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The East Coast is a major winemaking region-and it has arrived! Those who would speak against that fact would have to be oblivious to the more than 250 wineries to be found between Maine and Virginia. The fact that so many wineries are thriving is testament to a new movement in winemaking.
And to those in the know, including such magazines and newspapers as Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Bon Appétit, and other major publications, the reputations of the wines being made are sparkling.
The Los Angeles Times published an article in March 2001 titled "Who Makes the Best Riesling? New York, Baby!"-this from the state with the wine capital of the United States (Napa Valley). In this article, the Wine & Spirits magazine writer Rod Smith claimed, "In only the last ten years or so has the Finger Lakes wine community begun to attract world wide attention with Riesling, Pinot Noir, and sparkling wines that can stand with the world's best." Looking ahead, Robb Walsh wrote an article for American Way magazine asking the question, "The Next Napa? The Fabulous Future of New York's Finger Lakes Wine Region."
Renowned Food & Wine writer Lettie Teague also chimed in on the phenomenon of Finger Lakes success with her August 2002 article titled "New York State of Mind." In it Teague admitted to never having tasted an upstate wine. But on her first pilgrimage to the region she was impressed with the Riesling and the Gewürztraminer. Speaking of Riesling, she wrote, "It's the one Finger Lakes wine that has gotten some attention from the rest of the world." Her intention on making her journey had been to find an excellent Riesling. "But like a character in a Jane Austen novel," she confessed, "I ended up falling in love with another: Gewürztraminer."
Howard G. Goldberg, wine writer for the New York Times and columnist for Decanter magazine, has written more than any other newspaper or magazine writer on the East Coast wines. For his newspaper he has covered New York State (including Long Island, the Finger Lakes, and the Hudson Valley), Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, and New Jersey. Goldberg can easily extol the virtues of any of those regions quickly, succinctly, and happily. Writing in the New York Times about New Jersey wines, for example, he led with a sober truth: "New Jersey wine is hardly a top priority of the state's wine drinkers." But he went on to extol the virtues of the state's recent winner of the Governor's Cup, a prize awarded in each state for the best wine entered for that year. In his weekly column, Goldberg has championed Chardonnays, blushes, rosés, Rieslings, Gewürztraminers, dessert wines, Merlots, Cabernet Sauvignons, and more from all these states. He is one of the great prophets of East Coast winemaking.
Two other evangelists must be mentioned as well. One is Marguerite Thomas, whose Wineries of the Eastern United States sits dog-eared on my shelf. She was the first to attempt to put some kind of order to the eastern wineries and help establish the region. Her book is the standard by which all others will be judged. The second evangelist is Lisa Shea. As a guide on About.com, she has reviewed as many eastern wineries, especially in New England, as anyone else. Her friendly, cheerful, and quirky reviews have guided thousands to the wonderful treasures of the Northeast. She has certainly been a guidepost to this tourist and author.
Long Island is another story. Wine Spectator magazine regularly awards wines from New York scores of 80 and above-some as high as the low 90s. From the toughest of wine critics, these reviews are tantamount to a profession of respect, if not love. Meanwhile the New York Times has vigilantly chronicled the many successes of Long Island in too many articles to begin recounting them here.
"In the late seventies and the early eighties . . . Virginia became one of the . . . most dynamic wine regions on the East Coast," wrote Karen MacNeil in The Wine Bible. Just how dynamic might that be? World-renowned winemaker Warren Winiarski of Stags Leap (and former president of the International Wine and Spirits Competition) wrote this assessment in an introduction to Felicia Warburg Rogan's Virginia Wines & Wineries: "I have suggested that many of Virginia's wineries have their wines judged at an international level. . . . it was my impression . . . that many wines had transcended their regional virtues and could be judged on a world stage."
Regionwide, the same story is being repeated. The Beverage Testing Institute and Wine Enthusiast Magazine have awarded scores in the 80s and 90s to wines from all over the East Coast. Today, wines from these states regularly appear in food magazines rated alongside wines from not only California but around the world. Food & Wine, Gourmet, Bon Appétit, and others recommend them among their "Top Ten" and "Highly Recommended" lists.
