War of Wineries--and Grapes--Echoes in New York State

Two of the most visible figures in the history of the New York wine industry, Walter S. Taylor and the late Dr. Konstantin Frank, waged a verbal war for years over whether New York state soil and climate were hospitable to French vinifera grapevines.

It was a war that obscured the real developmental work that was going on in Eastern grape growing and wine making and took the focus off the rapid improvement in New York’s wines.

For decades before his death in 1985, Frank, the crusty and outspoken viticulturist, fired volleys from his Vinifera Wine Cellars, stating categorically that vinifera grapes were perfectly applicable to the region. And that the French-American hybrids were detestable.

Taylor, scion of the family that founded the Taylor Wine Co. (which was later sold to Coca-Cola), argued bitterly, and at times outrageously, that the only grapes worth planting in the state were French-American hybrids. From his Bully Hill winery, established after the sale of his Taylor winery, he championed wines like Seyval, Baco and Vidal.

Hospitable to Vinifera

What neither man figured at the time was that New York would develop a new region--Long Island--that was found to be truly hospitable for vinifera. Nor could it be predicted, just four years ago, that both Frank and Taylor could be right--that depending on the region, French-American and vinifera grapes can do equally lovely things when liquefied properly.

Curiously, Hermann J. Wiemer, who was influenced greatly by both men, but for different reasons, stands today as a symbol of New York wine in the Finger Lakes region. He makes wine only from vinifera, though for a decade he was Walter Taylor’s wine maker, producing wine only from hybrid varieties.

“I was a fighter for the hybrids, but I never really accepted them,” Wiemer said. “They were OK and Seyval was one of the best, but they mature (in the bottle) differently.”

Wiemer left Bully Hill in 1979 to establish his own operation a decade ago, before the war between Taylor and Frank really heated up. Wiemer, German trained, focused on Frank’s theme: French varieties and using special growing techniques to develop mature flavors on the vine.

A Fast Run-Through

The striking thing is, he has succeeded--at least in terms of wine quality--far beyond anything Frank achieved, and a fast run-through of his wines one hot, humid day with mosquitoes gnawing at my legs proved eye-opening. (Unfortunately, most of the wines mentioned here are available only in New York at present, but many wineries are investigating marketing nationwide because of an unimpressed New York market.

The best of the Wiemer wines, a dramatic 1988 Dry Riesling ($7.50), is loaded with stylish fruit and comes off rich in the aftertaste despite a dry, crisp finish. Also excellent is a broad, rich, complex 1987 Chardonnay ($12) that offers depth from malolactic fermentation and still retains a measure of the lush fruit so rarely found in New York wines.

I was also highly impressed with Wiemer’s 1987 Pinot Noir, a wine with a lighter color (pale ruby) but with amazingly intense cherry-like fruit and deep, concentrated flavors. It is one of the most typically Beaune-styled Pinot Noirs I have ever tasted, a great wine and worth its elevated $16 price.

Wiemer makes only a small amount of wine but says he has interest in marketing some in California. And he knows the turf because he does vineyard consulting for both Buena Vista in Sonoma County and Kendall-Jackson in Lake County. (Wiemer’s wine maker is Dana Keeler.)

Seyval is the most reliable of the hybrid grape varieties; and in interviews with a dozen people, both wine makers and those in the trade, all agree that in spite of its high quality this grape is confusing to the public because it can be made in such a wide variety of styles.

The two classic types, as different from one another as you can imagine, are made by Wagner in the Finger Lakes and Benmarl in the Hudson Valley. Wagner’s 1987 Seyval Blanc ($4.50), barrel fermented and aged in oak, comes across broad and rich, seeming for all the world like a deep, rich Sauvignon Blanc. Benmarl’s style, conversely, is as lean and angular as a great Muscadet, without wood to muck up the citrusy notes. It sells for $6.

Seyval also adds a note of interest to blended wines, and one remarkable value is Wagner’s 1988 Reserve White, a wine that has a spice character and leafy quality akin to a fine French Colombard. At $3, it’s an absolute steal--except that New Yorkers shy away from it when they hear that half of it is the dreaded Seyval and that the remainder is made up of equal parts of Cayuga and Vidal. (Californians may not have such a phobia.)

One of the best wines I tasted on my excursion through New York’s vinous hinterlands was a 1987 Wagner Gewurztraminer ($7), a wine that was stunningly spicy and rich despite being surprisingly dry (yet lacking any bitterness so often found in dry Gewurz). I also loved Wagner’s 1988 Dry Riesling, also $7.

