The Best of Show in the New York State Fair commercial wine competition this year was an ’04 Cabernet Sauvignon from Long Point Winery. Long Point is an interesting story. Located on the winery-sparse east side of Cayuga Lake, its signature wines are reds made from grapes grown outside the Finger Lakes. Owner Gary Barletta made a name for himself as an award winning home wine maker before taking the plunge and going commercial about 10 years ago. He has shrewdly made use of mostly California-grown grapes to put out a good product while his own vineyard comes into production
Cabernet Sauvignon usually gives me a headache, but a tasting of the Long Point ’04 at a conference in Rochester this summer showed me what Cabernet Sauvignon can be like. We decided to pay a visit to the winery. It’s in Aurora, NY, about 30 miles north of Ithaca with only one other winery along the way. We tasted a Shiraz and a reserve Zinfandel in addition to the Cabernet Sauvignon. All were outstanding. The Shiraz goes for about $20; the Cabernet Sauvignon and reserve Zinfandel for $25. My absolute top threshold is $20 and I’m pretty tough about it. In this case however I caved in right away. If you are looking for reds in this part of the world Long Point’s are worth looking into