2007 Billsboro Winery Pinot Noir

Posted by Neil Brody Miller on January 20, 2010

I’ve been obsessing for the past few months about Finger Lakes Pinot Noir.  Maybe it’s just the lucky coincidence of having moved to Central New York a few months before the 2007 vintage red wines were released, which many winemakers believe are the best red wines they’ve produced in the last ten years (the timing was similarly fortuitous for the terrific 2008 Rieslings).  Lucky timing aside, however, it’s confounding to visit local Syracuse-area wine shops and find few or no Finger Lakes Pinot Noirs on the shelves.  More often than not there are one or two Finger Lakes Cabernet Francs, a handful of inexpensive red blends made from French-American and native varietals, and plenty of Red Cat and Red Cat wannabes.  There are also any number of California and Oregon Pinots, with the Oregon wines priced at $30.00 and up, as well as Pinots from just about everywhere else in the winemaking world except the Finger Lakes: France, New Zealand, Australia, and yes, even Chile.  In fact, I’ve seen a growing number of Chilean Pinots showing up in local wine shops, which may be very good, reasonably priced wines. But I want Finger Lakes Pinot Noir.

I get quite excited, accordingly, when I come across a Finger Lakes Pinot, especially if it is made by a winemaker I know and respect, which was the case with this 2007 Billsboro Winery Pinot Noir.  I first met Billsboro’s head winemaker Vinnie Aliperti (who with his wife Kim are co-owners of the winery), this past summer at the Finger Lakes Cabernet Franc tasting I organized with Peter Becraft of Anthony Road winery and Evan Dawson of the New York Cork Report.  The Billsboro Cab Franc was one of my favorite wines at that tasting, and I since have enjoyed their Dry and off-dry Rieslings.  Vinnie and Kim acquired Billsboro in 2007, so this presumably is their first release of Pinot Noir.

I enjoyed this wine over lunch at Circa in Cazenovia, NY, my favorite local bistro, with Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, author of the Cookin’ in the ‘Cuse blog and a writer for Edible Finger Lakes magazine (I’ll write about our lunch at Circa, and our visit to the Red & White Cafe in DeRuyter for coffee and dessert in a follow-up post).  I later finished the bottle at home, where I took the following notes.

My overall impression is that this wine will improve with a few more months of bottle age, but that at present it is still young and a bit tight.  As one would expect, the wine is a bright ruby garnet in the glass, which a hint of orange towards the rim.  Although the wine was not particularly aromatic, likely another sign of its youth, swirling in the glass released aromas of black cherry, plum, and strawberry rhubarb pie, with a bit of baking spice and some earthy/leathery notes.

In addition to varietally correct flavors of cherry, plum and cranberry, there was an interesting, slightly tart, citrusy component that reminded me of kiwifruit.  The wine was medium bodied, with a good upfront mouthful of ripe red fruit followed by moderately firm tannins and noticeably high acidity.  After a bit of dry tannins on the back end, the wine finished with long, lingering fruit flavors.

I liked this wine, and hope to try it again in 6-12 months.  It needs some time for the tannins and high acidity to settle down and better integrate with the fruit, but with a bit more bottle age I think all the elements will come together.  At $22.00, this is a reasonably priced Pinot Noir that is certainly better made and more varietally correct than the majority of similarly priced California Pinots, and is significantly less expensive than Oregon Pinots.  I don’t usually score wines, but at present I would score this wine 86-87/100, with the expectation that within the next year it will improve to 88-89/100.  Although it is not a profound wine, it is yet another encouraging sign that Finger Lakes winemakers are producing some very good, competitively priced Pinot Noirs.  Hopefully, sooner rather than later, local wine shops will get the message and make some shelf space for these wines.

A final note: Readers may have noticed that the tag line for the blog header has been changed to “A blog on Central New York food, wine, art & culture.”  Although I will continue to post reviews and other pieces on Rieslings and other Finger Lakes wines, I want to expand the blog to include pieces on regional restaurants and local food producers, as well as on Central New York’s terrific arts scene and cultural resources.  Hopefully, the loss of focus will be offset by more regular postings on a broader range of interesting topics and events.