Niagara Escarpment

Local Wines for Summer Picnics

When you talk about the summer picnic season, you can’t avoid mentioning Memorial Day weekend, and with more Americans drinking wine these days, I can only assume beer won’t be the only thing people in western New York will be cooling off with this weekend. Since a recent Buffalo News wine story seems to have left out any mention of local wines in their picnic wine selections, I thought I’d give my two cents on what you should drink from local wineries with that picnic fare.

Chances are when you think of warm weather wines, you think of white, so I’ll start there. If you dig the dry stuff, Schulze Vineyards & Winery has a Siegfried Reserve 2007 wine that will bring that refreshing acidity and green apple fruit your mouth is watering for. If Riesling is your bag then, try either of these Niagara Escarpment AVA Rieslings. For the dry Riesling drinker in you Freedom Run Winery’s Estate Riesling 2008 is my pick, and if you like the hint of sweetness in a semi-dry, Eveningside Vineyards Riesling 2008 is for you.

For both the oaked and unoaked Chardonnay drinkers, I recommend Arrowhead Spring’s Chardonnay 2006. Duncan Ross seems to have a touch with this grape and I’d pour this one for any dry white drinker, no matter their love or hate of oak.

When you can’t decide what to pair with picnic foods, a dry to off-dry rosé usually does the trick. Freedom Run’s Celebration Series Dry Rosé is a great example of a crowd- pleasing summer sipper. With notes of strawberry and watermelon coming through in a supple yet refreshing rosé wine, this one doesn’t disappoint.

If you’re doing some BBQ’d meats you might prefer some reds at your picnic. In my opinion summer reds must be fruity with soft tannins and a medium body, and Leonard Oakes’ Frontenac 2007 is just that. It’s juicy and soft with mellow tannins that will pair well with BBQ ribs, pork or burgers. Schulze Vineyards & Winery’s Cabernet Franc 2007 is another versatile red that will pair well with those choices or even that grilled rib eye steak.

What do you pair with dessert or what do you serve for those sweet wine drinkers? Well Honeymoon Trail Winery’s Pink Catawba is a double-gold medal sweet wine that will win over those sweet taste buds. If wine IS the dessert, then Niagara Landing’s Vidal Blanc Icewine 2007 should fit the bill with its apricot and honey flavors and lengthy finish.

No matter what your eating or who you’re eating it with, it’s more than easy these days to find a Niagara wine to open up with your friends and family this summer. There’s truly something for everyone at these wineries, so don’t let your local wine expert’s silence about local wines lead you to believe that we are just doing sweet stuff out here this summer.

Harvest Update as of Oct. 8

Just some notes from this year's grape harvest to add today. All the press coming out of Ontario Wine Country has been positive with "as good as it gets" as a common reference to this years growing season. I'm getting the impression that Niagara USA Wine Region growers agree.

I wrote the first harvest report from the region for Lenndevours New York Food and Wine Blog last week. Lenn does a fantastic job of writing about NY wines, especially his in depth coverage of Long Island Wine Country. His interest in the Niagara Wine region is growing and I hope his readers, of which there are many, share the same curiosity in what's happening up here.

Randy Biehl of Eveningside Vineyards in Cambria, NY reported harvesting Chardonnay on Oct. 1 with text book quality fruit with plans to harvest his Riesling this week. He also mentioned that his vineyards are experiencing a full canopy and a healthy crop even though this summer has been severe drought conditions. Randy agrees with most on the Canadian side of the border that this summer has the makings of a classic vintage.

Duncan Ross of the soon to open Arrowhead Spring Vineyards harvested his Chardonnay last week and called this season a wonderful year. Freedom Run Winery in Lockport, NY harvested their Cabernet Franc last week and crushed yesterday with picture perfect brix and acidity levels from their young vines.

WBW #36 Naked Chardonnay

My contribution to this month's WBW aka Wine Blogging Wednesday is totally by chance as like most deadlines in my life, it snuck up on me fast. I stopped at Eveningside Winery in the Niagara Escarpment AVA this past Sunday for a tasting. I was passing by and thought since I hadn't been inside for a year, it would be well worth a stop. I've written about Eveningside Winery before and had been impressed by their balanced red wines, including a Cab Franc/Cab Sauv blend and their Claret. This time around I found out they had just sold out their first estate-grown single varietal Cabernet Franc, and after I accepted this fact, I got into tasting the dry whites. I was most impressed by the naked Chardonnay and the oaked Chardonnay, with my purchase coincidentally being of the naked variety.

Eveningside Vineyards Chardonnay 2006
Niagara Escarpment, New York ($14)

Now there are a few things you should know about this winery. For one, I'm pretty sure that the owner, Randy Biehl, only has one acre of his own grapes on site. Another thing you must know if that he trained on the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario, Canada where grapes like Riesling, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Franc can thrive under the right vineyard manager and winemaker. The soils and climate of the Niagara Escarpment AVA are extremely similar and Randy's wines are just as good if not better than most I've tasted across the border. His extremely small-batch production gives him complete control over the quality of his wines and it shows.

This 2006 "naked" Chardonnay is a taste of heaven. Pale yellow in the glass, it offers generous aromas of apple, pineapple, and honey. The texture is dangerously delicate as it walks the line of a having crisp acidity and a suppleness that I found to be as attractive as any white wine I've had in recent memory. The finish is long and clean. My fiance and I were literally blown away by this wine. Let's face it Eveningside Winery, just as the Niagara Wine Trail, is very much in its youth, but if this wine is any indication of what's in store for the future, then I see a hell of a lot of naked wine drinking to come.