I’ll admit to having had zero appreciation for the fact that the Finger Lakes region of Upper New York State featured so many vineyards. During a recent trip, my friend explained the geographic and weather related reasons for this phenomenon and I’ll spare you the details as I’ll get most of them wrong. We sampled many varieties during our trip and settled on a local Riesling and Pinot Noir to take home with us. I’m not one to speak confidently about how these wines compare to the Californian or even European offerings… but I was impressed.