Standing Stone's Vertical Wine Tasting

Let me set the stage: early August, 85 degrees, a big tent in the front of the winery facing the lake where a wedding had been the day before (what a setting for a wedding!), a cloudless summer day with a blue sky and a gentle breeze. We sat on (what is now) an enclosed porch facing the lake as we enjoyed the wines and the informal chat with the winery's owner, Marti Macinski, a lawyer turned vintner with her husband Tom. This was a vertical wine tasting where you sample the same wine from different years. The wine - Cabernet Franc - yum!

The Cab Franc's we tasted were from 1995, 1998, 2001, 2005, and 2006. If you have never been to a vertical wine tasting, it is a real experience to taste older wines. Sometimes you don't really know what to expect from an older wine and wonder, when you open it, if it is corked or if that's the way it is supposed to taste. Vertical tastings or tastings of library wines give you an experience that most of us have never had who don't have extensive, really aged wines in our wine cellars (or the boxes of wine in the basement as the case may be). Jim and I went to a tasting at McGregor's Winery about 5 years back where we tasted a really old (20+ year old) Riesling. It tasted like petroleum! That is what old Rieslings apparently taste like, but I would have thrown it out after smelling it! Go figure!

Anyway, these Cab Franc's really showed the growth of the Cab Franc wine at Standing Stone. The 1995 Cab Franc was what you would expect from a red wine of the Finger Lakes region at that point in time. It was OK, but nothing special. 1998 was a little better because it was a good growing year, but still - none of the nuances and flavors that make a really good Cab Franc. The 2001 was MUCH better due to different techniques in the growing, harvesting and aging processes and a new winemaker who came on board in 2000. We both liked the 2005 the best. This was a fantastic growing season and all the improvements came together to produce a wonderful, smooth Cab Franc with lots of cherry and plum flavors. The 2006 was good, too, but not quite as full bodied as the 2005 due to a different growing season. (And we know the 2007 growing season was really good, too, so get ready for another excellent Cab Franc)! We discussed terrior (how the minerals in the land affect flavor) with Marti. Seneca, Keuka, and Cayuga Lakes all have different flavors in their Cab Francs depending on the lake the grapes are grown on as well as the side of the lake they are on.

Standing Stone Winery in Lodi, New York offers vertical and other wine tastings. Check out their website http://www.standingstonewines.com/ for more details. We enjoyed it so much, we joined their wine club which allows us to come back for more vertical or library wine tastings as well as receiving 2 bottles of wine every few months.

I think a good idea for our next wine tasting with The Pack would be to blind taste Rieslings or Cab Francs from each lake and see which ones we like best. I'll get back to you with the results! Better yet, let me know if your wine group does this and what you liked and I'll post everyone's results!