Many major wine regions begin by establishing themselves in a particular type of wine. It was the same with microbreweries a decade ago. They didn't make the same pilsners you could buy from a major brewery; they established themselves by creating or reviving small-niche beers. So, too, the East Coast wineries first established an ability for making quality wines that were not part of the mainstream; now they are branching out to more recognized varietals. But some of the esoteric wines that were made first have also gone on to establish themselves as quality wines.
THE NEW WINES
In the United States, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are the hallmarks of California. In that region, superior whites matured before the reds.
The whites of the East matured faster too. East Coast winemakers now turn out some excellent white wines. Some notable Chardonnays are from Millbrook (N.Y.), Chadds- ford (Pa.), Piedmont Vineyards and Winery (Va.), Catoctin (Md.), and Sakonnet (R.I.), as well as a host of Long Island wineries. There are excellent sparkling wines of Westport Rivers (Mass.), Hermann J. Wiemer (N.Y.), and Chateau Frank (N.Y.).
However, the East has introduced the wine-drinking public to other, lesser-known whites. Unionville Vineyards (N.J.) and Sakonnet Vineyards (R.I.) both make excellent Seyval Blancs and Vidal Blancs. And Chateau Morrisette (Va.) makes a sweet light blend called Our Blue Dog that is delightful, and the perfect pairing for summer soups and salads. Penn Shore's (Pa.) Reflections of Lake Erie, the white wines of Dr. Konstantin Frank (N.Y.), and the joint venture between Tomasello and Sylvin Vineyards (both N.J.) all rate highly.
One of the most prized titles the East Coast can now boast about is that of an exceptional maker of Rieslings and Gewürztraminers. Hermann J. Wiemer (N.Y.), Dr. Konstantin Frank (N.Y.), and Standing Stone (N.Y.) rate among the world's best producers of those styles, easily outranking California, Oregon, and Washington in those categories. Even Unionville Vineyards (N.J.) makes a nice Riesling.
Fruit wines and dessert wines (which should not be confused with one another) have flourished here. From the exceptional ice wines of Elk Run (Md.) and Hunt Country (N.Y.), to Duck Walk's Aphrodite (Late Harvest Gewürztraminer) (N.Y.) and Pindar's Late Harvest Gewürztraminer (N.Y.) and Wolffer's Late Harvest Chardonnay (N.Y.), to the exciting fruit wines of Bartlett (Maine), to the exquisite Red Raspberry wine of Alba Vineyards (N.J.), the East Coast has brought forth a cornucopia of new wines.
MEADS AND CIDERS
The East Coast has also seen a rise in the making of meads and sophisticated Frenchand English-style ciders. Wonderful meads are being made at The Meadery at Greenwich (N.Y.) and Earle Estates (N.Y.) among others. And wonderful ciders are being produced by such establishments as Farnum Hill (N.H.) and Hudson Valley Draft Cider Company (N.Y.). Frank Browning wrote in Food & Wine magazine that they "make a drink as sophisticated as champagne." These are not inexpensive quaffing ciders but world-class dry and off-dry handcrafted ciders that call out for sophisticated dishes and gourmet treatment. Any decent wine cellar should have two or three.
There have even been some real strides in the making of red wines on the East Coast. The Pinot Noirs of Dr. Konstantin Frank (N.Y.) and Chaddsford (Pa.), the red blend of Blue Mountain (Pa.), the Italian-style reds of Basignani (Md.) and Villa Appalachia (Va.), and the Merlots of Long Island, like Macari's Bergen Road and Pellegrini's Merlot-among others-are drinkable, savory, sophisticated dry red wines that pair nicely with all kinds of food. Shockingly, one of the most interesting dry reds we tasted was Bartlett's Blueberry Dry (Maine), an Italian-style red wine made solely from blueberries . . . and you wouldn't know it.
Yes, there are some horrible wines out there. But any wine taster could tell you the same about West Coast wines-or those of any region. And yes, the East Coast, which for more than a century has been the home of Concord wines, has been known for the purply, sweet concoctions one critic infamously derided as "grape juice with a shot of booze in it." Those days are gone, and the people who use that quote are the ones who are going to miss all the fun.