We worked on these pictures together in the sense that I told her what I wanted included in them. What she took are really very nice and more than I was expecting. That's always nice, just like with this KEUKA LAKE VINEYARDS' Cabernet Franc 2008 : all my expectations were surpassed. It's been an incredible experience. Great photos, too to share visually some of the real highs and lows from this low-fill bottle. Makes me wish I had a case of it! Is there any more available? I will have to contact the winery and ask? That would be nice. That would be great. At any rate I am overjoyed with this experience and am very pleased to be able to share it with you all tonight on the night that it happened, even as I am very tired and have been watching with my family down here in our family room in our basement old reruns of the popular show : " Grounded For Life ". What a contrast, what a counterpoint to all of this.
This, like so many stories has unfolded in many parts and I will include them here : now in an outline form, and if , given time I will elaborate! Suffice it to say that tonight, Sunday here in northern Virginia at home on June 23rd, 2013 my wife, our Swedish neighbor and I have LOVED tasting and drinking this bottle of KEUKA LAKE VINEYARDS' 2008 Cabernet Franc New York State Finger Lakes lighter-bodied, bright and clear-transparent-colored dry red : spicy and earthy and flavorful, balanced and refined and filled with unique character and well-defined personality : PERHAPS the VERY BEST Cabernet Franc that I have ever tried EVER over the years outside of the Loire Valley Cabernet Francs' that I LOVE from the towns of Saumur, Saumur-Champigny, Chinon, Bourgeuil, and St. Nicolas du Bourgeuil! That's really saying something from me that is a die-hard lover of the dry red Loire Valley reds, especially those made from 100% Cabernet Franc.
Anyway, Melvin the owner of KEUKA LAKE VINEYARDS came to our store Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits twice to taste and to talk about his fine wines from the Finger Lakes in New York State. It's been fun to get to know him, and he always told me that he would bring his female winemaker to see us someday. We never have even though we have proudly displayed in front of the store three of his wines : two Rieslings and one indigenous dry red made from a French hybrid that I cannot remember now the name of?!? I was just talking to our customer yesterday, Jim Stutsman that reported back on his recent experience tasting it again after many years. he did not like it : said the taste and flavor components were not to his palate.
We love selling the wines at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits from around the United States, especially those that are closer to us up and down the East Coast. I was thrilled when our rep from Dionysos Imports in northern Virginia, Danielle Davidowitz wanted to bring Melvin to the store to meet us. I think that we already had been selling some of the whites including the Delaware and the off-dry and the dry Rieslings. We have sold the whole line available through Dionysos Imports over the years. They have all sold. We were out, too.
Our good customer Jeff pointed this out to me a couple of months ago and I told him that I would correct this. I called Danielle and she sent me the three that they currently have in stock. They are out of the Cabernet Franc and the Pinot Noir at this point. That's okay, it's always good to change things up whenever we can. I have called Jeff that is from the Finger Lakes region of New York State to let him know that we had the KEUKA LAKE VINEYARDS' wines and also the CASA LARGA wines. It's a start, I buy what we have offered to us and right now there are fewer wines from New York State's Finger Lakes region available to us.
We have had this one lonely bottle of the 2008 Cabernet Franc, 11.7% alcohol by volume dry red at the store for awhile. Because it had a low fill of about a half-inch below the neck of the bottle we took it off our shelves. Danielle gave us credit for it months ago and I forgot to bring it home and taste it to see how it had been effected by this low fill? I had no idea whether or not it would be tired and oxidized ? I had no idea if there would be any fruit left, if it would be drinkable or not? I had no idea. I was worried and it had leaked and I could see evidence of this on the capsule of the bottle by the cork : did not look good, did not look promising.
I was hoping it would be good and to heighten my chances I chilled it for thirty or so minutes and came downstairs to email our Swedish neighbor that I would be opening it and that she should come by and taste it with us? I knew that she liked red wines, I knew that my wife and my daughter did not as much, that they preferred white wines to reds. Well, as my wife said when she tasted it out on our deck with the two of us : " That's true except when the red is good ". And this time it was good, it was really good, it was exceptionally good!
We all liked the wine, I loved it. It has been a wonder and a pleasure and a real treat for me on so many levels as these pictures that our neighbor took with her phone at my request. I will add them here now. See for yourselves. Look at the brilliant light and elegant and clear color : it shines, it ripples , it undulates, it wafts and it reflects the light, it absorbs the light, it breathes beautifully, one breath at a time! Lovely.
Look at the color of the wine, the color of the green-golden glass as the sun sets?!? Wonderful. These are really artsy pictures like the ones I take. I suggested this angle and shot. My Swedish neighbor obviously sees things like me and I guess I really noticed this earlier when I saw the first three pictures that she took , as she explained them to me. I was impressed, really impressed.
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