I’ve always counseled that references to other regions is a bad sales tool–it isn’t so much an inferiority complex at work as it seems a striver’s mentality. The striver’s mentality is what causes wineries to try to produce every damned wine under the sun at the expense of offering solely what their region and their talent does best.

I know from personal experience, having learned the hard way, that you either build your own identity through branding or you run the risk either of perishing or chasing your tail. I chased my tail until my winery perished!

The only conclusion that I can come to is either the follow through is unfocused or wine critics are uninterested–or both.”

Thomas, as an ignoramus relatively unacquainted with FL wines, I suspect they lack an effective ambassador of FL wines. Until they pull together and show they are serious and proud of their genuine product(s), I predict the status quo. Last time I visited, a pourer at Dr. Frank’s asserted they winery had received a gold medal for their Riesling in Strasbourg recently. I might be stupid but I’m not an idiot. They should cease and desist with such gibberish even though their wines are fine. INFERIORITY COMPLEX? …

There is an organization called the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance FLWA (and I’m sure there are other groups).

While the message of the alliance is unified, that message can be weakened at individual wineries, whether or not they are members of the alliance, and some aren’t.

When you get to most wineries, you are presented with an array of wines from red to white to austere to Late Harvest, and everything in between. Unless the taster is a focused wine geek, there to taste only what he or she wants to taste, after two winery visits, the message is muddled or lost, because too many wineries produce stellar Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and maybe another wine or two only to mess the whole thing up with a selection of weaker wines, often under the same label.

To be fair, the wineries make most of their sales to tourists, so they are between the rock of a tourist trade that pays the bills and the hard place of national distribution that doesn’t exist enough to pay for a sandwich.

Having said all that, in the past few years, FLakes wineries have racked up prestigious (to some) awards and ratings (the latest is Wine and Spirits Mags awarding Sheldrake Point top 12 value Riesling and in the top 100 wineries for 2009). In the past, Dr. Frank, Wiemer, Heron Hill, Sheldrake, Fox Run, and a number of wineries have received attention in major magazines. Still, something keeps the region in a stall mode.

The only conclusion that I can come to is either the follow through is unfocused or wine critics are uninterested–or both. In the case of the latter, I believe that when Parker predicted NY wine to remain provincial what he really was saying is that without national distribution, it wasn’t his job to give it national exposure.

The American Appellations give to much freedom. One step forward could be a more European approach and it might aæso be a problem that winemakers still one to eksperiment.

Always remember that this is a white wine region first, with Riesling at the head of the pack, a region with sparkling wine credibility, and a region where certain reds can surprise you, but not as consistently as Riesling and sparkling wine.

The region can also offer wonderful Gewurztraminer, but that, too, can’t be consistent like Riesling, because the two varieties handle the volatile climate differently.

I have spent some hours in the last weeks visiting websites and searching for further informations about the Finger Lakes wine industry. I think you are right when you say that Generally, Finger Lakes wineries are not focused.

The region offers way too many wine styles and even that you have been a very good guide can I still not today see what is really a true Finger Lakes wine.

I was quite surprised seeing a winery from Keuka Lake offering 39 diffrent wine??? I have only seen a few wineries in your area and I am quite sure that if the standard for the future are set by wineries such as Dr. Frank, Heron Hill and my personel favorit Morten Hallgren from Ravines Wine Cellar the future is save for Finger Lakes wines.

Even that Finger Lakes has traditions way back in time - the new generations should have time to develop their own style. Just like you see it in Napa Valley where some of the best wines are made by people who likes to “play” and move borders.

Initially, a lot of the Napa buzz came from writers rather than the wine industry. And let’s face it, until recently, wine geeks and many wine writers hardly considered white wine worthy to talk about.

When I operated my Finger Lakes winery, I remember numerous times people complaining that all I offered were white wines. It got so annoying that I kept two black glasses behind the tasting bar. I used to pour my Gewurztraminer alongside a Syrah-based wine and ask the complainer to tell me what he (usually a he) thought of the two wines. That’s how I sold a lot of Gewurztraminer to red wine drinkers!