International wines are often quite tricky to find in Barcelona, and the attentive reader will have noticed I tend to source my wines from a large variety of vendors and distributors in order to keep a broad coverage. However, some wines simply have no representation at all and so when someone is heading back from a wine trip from such an area and asks if you’d like a bottle or two, the only answer is a resounding “Yes, please!”. In this particular case, the wines hail from the Fingers Lakes region of the USA, a cool climate region to the north of New York State, close to the border with Canada.
The winery in particular was Forge Cellars and interestingly, the person who brought me the bottles didn’t go anywhere near the USA. In fact, he went to Gigondas, a region in the southern Rhone Valley better known for powerful Grenache based wines in a similar style to Chateauneuf-du-Pape. So what gives? Well, it turns out that the famous Chateau St. Cosme of Gigondas entered into a new project in 2008 in the Finger Lakes, joining up with Rick Rainey and Justin Boyette to form a project focused mainly around Riesling and Pinot Noir. It’s a tiny project in the scheme of things, with only 3.6ha planted with vines, all close to the largest and deepest lake in the region; Lake Seneca. They work with a variety of other growers in the region, but overall production remains small.
These lakes define the region, viticulturally speaking. Narrow and deep, they splay out like the fingers of a giant, icy hand which is how the region comes by its name. Like so many cold-climate regions, these large bodies of water moderate the extremes of both summer and winter temperatures, allowing for quality viticulture to exist. I’ve tried all of around 3 wines from the region, so I was delighted to try another two; a bottle of Riesling and Pinot Noir from Forge Cellars, specifically from their Classique range. I was curious to see stylistically how they’d turn out. Riesling is meant to be ideal for the climate here, but would it be steely and vibrant, or more delicate and precise? Alsace, Germany, Austria or Northern Italy? Would the Pinot Noir be a fruit-forward style or err more towards a Burgundian model. Would there be any obvious oak or other wine-making in either wine, and are they typical of the region? As always, there’s only one way to find out!
Forge Cellars Classique Dry Riesling 2015
Tasting Note
100% Riesling, mostly bought from 8 local growers from a variety of soil types. Fermented in old oak barrels using ambient yeasts. 3G/L residual sugar. 13% ABV
A vibrant gold colour in the glass and aromatically singing, with notes of ripe mandarin orange, green apple, jasmine, honey and a chalky, mineral aroma. Perhaps it’s the fruit sweetness but I detected a touch of sweetness here, surprisingly mellow acidity and a lovely, slightly creamy flavour profile. Definitely not what I expected! Has this been through MLF? A weighter, softer style of Riesling yet with very engaging flavours and certainly not flabby. 90Pts
Forge Cellars Classique Pinot Noir 2016
Tasting Note
100% Pinot Noir, mostly from their own estate. Fermented in stainless steel and aged in a variety of oak barriques for 10 months before bottling. 13% ABV
Well, it certainly looks like Pinot Noir! Aromatically my first thought was ‘Hrm, New World’ as the smoky, sweet oak is first out of the glass, but there’s a lovely fruit profile here as well. Ripe dark cherries, damson and strawberry fruit, earth and fennel is lurking behind the sweetness of the oak. Soft, supple tannins and a medium acidity enhance the New World feel to the wine, yet it’s not unpleasantly oaky and very much in balance as a whole. A dead ringer for a Central Otago Pinot Noir, with slightly lighter alcohol. A crowd pleaser. 90Pts
Interestingly, the wines didn’t match my expectations of a Finger Lakes wine at all. There was a lot of fruit ripeness and quite a bit of oak in the case of the Pinot Noir. Acidity levels were more moderate than expected in both wines, which I would have thought would be more prominent coming from such a cool climate, yet both wines were well balanced and varietally on the money. I wonder why the wines were softer than expected in both cases. Without visiting and seeing the land myself I can’t really say, but where these wines are mostly sold would also likely reveal some clues. Two well made wines and at around $20 and $25 a piece respectively in the USA, very good value in that market but I suspect there may be other projects in the Finger Lakes more to my tastes. The problem will be finding them!