Travel: The Finger Lakes

Although I was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, I grew up in Western New York State. My parents moved there when I was in grammar school. My father was a New Brunswick native. My mother hailed from Hornell in New York State’s Southern Tier. I graduated from Hornell High School in 1958 the year of my mother’s 25th Anniversary of graduating from the same school. We returned to Hornell in 1983 to celebrate her Golden and my Silver Anniversary and last month I made the trip again to mark my own 50th Graduation Anniversary. I had forgotten how beautiful this area known as the Finger Lakes Region is. There are eleven lakes but it is the five largest arranged like the thumb and fingers of a splayed hand which give the region its name. They are Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca, Cayuga and Skaneatles. If these names sound Native American, you are right on the mark. This is the land of the Great Iroquois Confederacy; the land of the Long House, a form of representative government so well regarded that no less an observer than Benjamin Franklin notes its influence in the debates of our Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.

This is also a significant wine producing area albeit one with a checkered past. This region gave us wines made from grapes of the species vitis labrusca, Concord Grape Wine, Catawba Pink and White Niagara. These grapes have a musky or foxy taste disdained by serious wine enthusiasts.

Despite the disdain as the huge Widmer Winery in Naples, New York attests there is still a lively and lucrative market for these products which include the near- legendary Jewish sacramental wine Manischewitz. The day we visited Widmer the gift shop was packed.

There are many wineries most small boutique operations dotted around the Finger Lakes making wine from grapes of the species vitis vinifera from which 99% of the world’s wines are made. Cooler weather varietals such as the German Riesling, Johannesburg Riesling and Gewurztraminer do particularly well. In my view you would be hard pressed to find a more delicious wine for your Easter ham than Dr. Konstantin Frank’s off dry Johannesburg Riesling grown above Keuka Lake.

The newly opened and well designed New York State Wine and Food Center on Canandaigua Lake is a superb place to begin a visit to the Finger Lakes Wine Region. The Dining Around Program Summary for today’s date has more resource material on the Finger Lakes.