Still, some of New York’s top wines are made from grape varieties about which the rest of the country knows nothing and this hinders sales. For example, the Ravat grape, now also called Vignoles, gives a spicy nature to an otherwise fresh, lively fruity wine. It’s virtually unknown in California, where wine buyers abound.

Chardonnay in New York

After a period of confusion over how the grapes grew and in what style to render the resulting wine, Chardonnay is slowly coming into its own in the Finger Lakes. Still, the wines are all over the block in terms of style, from Wagner’s too-big, American oak-laden 1987 ($11) to Glenora’s attractive Chablis look-alike ($9). The lovely 1988 Hunt Country, made by Art and Joyce Hunt of Lake Keuka, accents the fruit, not the mechanics of its production, and may be a style that region will hew to for a while.

Chardonnay and Cabernet are making faster strides on Long Island, where Pindar appears to be the style leader. Wine maker Bob Henn’s barrel-fermented Chardonnays are fairly big but with a fruitiness leaning toward pear and pineapple. They are $11, but better value are the regular Chardonnays from Pindar ($9), which accent spice and delicacy.

Another property doing excellent work with Chardonnay is Palmer, where wine maker Gary Patzwald’s Chardonnays, similar to Pindar’s, show mint/spice elements when not barrel fermented and peach character when the wine is barrel fermented.

The most exciting Cabernet I tasted on the trip was at Pindar, a 1987 loaded with high acidity and in need of long-term aging. The best Merlot was again at Pindar, a 1987 with deep, classical notes and a peppery-olivey undertone. At $13, it will be a hot item when released Sept. 1.

The best red wine I tasted was a blended wine at Pindar that has about one-third Cabernet Sauvignon and smaller percentages of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petite Verdot--a classic Bordeaux-type blend. The wine, to be called Mythology, is dramatic proof that Long Island can grow red grapes such as these.

The Aging Factor

By this time, you may be wishing you had not read this far because not only do you have to contend with vinifera grape names but you also have to remember the French-American hybrid grape names, and that still doesn’t take into consideration the style of the wine.

So the question then may be asked: do any of these wines age?

No one can say for sure with New York’s Cabernets because we don’t have a long enough track record of them, but wines made from the hybrid varieties, which can often be hard and acidic when young, do indeed age beautifully.

After my visit to Benmarl, owner Mark Miller gave me a bottle of a 1979 Cuvee de Vigneron, his proprietary blend of Baco, Chelois and Foch. These three hybrid varieties have made better and better wine on their own in recent years, some of them imitating baby Rhone wines. And at prices that are hardly wallet-busting.

But Miller’s blend, now nearly a decade old, was an amazingly deep, complex wine, reminiscent of new leather and spice. It was downed in no time by a group of Finger Lakes wine makers when I served it at a picnic dinner on the upper end of Keuka a few days later. It almost defies description and certainly doesn’t come across as a wine made from a hybrid. It resembled a great old Rhone.

Other exciting things are happening at the biggest winery in the state (Taylor/Great Western/Gold Seal) and at the smaller ones such as Rivendell.

The giant, now owned by Vintners International, has had four owners in the last 15 years. Coca-Cola bought it from the Taylor family in 1975 then sold the huge property to Seagram in 1983; Vintners bought it in 1987. Today, among the three brands, the winery puts out 115 items, just a fraction from vinifera grapes.

Tiny Rivendell, on the other hand, has camouflaged its excellent line of wines by using proprietary designations, and among the more intriguing names are wines called Northern Lights (using Vidal as the primary grape), Southern Nights (a blush wine), Apres (a dessert wine) and Homstead CQ? Red (using De Chaunac).

Rivendell even named one fun wine Big Blue and used a type style on the label that looked similar to IBM’s. When that wine found its way to IBM’s offices, someone at IBM reportedly was upset, but legal action never developed.

Against the Grain

Doug Knapp even had the temerity to grow Cabernet Sauvignon at his property off Cayuga Lake, despite advice that that tactic was idiotic. By using good farming techniques, Knapp Vineyards’ Cabernet is an excellent wine.

One curious element about New York wine is pricing. Virtually every wine is listed as a penny below round figures--$10.99, $6.99--almost as if that will make the wines appear even less expensive. (Prices listed here were rounded off.) New York’s inferiority complex is showing when it prices its wines this way.

But one thing is evident: the wines of New York have made enormous strides forward and were it not for lack of respect they receive in their own land, would be making splashier headlines than they now do.