Finger Lakes Red: '03 Atwater Meritage

The ’03 Atwater Meritage from New York’s Finger Lakes is a perfect example that the region still has a lot to work on in respect to their red wines.

At 6 years, this wine was already on a downward trajectory and while I’m sure this wine was meant to be consumed on release, it still seems like a quick decline.

The wine is a blend of 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Cabernet Franc, and 17% Merlot. It has a brown/tawny color with secondary notes of oak, tar and smoke up front. Little fruit replaced by a vegetal green pepper aspect to the secondary aroma. Green pepper also mixed into the tart taste.

Not very good.

2006 Knapp – Dry Riesling – Finger Lakes

Pale yellow in color with a night light lime note mixed with flowers, green apples and nectarines.

This also has nice minerality, more prevalent on the taste than the nose. One thing about this wine though is that it lacks some crispness and the zip that I usually associate with Finger Lakes Riesling.

Still, this is a good wine. A perfect end if the summer quaffer.

This was $13 at Northside Wines in Ithaca, New York which makes it one of the more affordable Finger Lake Rieslings now-a-days. It’s a good wine and worth the price but like a said, best to think of this as a summer quaffer.

Enjoy!

2006 Standing Stone Riesling (Finger Lakes)

Standing Stone is another of my “go-to” Finger Lake Rieslings. Their 2006 Riesling is pale yellow with very evident minerality backed up by light citrus and some slightly more pronounced leeche or quince. Crisp and clean in taste and finish. All in harmony and overall a very nice wine.

This can be had for $13 at Northside Wine & Spirits in Ithaca, New York or $16 at Vintage-New York in Manhattan.

At $13 is a great QPR wine. At $16 is still am ok value but at that price, I start looking to entry level Old-World Riesling.

Even so, this is a solid B wine.

My one pet-peeve... Many Finger Lake wines use synthetic stoppers which I’m not a fan of and would much prefer that those wineries move to screw-cap. Standing Stone uses synthetic.