Chances are you have never encountered the Finger Lakes Region on the label of a bottle of wine. I don't think I had, previously, nor did I know that New York state even produces wine. Yesterday, I went and found out why this is. And if you think that this place is really too far north to produce decent wine, I'm afraid you're entirely right.
With seven other people who share a love of critism, theory, and the juice of the vine, I headed north along Cayuga lake, to the area where most of the local wineries are. (The fact that two of those people not only own cars, but also took the trouble of driving up to Ithaca from Texas and California, greatly facilitated this endeavour.)
Our first stop was a place called "Swedish Hill" (another one you're not likely to have seen on any bottle) and discovered that the NY State climate is really not conducive to producing great red wine. While the whites were not generically very horrible, we continued our quest along three more vineyards, trying to find something drinkable - and being generally disappointed. To conclude our afternoon, we ended up having the worst fish and chips ever in the most American restaurant imaginable.
But, you know what - it is truly amazing how much fun you can have on really bad wine and terrible food, if everyone is willing to at least see the irony of the whole thing (and few things are more straightforwardly funny than seeing people discretely dumping glasses of really bad wine over their shoulders as soon as the winemaker has turned her back). I don't think the NY wine industry truly appreciated our little gang of wine critics, but the feeling was definitely mutual.
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