Hunt Country's Foxy Lady Blush is made with Catawba grapes
One of my favorite moments this year at a Finger Lakes winery occurred at Hunt Country Vineyardson Keuka Lake. After a tasting, three women wandered into the gift shop and exclaimed about one of Hunt Country’s popular wine series, “Oooh, Foxy Lady! Gotta get some of that!”
After doing extensive research on the grapes and winery processes used in the Finger Lakes, I now know why that series name is so clever.
The first wine grapes used in the Finger Lakes, the so-called “native” Vitis labrusca,are also known as fox grapes. They are distinguished by their strong grapey taste. Varieties include Niagara, Catawba, Delaware, Diamond, Isabella and Concord grapes. These varieties tend to produce sweeter wines, and they were all the rage back in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Remember Lake Niagara and Pink Catawba?)
Winemakers who wanted to make European-style wines, with a broader range of sweetness from dry to dessert, spurned the fox grapes and instead focused on French-American hybrids and Vitis vinifera, grapes such as Chardonnay, Riesling, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, etc.
Some Finger Lakes winemakers feel it’s important to keep the native grapes for their historical value. I agree. Having grown up visiting Keuka Lake wineries, I believe there is a place for the foxy grapes among all the others on a winemaker’s palate. I had two great FLX foxy wines this year, a nice dry Delaware and cool refreshing Diamond.
While foxy wines might not get the prestige of hybrids and viniferas, they’re part of Finger Lakes winemaking history.
No comments:
Post a Comment