Hosmer Winery
This month we are delighted to feature the wines of Hosmer Winery, located on the West side of Cayuga Lake about 35 north of Ithaca.
Their story: Hosmer Winery is home to Patrician Verona Vineyard established in 1972, comprised of the nearly 70 acres of grapes that provide Hosmer Winery with the fruit to remain a fully functioning estate winery. The vineyard frames their tasting room and production facility creating a picturesque setting on the western shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
With silt loam soils, shale bedrock, and Easterly sloping land that matches near-maximum lake width and depth, Patrician Verona is ideally situated within the Finger Lakes Region to produce premium wine grapes. The grapes include Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Lemberger, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc, among several other natives and hybrids. By preserving and building soil the grapes are grown on and exploring new ways to reduce environmental impacts, the vines can inhabit a site less altered by modern agricultural inputs. The wines can portray a truer reflection of the vineyard site.
The featured wines!
Sauvignon Blanc I Dry Riesling I Pinot Noir
More about the three wines…
The Pinot Noir – This is the first Pinot Noir that we’ve included in a WINEcsa release, and I think it’s so pretty. I love the other red varietals that seem to shine here (Cabernet Franc, Lemberger, Saperavi, etc etc) and find myself forgetting about this noble grape. Though a typical Finger Lakes pinot is a bit restrained as compared to expressions from slightly-warmer Willamette Valley (which I also love), what we lack in concentration we make up for in focused intensity. This Hosmer Pinot shows bright cherry fruit, a floral violet nose, and for me is a perfect summer red. Especially after fifteen minutes in the fridge.
The Sauvignon Blanc – Similar to the Pinot, this is the first Sauvignon Blanc that we’ve featured, and I’m excited for you to discover it. There are a handful of other producers who craft Sauvignon Blanc in the region, and I think this one is up there. It is not as grassy as New Zealand expressions, but it shows some lovely white fruits (peaches, pears) layered over citrus, lemon zest, and passionfruit. It’s clean, bright, structured. Really lovely.
The Dry Riesling – I thought this would make for another pretty white summer wine alongside the Sauvignon Blanc. As well, next month we’ll discover a Riesling from the other end of the spectrum. So together with the winemaker, we felt this would be a great reference point for the classic style of Finger Lakes Riesling. There’s peach, apple, jasmine, citrus, apricot, ginger… coupled with a touch of honeyed minerality. It’s like a bite of a crisp green apple freshly picked from your friendly neighbor’s orchard; it just tastes good.
