Sampling Riesling in the Finger Lakes

Mid-October brings peak foliage colors to the rolling farmland that
surrounds the long glacially carved lakes in western New York. It's also the
heart of the harvest season for wineries picking their award-winning
Riesling grapes. If you haven't tasted a Finger Lakes wine in some time,
give it the chance to surprise you. I found that their white wines can stand
toe-to-toe with the best of Napa and Sonoma, and surprisingly their reds are
starting to have much more complexity, with vintners creating top-notch
pinot noirs and cab francs. Walking into the tasting room at Heron Hill
Winery on the shores of Keuka Lake, I looked up at the high wooden ceiling
and felt like I was inside an oak barrel. The Ingle Vineyard Riesling was
crisp with hints of apple, while the sweeter semi-dry Riesling is their
number one seller. The crème de la crème, however, was the 2006 Ingle
Vineyard Late Harvest Riesling, a dessert wine not nearly as cloying as a
typical ice wine, yet creamy enough to garner a rating of 90 in Wine
Spectator. If you want to participate in the late harvest, you'll have to
wait until mid-November, when the weather cools down significantly. Bring
gloves.

Posted by Steve Jermanok, Globe correspondent

Steve Jermanok blogs daily at www.ActiveTravels.com.