DAY TRIPS
In the Finger Lakes, the Sweet Taste of Winter
By TATIANA BONCOMPAGNIIt's 12 degrees outside, there's at least a foot of snow on the ground, and Bob Madill, a winegrower in the Finger Lakes region of New York, is picking grapes. For makers of ice wine, a dessert-style wine that gets its nuanced sweet flavor from grapes that have been allowed to freeze on the vine, the recent spate of Arctic weather has been ideal for harvesting. ''Fun and crazy is sort of what this is,'' said Mr. Madill, one of the owners of Sheldrake Point Vineyard on Cayuga Lake in Ovid, N.Y.
FROZEN ON THE VINE Bob Madill of Sheldrake Point Vineyard in Ovid, N.Y., harvested grapes this monch for ice wine. Many Finger Lakes wineries stay open in the winter.For those crazy enough to make the trek to the Finger Lakes in winter, the ice wine season can mean an intimate look inside the operations of one of New York's prime wine regions. During the winter months almost a dozen wineries, many of them family owned and operated, are in the process of picking, pressing and fermenting this year's yield of ice wine. There are often only a handful of people in the tasting rooms, allowing the sales staff -- frequently including the winemakers and vineyard owners -- to guide visitors through their various vintages. Some even offer an impromptu tour or a taste of wines straight from the cask.
That's what Kate Coster, a computer trainer at a talent agency in Manhattan, and her partner found on the wine trail in mid-January. Mainly in the area to visit the Harriet Tubman Home, the couple ended up spending 45 minutes tasting five wines each at Sheldrake Point. ''The lack of other people allowed us to belly up to the bar and stay for a while,'' said Ms. Coster, who also tried the linguine, part of a continuing cooking demonstration at the vineyard.
At other vineyards, the mood was a bit livelier. ''I love the party atmosphere,'' said Cynthia Simon, who had made the 150-mile drive from her home in Bloomsburg, Pa., for a day and went home with more than $200 worth of wine. ''People were kibitzing more,'' said Mrs. Simon, who has visited the Finger Lakes' wineries in the summer.
People like Mrs. Simon are part of the reason winter visitors tend to get a warm reception at the Finger Lakes' 80-odd vineyards. During summer months, tasting rooms are crowded with people taking a break from swimming or tennis. But in the winter, vineyard operators say, only true wine lovers brave the snowdrifts and freezing temperatures of upstate New York. ''In the summer we get as many as 2,000 visitors a day, but a lot of them walk out without buying anything,'' said Leanne Powers, retail director at Heron Hill Winery on Keuka Lake. ''In the winter, people buy.''
On her recent three-day trip to the vineyards, Lia Seltzer, 31, planned to do just that. Undeterred by the cold, Ms. Seltzer rented a small cabin and persuaded her husband, Tim, to drive their minivan instead of their smaller S.U.V. so there would be room to cart all the cases home to Long Island. ''The vidal blanc is outrageous,'' Ms. Seltzer said of her favorite wine from the region.
But it's ice wine that is increasingly putting the Finger Lakes region on the wine map. In the last three years, sales of ice wine made in the area, as well as on Long Island, which more recently jumped into the ice-wine-making fray, have more than doubled, said Susan Wine of Vintage New York, a shop with two locations in Manhattan and one at Rivendell Winery in New Paltz that sell only New York wines. ''The Japanese who come in to shop know to buy ice wine,'' Ms. Wine said. ''It's something that everyone knows New York does really well.''
New York vineyards first started making the sweet dessert wine about 15 years ago, but its roots stretch back hundreds of years to the vineyards of Germany and Austria, where it is known as eiswein. Winemakers there discovered that when they left grapes on the vines to freeze and thaw during winter's first months, the temperature cycles had the effect of concentrating both the sugars and flavors of the grapes. Then, when picked during a certain temperature range -- from about 12 degrees to 18 degrees, a kind of magic window when the juice inside the grapes has thawed but the water has not -- they yield a concentrated, amber-colored liquid.
In New York, many of the wineries, like Standing Stone Vineyards on Seneca Lake, have been making ice wine by picking grapes earlier in the season and freezing them artificially, a process called cryoextraction. But in 2002, the federal agency overseeing the wine industry, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, reiterated rules dating to 1978 that prohibit vineyards from labeling their so-called partial-freeze wines as ice wine. Because the vineyards that make true ice wine end up losing many more of their grapes between the first frost and harvest time, their bottles can cost as much as $40, almost twice as much as some of the partial-freeze options.
And truth be told, while one superb real ice wine had cherry and berry flavors and a caramel taste close to oloroso dulce, the well-known Spanish dessert wine, and other good real ice wines had more apple, pear and honey aromas, some of the partial-freeze wines had a taste closer to grape jelly. But Robert Ransom, a partner in Vintage New York and Rivendell Winery, said that excellent ice wine could be made both ways. What's more important, he said, is that the wine is made with a grape varietal, like riesling or vidal, that has enough natural acidity to balance the sweetness of ice wine. When it is made right, ''ice wine is the purest expression of that particular varietal you can get,'' Mr. Ransom said.
But not even the sophisticated taste of a cabernet franc ice wine from Sheldrake Point Vineyards is enough to convince Ellen Bradshaw to pick up a bottle, though she and her husband have been braving the cold and snow of the Finger Lakes region in winter since 1988. ''I just don't like dessert wine,'' said Mrs. Bradshaw, 42, an artist in Manhattan, who regularly takes home cases of chardonnay and riesling instead. ''It's just not my thing.''A TASTE
Sampling the Frozen Wine Trail
THE Finger Lakes region is a five-hour drive from Manhattan in good weather. Though the winter harvest is over, many Finger Lakes wineries are planning special winter events in the next month.
Nine wineries around Keuka Lake have organized Be Mine With Wine (Feb. 14 and 15), offering dessert and wine pairings ($16 per person in advance, less for designated drivers; 800-440-4898, www.keukawinetrail.com).
Fourteen vineyards along Cayuga Lake are sponsoring Mardi Gras at the Wineries (Feb. 21 and 22), with food and wine tastings, Mardi Gras beads, commemorative wineglasses and a prize for best costume (advance tickets $15; $20 at the door; 800-684-5217, www.cayugawinetrail.com).
Nearby accommodations include Esperanza Mansion (3456 Route 54A, Bluff Point; 866-927-4400), a hotel in a stately and recently renovated 1838 Greek Revival house overlooking Keuka Lake. Its guest rooms -- nine in the original building, another 21 in a less formal building nearby -- are $89 to $260 in winter. The Colonial Motel (175 West Lake Road, Penn Yan; 800-724-3008) has 17 clean and cozy rooms that are $60 to $90 in winter.
