by Christopher Bennem
When you walk along the narrow lanes among the massive stone structures of the Pleasant Valley Wine Company – eight of which are included on the National Register of Historic Places – you can’t help but feel drenched in history.
Designated the first bonded winery of the U.S. in 1860, one of its sparkling wines would win honorable mention at the Paris Exposition just seven years later. Its quality led to the creation of the brand name Great Western Champagne. Today, the company ships hundreds of thousands of bottles a year, providing a traditional method sparkling wine at phenomenal value, one of the largest volume wines exported from our region.
In the face of the wine behemoth that is California, it is easy to forget that the history of American wine, in many respects, began here in New York State and in the Finger Lakes, specifically with sparkling wine. The momentum our region had built was largely derailed by Prohibition, during which the quantity and quality of wine produced here declined precipitously. But one man helped restore those fortunes.
In the 1930s Charles Fournier, winemaker for Veuve Clicquot, was lured by Gold Seal to oversee its production, a project he intended to undertake for just a year or two. He stayed for more than 50. It would be Fournier who helped raise the quality of wines here by introducing the use of French hybrids alongside native grapes Catawba and Delaware. Later, with his hiring of brilliant Ukrainian immigrant Dr. Konstantin Frank, Gold Seal would begin the process of planting and incorporating European vinifera grapes such as chardonnay into production. That history, and the legacy of innovation interwoven with it, is something which drives the burgeoning landscape of winemakers working with sparkling in the Finger Lakes today.
At a time when the wine industry is grappling with contracting sales and slower uptake from younger consumers, Daniel Galindo, tasting room manager at Once Finger Lakes, sees local producers making all the right moves.
“Wine is for everyone,” Galindo said. “It’s like music – it speaks to a time and place.”
This is especially true for sparkling wine, which many associate exclusively with celebratory occasions. But there are a number of local vintners who are experimenting with format and style “to make sparkling more accessible and approachable,” Galindo said. He reeled off a list of wines. Some use forced carbonation to make the wine more affordable (Bubbly Candeo, from Lakewood). Others use cans to make it more portable (Zugibe’s sparkling rosé). Still others (Red Tail Ridge, Inspire Moore) use the “ancestral method” to create unique and exciting wines in the Pétillant Naturel style, also known as pét nat.
Sparkling wine made in the “traditional” method, also known as méthode champenoise, is expensive because of the highly technical, time-consuming process used to make it, relying on two rounds of fermentation: one in tank, the second in bottle. Pét nats undergo just one, with bottling taking place before fermentation is complete. This retains the bubbles, which form naturally, and also retains some cloudiness and sediment, giving these wines a more rustic, unpredictable sensibility. While traditional method wines typically take a minimum of three years to produce, pét nats can be completed in less than a year, which makes them more affordable.
Nancy Irelan, Head Winemaker and co-owner of Red Tail Ridge Winery on Seneca Lake was the first to create a pét nat in the Finger Lakes. It is just one of many claims to fame she has compiled on her journey to creating a diverse and exciting program of sparkling wines.
“I love the precision and focus that making [traditional method] sparkling takes, and I love the outcome of it – it’s so age worthy, it’s so typical of this region,” Irelan said. “But making really outstanding sparkling takes four to five years. And what are you going to drink while you’re waiting four to five years? Pét nat. Pét nat is a means to an end. It keeps us in bubbles while we’re waiting for the other stuff.”
Irelan’s enthusiasm for sparkling is irrepressible – and expansive. Just this year she is debuting an entirely new brand devoted solely to sparkling wine. Called Limnad, it is an exuberant homage to the freshwater guardian spirits that the ancient Greeks saw in their lakes and ponds. Launching with four traditional method varieties and two pét nats, Limnad is a sign of Irelan’s firm belief in this region’s future as a sparkling powerhouse.
“I think the Finger Lakes should be the next Champagne,” she said. “There are few places in the world now that are truly cool climate, where they have the natural acidity, the natural pH and the aromatics and the flavors, at an earlier brix (sugar) level. Where you can naturally create the base wine for a sparkling without manipulating it.”
It may seem counterintuitive that winemakers would prize minimal intervention in a wine which is famed for the complexity of its production, but the notion that the best wines are created in the vineyard, not the cellar, is nearly universal here. The worldwide changes in climate, and the allure of making first rate sparkling wine, were two major draws for Sebastien and Celine LeSeurre. While both came here from French winemaking families, Sebastien’s has been devoted to making Champagne for six generations. His earliest memories are of being a toddler lying beneath the vines as his grandmother harvested.
“We never thought about making our winery without sparkling,” he said. “The first year we didn’t have time or space to bottle it, so we had to wait an extra year and then kept it on lees for 10.” The result was an exquisite, small production selection of sparkling wines that showed what this region is capable of.
With a family history of winemaking that stretches back well over a hundred years, the LeSeurres’ perspective on wine is one that is built for the long haul. In describing how our region is only improving with regard to our ability to create excellent sparkling, Celine contrasts us with the wines of Chateauneuf de Pape, which increasingly rely on sourcing fruit from higher elevations to maintain their acidity. Here in the Finger Lakes, they suggest the arc of time may favor chardonnay over Riesling in the decades to come. It’s a factor important to Celine and Sebastien, who are raising the next generation of LeSeurre winemakers.
Galindo was quick to point out the newest crop of winemakers when discussing the quality of sparkling made in our region. Matthew Denci of Entelecheia and Erin McMurrough of Little Clover have both made names for themselves with their laser-like focus on small portfolios. At Little Clover, McMurrough has brought the Finger Lakes full circle.
“I wanted to tell the New York story of sparkling wine,” she said. Choosing to make traditional method wines from hybrid (Cayuga white) and native (Delaware) grapes, as well as vinifera (Riesling) is a call back to our early history “when these wines were making a name for themselves on the world stage.”
McMurrough fell in love with the site where the Delaware grew and was determined to see how it would turn out if vinified with the same care and attention as a chardonnay. The results confirmed her suspicions. Today, she, like many others, is bullish about the Finger Lake’s future as a capital for U.S. sparkling wine production.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this series on “The Wines that Define the Finger Lakes.” With so much to celebrate in our region, this felt like the natural place to conclude: Cheers!
