TasteCamp East Highlights

It’s difficult to take concise notes while tasting hundreds of wines, balancing notebook, pen, and wine glass, and posturing for the best trajectory into the spittoon. Still, TasteCamp East did provide time for individual visits to wineries. In my next series of posts I’ll offer some highlights from a few of those visits.

Ravines Wine Cellars: The Danish-born, French-schooled winemaker/enologist Morten Hallgren and his American wife Lisa (also a chef) came to upstate New York by a rather circuitous route through San Antonio, Texas, and Asheville, North Carolina.

Morten was recruited to the Finger Lakes to become head winemaker at Dr. Konstantin Frank. During his tenure, production grew from 22,000 to 45,000 cases per year.

At their own little winery on the eastern side of Keuka Lake the Hallgrens make extremely food-friendly wines from mostly Vinifera grapes. I might have taken more notes had I not been inhaling Lisa’s homemade and very addictive flat-bread crackers. Here are three of my more lucid recollections:

Dry Riesling 2006: Slice-your-tongue-off acidity is intertwined with flowers, pears, limes, and minerals. I could have used some fatty foods to go with those crackers.

Dry Riesling 2008, Argetsinger Vineyard: All the grapes in this wine come from the single vineyard of grape grower Sam Argetsinger. I’m told he is quite the character. The wine had the same intense minerality with floral notes, citrus, and great acidity, plus a little more richness and body on the finish.

Cabernet Franc 2007: Red fruits and herbs intertwined with a hint of cranberry bitterness add dimension to this leaner style of Cab Franc. I brought a bottle home that my husband and I drank with roasted chicken and sautéed rapini.

Stay tuned for the next stop—a tasting and vineyard tour of Damiani Wine Cellars.

Tags: wine