A Wicked New York Wine

Born and raised on The Wizard of Oz and a long-time lover of Broadway, I have been dying to see Wicked. The retelling of the story of the witches of Oz was my ONE MUST attraction for the trip. I'm not sure of the strings that had to be pulled or the price that had to be paid, but we had absolutely skookum tickets for the show. It was to be my delayed birthday present from Boo and two weeks prior to the trip his neck was on the line when he hadn't procured tix yet - particularly since Ticketmaster said that the show was completely sold out during our stay there.

I suppose that, even during the "economic downturn," Broadway shows are doing just fine, thank you very much.

I've seen some big shows and big names on Broadway in past visits, but this was Boo's first ever Broadway show. And it WAS WICKED!! The show was everything I'd hoped for. But, I digress; this is a wine blog after all.

It would have been very civilized to sit back, enjoy the show, and drink a bottle of wine or two; however, that's just not the way things work on the Great White Way.

We had to enjoy our wine beforehand and that we did with a spread of goodies at our apartment. We'd planned on a picnic in the park (Central, naturally) but the weather didn't cooperate.

We did, however, get the chance to try our first New York state produced wine that night. It only seemed fitting.

85. 2007 Keuka Lake Vignoles (Finger Lakes - New York)

Keuka Lakes is a small, estate winery in the Finger Lakes district in upstate New York that produces both vinifera and hybrid grapes.

Out here in BC, New York state wines are virtually unheard of. There's one kosher concord grape wine in the provincial system and I don't know if any of the private stores stock other wines. I certainly don't think that I've ever tried one - not even at the big Playhouse Festival tastings. So, it was a hope of mine to try a couple of local wines during our visit.

We were very fortunate to find one of the biggest wine shops in the city within blocks of where we were staying. I basically explained the situation and put myself in their hands. They led me to the Keuka Lakes. Having never heard of vignoles, I had to ask if it was a grape or a trade name for that particular wine.

Vignoles is a hybrid grape, also known by the rather tasty name (not) of Ravat 41, and is particularly well-known in the Finger Lakes. This version, at least, was very much like a dry Riesling and we actually liked it quite a bit. Hybrids don't get a lot of play nowadays, but this one was definitely worth developing.

I had, however, heard of the Finger Lakes area which probably isn't that surprising since it turns out that the area produces the bulk of the state's table wines. Unfortunately, we didn't try another local wine on this visit. Guess we'll just have to come back again - if only to try a couple more wines.