Back in the early 90's I started trying red wine upon the advice of my Dr, and as I began learning about the many wine producing regions of the world, I decided I'd like to visit one of these areas.
California was too far at the time, Europe wasn't an option, but there was an area that kept coming up in all of the books I was reading that I could drive to. And the reviews of the white wines from this region were of the opinion that they were world class, so I decided to plan a visit to the upstate NY area known as The Finger Lakes.
The lakes are the result of glaciers that covered that area, and resulted in long, narrow, and very deep indentations in the earth which eventually filled with fresh water. Two of the 5 main lakes are about 35 miles long, no wider than a mile at most, and between 500 to nearly 800 ft deep. The depth allows the water to retain heat during the winter months, and helps protect the vines from freezing in the vineyards planted on the slopes along the length of the lakes. The lakes have only frozen over 3 times in the last 100 years....
I visited a number of wineries over the course of a long weekend, and had a great time. The people pouring samples in the tasting rooms were friendly, helpful, and made the learning experience a lot of fun regardless of how much or little you knew about wine. As the reputation of this area has spread, there are quite a few new wineries and even some distilleries but the experience is still the same. I would recommend you visit there sometime, we like going after Labor day as the crowds have thinned out, it's more relaxed, and the weather is still nice.
Glenora Cellars produces a number of wines, from Riesling to many of the French hybrids (popular in this region for their cold hardy abilities) and some sparkling wines, one of which is their Peach Spumante. It smells and tastes like you bit into a perfectly ripe peach, it's off dry but not too sweet, has a creamy feel in the mouth and finishes smooth with just enough acidity to keep it in balance.
It's my wife's favorite bubbly, she only breaks it out on special occaisions and shares a glass with me (for which I'm grateful) available at the winery for $15.99, probably some retail locations in NY State near Glens Falls, and they do ship to NH.
Cheers!
Ed
Yum!!
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