines, especially the efforts of dedicated red wine pioneers like Morten Hallgren, Lou Damiani and Rob Thomas. And yet, I’ve also been wondering this week whether Finger Lakes winemakers aren’t being toyed with by a capricious god, or perhaps like Sisyphus, are ill-fated, rolling boulders up a hill for all eternity. Because just as Finger Lakes winemakers achieve the respect and recognition they deserve, American wine drinkers, driven by the bad economy and a flood of cheap imports, have thrown themselves headlong into the abyss of ever-cheaper wines.
Nearly all the wines reviewed in Molesworth’s article are priced between $17.00 and $25.00 per bottle, with the least expensive wine costing $15.00. Aficionados and locavores are certainly willing to pay these prices, and given their quality, top-flight Finger Lakes wines are still comparative bargains. Overall, however, the trend in wine consumption over the past two years has been unmistakeable. American wine drinkers are moving en masse away from wines priced around $15.00, which for years has been the key price point for wine retailers, to wines priced at $10.00 to $12.00 or lower.
My concern is that, with a handful of notable exceptions – Red Newt’s Circle Riesling, for example – Finger Lakes winemakers produce few table wines from vinfera varietals that meet this price point. Another such exception, I am glad to say, is the Lamoreaux Landing Estate Red, a non-vintage red blend made from Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.
In the glass, the wine certainly looks like Pinot Noir, with a bright garnet-orange color. The nose, however, is overwhelmingly Cabernet Franc, with dominant aromas of wet earth and grilled meat and herbs, which were followed by a creamy vanillin note from the oak barrel aging. In the mouth, the Pinot and Cabernet Franc flavors intermingled nicely, so that I got a mouthful of cherry and red and black berries, along with that characteristic herbaceousness often found in Cabernet Franc. I don’t like grassy flavors when they are too pronounced, as they often are with Cab Franc, but when they compliment rather than overwhelm a wine’s fruit, as they do in this wine, the result is added complexity and a more compelling match for grilled or roasted meats.
Overall, this wine was surprisingly good. It is totally dry, with a medium body, good depth of fruit, well balanced acidity, reasonably soft tannins, and persistent length. The wine ended on a salty, minerally note that reminds you this is a Finger Lakes wine.
I can’t recall having previously drank a wine made from Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc, but if this wine is any indication of the blend’s potential, the two grapes were made for each other. Given the choice, I would much rather enjoy a bottle of this wine than a Bourgogne Rouge from Burgundy, which is a crap shoot even in the best vintages, or a Bourgogne Passetoutgrain, an overlooked, often value priced blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay. Indeed, given its price ($10.99 at MacKinnon Liquor in Cazenovia), the Estate Red is one of the best red wine values I have yet found in the Finger Lakes.
I’ve enjoyed other wines from Lamoreaux Landing, especially the 2007 T23 Cabernet Franc (an unoaked, fruit driven wine priced around $15.00). The winery, headed by winemaker Paul Brock, also receives high marks for its Riesling and Chardonnay: the 2008 Riesling Reserve received an 89 point rating in Molesworth’s article But this humble, non-vintage red blend may be the real star of Lamoreaux Landing’s line-up. It’s well structured for serving with food and competitively priced for the current wine market, which makes it an ideal everyday table wine and a good choice for anyone looking to support Finger Lakes wineries and the local economy.
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You bring up a conundrum that more and more people these
days are dealing with. Whether it’s wine or food, when
you’re on a budget, unfortunately the most affordable option
is often not the local option. How can local wineries and
farms compete while still making a good living themselves?
I think longterm partnerships are an option: For example,
CSAs, a farmer may drop their prices a bit if someone signs
up for a season. Or, a winery can give their loyal
customers a discount (more than the 5% per case…).
Food (and wine) for thought!
Lindsay: There are mysteries wrapped in enigmas, or conundrums – or more accurately in marketing campaigns, hidden costs, and government subsidies – in all of this that I am just beginning to fully appreciate. For Finger Lakes wineries, as for all U.S. companies competing against cheap imports, there are obvious issues like the differences in labor costs. But Finger Lakes winemakers are also competing with the internationalization of taste for a specific style of wine – the super ripe, highly extracted, fruit bombs promoted by Robert Parker to consumers and consultants like Michel Rolland to winemakers – that require hot, Mediterranean-type climates and allow growers to get away with high yields in the vineyards.
Beyond issues specific to winemaking in the era of globalization, there are also all sorts of broader issues, such as the hidden costs of shipping wine halfway around the world – the effects on the environment of all the fossil fuel used to ship wine from Chile, Portugal, or Australia to an importer in New York City, and then to truck the wine from the importer to distributors to local wine shops – that are not passed on to consumers. These broader politico-economic issues effect Finger Lakes winemakers as much as local farmers, (and, I believe, they will only get worse if WIGS is passed into law). It makes sense, therefore, for winemakers to align themselves politically with the Slow Food/Slow Money movements, the movement for community-based economies, etc., and to help raise public awareness about the social cost of spending money on cheap imports, and the social benefit of keeping money circulating in Central New York.