Who wants wine?!

Back when I was in business school (we're talking Reagan Administration) I worked for Wagner Vineyards. They had a wine shop on the upper east side of Manhattan where they sold only Wagner wines. I, along with Brian, Vicki, Nick, and Sam, had the thankless task of trying to sell NYS wines to the upper-crust wine snobs of Manhattan. We didn't break any records, but we did okay...

 The vineyard is located up in the Finger Lakes, in scenic Lodi, NY. I spent a weekend up there once, walking the vineyards (including the Riesling rows shown in the video below) and the studying the rest of the winemaking operation. Being a bit of a wine snob myself (I took both of Kevin Zraly's wine courses at Windows-on-the-World) the one thing I remember learning from Bill Wagner was that before you can get to all of the science, art, magic, mysticism and other esoteric bullshit of winemaking, it's all about farming. You can make a crappy wine from great grapes, but you can never make a great wine from crappy grapes...

The video below shows this year's Riesling harvest. I always thought Riesling was Wagner's best wine (though I did have a thing for their Ravat). That shouldn't be surprising considering their location. The Riesling, if I remember correctly, was planted on a hillside overlooking Seneca Lake. The cool harvest and dewy mornings make Wagner's Riesling (and those of many Finger Lake wineries) an honest rival for Germany's Rheingau in both style and quality. Try a bottle the next time you run across it. Don't be a wine snob; there's so much wine and so little time...


You can visit Wagner Vineyards here. Tell them I said hello.