Chpt. 2, Dorothy's Not in Kansas Anymore...

Oskar, Oskar, Oskar, you didn't tell us about your marketing department! We met Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard's best kept secret the other day.... Sarah! We went to the tasting room where this lovely young lady was pouring the wines. She was articulate, knowledgeable and friendly. We had a wonderful time sharing the wines with her. As wannabe case club members, we got the royal treatment beginning with the 2008 Chardonnay, of which we bought 2 bottles. Slightly oak-y (Stainless and French oak barrels), but clean, crisp and citrus-y also, it is a great summer wine with seafood. Then we moved on to the delicious Rieslings and the 2009 Gewurztraminer (which we also purchased even though I promised my husband no more Gewurz). The thing is, when there is a really wonderful Gewurz, you just have to buy it! Owner/winemaker Fred Merwarth makes different Rieslings with grapes from his different vineyards such as the Wine Spectator 90 point 2008 Dry Riesling from the Magdalena Vineyard (his northern most vineyard) and the WS 92 point (!) 2009 Dry Riesling from the HJW Vineyard. It was fun doing a side by side tasting and comparing these delicious wines. Lastly, we purchased a 2009 Late Harvest Riesling which was an absolute treat (you'll just have to try it)!
As we discussed the wines, we also asked Sarah about herself. She is here for the year interning at Hermann J. Wiemer from Germany. This astounded us because of her perfect English. OK she has a VERY SLIGHT accent, but hardly noticeable. She has travelled extensively and has accompanied Oskar on jaunts to NY City and Washington D.C. to market Wiemer's wines. Her ultimate goal is something in marketing wines internationally. Then she told us her age. Just to be polite, I won't give exact numbers. Suffice it to say, she can't legally drink in the US and is not even in her second decade of life. (Interesting aside: she was able to drink in her country at 16, but couldn't drive a car until 18. Hmmm...)
This led Jim and I to ponder how mature and capable Sarah is in comparison to American teens her same age. I am a high school educator. Sarah's whole demeanor, confidence level and knowledge base blows away most of my students. Maybe Sarah is an over achiever, but regardless, this speaks loudly to the education of our children in comparison to the rest of the world. While I disagree with thrusting the business model onto education, SOMETHING needs to be done to better educate our children and their parents. If the Sarah's of the world are setting the bar, our children are falling way short.
Kudos to Sarah. We wish her the best and hope that as she deals with wines globally, she'll remember her year at one of the Finger Lake's finest wineries and promote the wonderful wines of the region. (Oskar, how about a raise for her)?

Travels to Oz Chapter 1

The sleet and snow pellets didn't stop us as we ventured out to visit favorite wineries yesterday. Yes it was April 21st! First stop - Fox Run Vineyards and Opus At Fox Run for a sandwich. Fox Run's former executive chef Heather Tompkins and Chelsey Madia opened their wildly successful Opus Expresso and Wine Bar in Geneva ( 486 Exchange St.) and, at the beginning of April, opened their second location in Fox Run's tasting room. Yay for all of us who eat there because the food is fantastic! Drooling over the unbelieveable sandwich and salad selection, we finally settled on a hot turkey and cranberry with asiago cheese on a wonderful nutty bread. Delicious!

Just as we placed our order, owners Scott and Ruth Osborn came over to say hi. We hadn't seen them in awhile, so we briefly caught up, then took our sandwiches and sat down to eat. As we were finishing, Scott came over, sat down and we discussed some of the new green plans he has for the winery. He invited us over to the tasting bar where we continued our conversation over several delicious wines. Ever the librarian, I mentioned to Scott that I just finished reading Evan Dawson's Summer in a Glass. (A must read by the way). Scott is part of the way through it, but he started with the chapters on his Winemaker Peter Bell and Assistant Winemaker Tricia Renshaw! Fox Run will host a book signing with Evan Dawson on June 4th.

We enjoyed tasting his award winning Rieslings, the Red Tierce and the White Tierce among others. We had a chance to sample the soon to be released Cab Franc Lemberger which is wonderful, so watch for it's release. (Here is the plug for joining wine clubs because you get first shot at new releases as well as limited productions such as the Blanc de Blanc we just received in our last shipment). We totally enjoyed our time at Fox Run with Scott. Where else but in the Finger Lakes can "average joe's" like us chat with the owner of one of the top 100 wineries in the world? We selected a couple of the Reserve Chardonnay, a Riesling and the Red Tierce to take home. (Red Tierce and the Ruby Port are almost sold out...) We will remember our afternoon at Fox Run as we savor the wines this summer.

Visit us on the Victor Wine Walk Friday Night!

On 4/29 we will be pouring wine for Standing Stone Vineyards at Sans Souci Jewelers 7 Main Street. Hope to see you there.