It was an evening like any other. Or maybe not. It should have been an evening like all the others! Instead, I decided to dedicate myself to the sacred altar of my FIRST service as a sommelier in a tuxedo. It was a healthy madness mixed with unawareness that led me to apply for that event: the wines of the Finger Lakes! I wanted to make a grand debut, I wanted to do it in uniform at a special evening with table service, something to remember. I only learned later that that evening would also be attended by the U.S. Consul, her husband, and the U.S. Agricultural Attaché. Well, it would definitely be a night to remember!
The first "miner" messages started circulating to us poor sommeliers; the threat from our superiors hung over our heads. Imagine what could have happened if we had accidentally spilled wine on the Consul? If perhaps, tripping over one of the countless wires for lighting, audio, security cables, or Spider-Man's webs, someone ended up with a bottle in hand in front of the Consul… the third nuclear war would have been declared soon after.
So, in this atmosphere of relaxed confidence in our ability to avoid sparking a diplomatic crisis between Italy and the USA, I presented myself all dressed up for my first important service. You can imagine my state of mind. Unexpectedly, everything went smoothly. No wars were declared, nor any new import tariffs. I was very careful with the service, but I was equally attentive to recounting the evening. This was one of the events that greatly ignited the spark of curiosity within me.
"Eleven lakes of narrow and elongated shape, resembling the fingers of hands that, from the American side, reach out to caress the shores of Lake Ontario."
Finger Lakes: who would have ever thought before that I would become so engrossed in searching for wines from less famous, less talked about, less cool areas, and that this would play such an important, fascinating, and fulfilling role in my growth journey? Imagine, the following summer I even decided to go there, to the Finger Lakes! To experience firsthand what I had understood, what had intrigued me, about those wines and that region.
So, let's talk for a second about these Finger Lakes!
Eleven lakes, narrow and elongated in shape, that resemble the fingers of two hands (well, one was extended... forgive it!) that from the American side reach to tickle the shores of Lake Ontario. It seems that for the Native Americans this place was considered blessed by the Great Spirit and having seen it with my own eyes I must tell you: how could you argue with that?
The names of the lakes: Cayuga, Seneca, Keuka, Otisco, Owasco, Skaneateles, Canandaigua, Honeoye, Canadice, Hemlock, Conesus. All names of local tribes, the last outposts resisting an unstoppable expansion of the West.
I could stop to talk about the Vikings who (they too!) landed in these lands, calling this region “Vinland” (who knows why ???) or I could continue boring you with serious discussions of a climatic/geological nature. But what’s the point?
What struck me immediately was instead the beauty, the magic that emanates from the morning mists rising from the lakes. It really is a blessed land!
Extreme north for viticulture, yet the lakes give the vines that necessary warmth… the rest is done by the culture and the tradition, finally very little European, of those who live in those places and have been making wine for generations. For them, making wine is a bit like making milk: a product still largely devoid of that stifling marketing, of that seriousness and pseudoculture that must, by necessity, cloak every tale of wine and terroir today. There, they still make milk, sometimes from cows, sometimes from grapes.
We could get technical and talk about wines where a bit of that typical rusticity is still sometimes present, which I associate with the lightness of living healthily, without inventing pantomimes to seem more beautiful.
"These are genuine wines, they would have pleased Mario Soldati very much."
They are wines that have defects, fortunately. They are wines from cold climates.
It is no coincidence that we find a lot of Riesling, but also a lot of Vidal, hybrids like Cayuga, Traminette, and Lemberger. Of course, we also find the ever-present Chardonnay.
They are fresh, welcoming wines, often slightly sweet, just like the local people. Simple and pure wines.
I stopped to think while tasting a Blush Wine made from a blend of Cayuga and Concord grapes. A wine like that I would have never approached here, at home: Sanbittèr color, with an explosion of chewing gum on the nose, while on the palate it presents itself as a slightly alcoholic Aperol. I don't know what it was doing there, among the wines. I don’t even know what I was doing there. But it was a mystical experience.
"Sanbittèr color, on the nose an explosion of chewing gum, while on the palate it presents itself like an Aperol"
I could continue talking about other wines, from Niagara with exotic Selz scents to the mandarin, from Lemberger with interesting strawberry cheesecake notes to sweet wines seamlessly integrated, but also about great Icewine based on Vidal.
Of course, there are also more modern wineries that offer more classic wines; fortunately, they are not yet too many.
I vividly remember a winery that boasted of producing only 'dry wine,' as if it were something strange, exceptional. And indeed, it is a bit of that there. Then I discovered that the winemaker is Italian, and many things explain themselves. But what is an Italian winemaker doing in a winery in the Finger Lakes? Sacrilege! Leave them be, they are beautiful as they are, without us trying to impose our European-conformed tastes on everyone.
Pairings? A bit like it comes, as in authentic American culture. Because when you drink a wine, it's right to blend with the culture of the place you're in; it's the best way to appreciate its nature. Outside of that, it won't be the same. It might be better (I doubt it!), but it won't be the same. You will often taste wines still served in small plastic containers like those used in restaurants for ketchup, in the most classic self-service mode without anyone to 'tell' you about it, relaxed on a wooden chair facing a beautiful vineyard that glides towards one of those wonderful lakes while the locals, in their '80s boats, live peaceful lives.
"You will taste wines, relax on a wooden chair overlooking a beautiful vineyard that slopes down towards those wonderful lakes."
And then there are parks, enchanting valleys, waterfalls, lakes, sun, plenty of sun. And a circuit where even Formula 1 once raced! They have everything around here, but above all, they have the magic that, often at our latitudes, has been lost.