Finger Lakes wineries aim to produce a 'great red'

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Dec 15, 2000 by Fitting, Beth

PENN-YAN - Finger Lakes vine growers and wine makers are taking up a new challenge - to grow and bottle a "great red."

Jim Trezise, president of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation in Penn Yan, says that area wineries have been producing a good Riesling, a white wine, for a number of years. Now the area needs "a great red wine to put us on the map," says Trezise. And are wine growers think that that great red might be Pinot Noir.

"Pinot Noir is grown in Burgundy," Trezise explains, "which has a relatively cool climate, as does the Finger Lakes. Several Finger Lakes wineries have been making this wine for a number of years. This could be the great red wine of the Finger Lakes. We have a great Riesling. But we need one of each," he says, to establish the Finger lakes as a first-class wine-making region. The challenge, says Trezise, is to produce enough of the wine. "We need to know how to grow it, and we need more acreage."

Currently, Trezise says that around 100 to 200 acres are planted with Pinot Noir grapes in the area, and he would like to see that number "doubled or tripled over the next five to 10 years." He adds that Pinot Noir is a "high-end wine" that would sell for $15 to $25 a bottle, "so it's profitable" in smaller quantities.

Scott Osborn, president and general manager of Fox Run vineyards in Penn Yan on Seneca Lake, says that there is "plenty of land and it's relatively inexpensive. The problem is that we don't have people investing in the area. We need to get the word out."

Bob Madill, general manager of the Sheldrake Point Winery and Cafe in Ovid on Cayuga Lake, is chairman of the Finger Lakes Pinot Noir Alliance, a group of 18 Finger Lakes wine growers that are interested in growing, or are growing, Pinot Noir. The group was formed early this year.

Earlier this week, the Alliance sponsored a Cool Climate Pinot Noir Conference in Geneva. Its purpose, according to Madill, was to "share information and experience. The original idea was to study in France how Pinot Noir grapes mature and the best wine-making practices."

Then, he says, the group decided to hold the conference and invite experts from the University of Burgundy. This developed into a major conference, he continues, with four principal speakers from France. "We had a two-fold objective: to exchange technical information and to build a collegial group of people who have an interest in making Pinot Noir."

The Alliance, says Madill, "is not just a union to move the prices up. We need to establish the integrity of the wine, to show it's worth the money."

The first day of the Cool Climate Pinot Noir Conference was open to the public, and consisted of morning and afternoon workshops led by experts from France, Canada, Pennsylvania, Cornell University, and area wineries. The second day was directed toward the technical aspects of growing Pinot Noir and producing the wine.

Madill says that producing a great Pinot Noir is "not like manufacturing, it's a long-term project."

"After the first planting," explains Trezise, "you get the first real commercial wine in about five years." He adds that local wine growers also need to do research to find the best sites for the grape.

Thomas Henick-Kling, associate professor of enology and microbiology at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station of Cornell University in Geneva, says, "Pinot Noir is not an easy grape to grow. It likes a cool climate, but not a cool, wet growing season, because it rots easily. And you need to grow a low yield per acre to get the [proper] ripeness and concentrated flavor." He adds, "We can do it here."

Henick-Kling explains that the grape is not only difficult to grow, but it's more difficult to process than other wines. (Processing includes pressing and fermentation.) "In the vineyard, it's important to select the right stock. Pinot Noir responds differently in different places. We're beginning to sort them out," he says. He and his colleagues have "looked at more than 25 selections of Pinot Noir, how they grow. We've picked five that we think are good for the Finger Lakes. The intriguing thing about Pinot Noir,-" says Henick-Kling, "is that it responds to the site. Pinot Noir [wine] is supposed to express its origin." But most importantly, says Henick-Kling, the area not only needs the lake's climate and other growing conditions, but people who are committed to growing a good Pinot Noir.

Researchers such as Henick-Kling are necessary for the Finger Lakes wineries to succeed with their Pinot Noir wines, says Madill. "We [the wine growers] are not good at R&D, but we have Cornell, and the New York State Agriculture and Markets Department is helping us not just to get a better-price for our wine and more markets, but to establish a wine-making culture here."

The Finger Lakes is known to winegrape growers as a "cool climate" area, because of its warm days and cool nights, and its temperate climate, with warm summers and cool winters. Osborn explains that the area's maritime climate is also good for the cool-climate grape varieties. "Pinot Noir ripens early, and it is winter hardy," but the lakes temper the climate, and that protects the vines. "Seneca Lake, for example, never freezes. It's one of the deepest lakes in North America, at 650 feet." He says that, "when it's 15 degrees below zero in Syracuse, it's zero here in the Finger Lakes."