Rhyme and Riesling

Celebrate the Finger Lakes’ finest at this weekend’s Riesling Festival

Seneca Lake vintner John Ingle was vacationing in Bangor, Maine, a few years ago and attended a small festival that incorporated music, food, entertainment and a little bit of beverage consumption—all within a casual, familyfriendly atmosphere. It was one of those light-bulb moments.

”I thought, why we can’t do something like this at home?” Ingle recalls. And with Rochester-based public relations executive Howie Jacobson, he did. In 2009 the pair co-founded the Finger Lakes Riesling Festival, a weekend-long celebration of the Finger Lakes Region’s most widely produced variety of wine. This year’s festival will take place on Saturday, Aug. 13, and Sunday, Aug. 14, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., in Kershaw Park in Canandaigua.

Jacobson says the festival is the perfect way to help promote the region’s wineries, and give back to the community. “When John came back from Maine, we brainstormed some ideas. We decided that we really wanted it to be a family event,” Jasobson says. “So, we have a whole mile of family fun along Lakeshore Drive.”

While the Riesling tastings are the featured event—along with artisan cheeses and beers from 12 small breweries—there will also be live music, an arts and crafts show sponsored by Finger Lakes Community College, a huge farmers market, a kids’ tent, a 5K run on Saturday, and even a classic and exotic car show on Sunday morning. (See www.rieslingfestival.com for a full listing of events and activities.) The event is free, but there is a $15 charge for tastings in the festival Wine Garden, a $10 admission for entry into the New York State Craft Beer Tent, or $20 for both. The beverage tastings are sponsored by Wegmans and proceeds will benefit the

Canandaigua YMCA. To date, the festival has raised $66,000 for the branch, with much of it going toward scholarships for children’s memberships.

The festival will be preceded by the fifth annual Rendezvous With Riesling, which will be held on Friday, Aug. 12, 7 to 10 p.m., at the newly renovated New York Wine & Culinary Center, 800 S. Main St., Canandaigua. Selections from 30 New York wineries will be paired with seasonal cuisine. Tickets are $40 per person. For more information, visit www.nycc.com.

“This event showcases the tremendous quality and energy of wineries from around the state,” says the center’s executive director, Alexa Gifford. New to the festival this year are a Riesling flavored frozen custard from Abbott’s and a s’mores pit where local chefs will hold court, concocting yummy variations on the camp-inspired summertime dessert.

“The best thing about this festival is that you don’t have to spend a dime,” Jacobson says. “If you don’t want to sample the wines, there’s no admission. It’s free.”

Of course, should one wish to purchase the wines they taste, all the better. With paid admission to the Wine Garden, visitors get a tote bag—which Jacobson, who spent 20 years in the wine industry himself, hopes they will fill with wines to take home and enjoy after the festival has ended.

While the two weekend events are not related, Ingle, who founded Heron Hill Winery in 1977, says there are plenty of reasons to celebrate the Riesling grape, a variety that originated in Germany’s Rhine region and was brought to the United States by German immigrants in the late 19th century. The Johannisberg varieties planted in the Finger Lakes Region were among the first used to produce the Riesling wines on U.S. soil. Today, Riesling grapes are the most popular grown in the region, and the wines they produce are the most popular offerings sold by Finger Lakes vintners.

Ingle says he thought it was time for the region to promote the wine—and the grape—that has become vital to the success of the state’s wine industry. “The concord and Seyval grapes are easier to grow compared to the Chardonnay and Riesling,” Ingle says. “But the conditions here are very similar to those found in Germany where the Riesling originated. So we’re able to produce some of those European flavors and styles. The Riesling is crucial to our identity.”

Twenty-four wineries, including Heron Hill, will showcase their Riesling varieties at this year’s festival. Each has also been invited to bring one other variety to share with festival-goers.

“The wineries were initially a little reluctant to support a festival that put the focus on one variety,” admits Ingle, a 40-year veteran of the wine business. “Wineries like to get exposure for as many wines as they can. But we believe in the quality of our wines, and are dedi cated

to bringing some regional focus to our flagship wines: our Rieslings.”

Ingle says Heron Hill will feature three or four of their main Rieslings—including dry and semi-dry varieties, and perhaps a dessert or late harvest offering.

He is also bringing Eagle Vineyard Riesling, Heron Hill’s single vineyard wine.

Riesling is a white wine with light, crisp flavors well-suited for summer drinking. Customers at his winery often see them as seasonal alternatives to the heavier, fuller-bodied chardonnays.

In addition to tastings, festival goers will have the opportunity to attend informative seminars about food pairings for Riesling from noon to 5 p.m. both days. “People can learn about the Riesling scale {which goes from crisp dry to Late Harvest varieties with high sugar content} and they can see that you can drink Riesling with many different foods. The seminars can help people decide what to pair them with,” Jacobson says. “We do a good job of educating people, who may not be as familiar with Riesling as they are, perhaps, with chardonnay, and why they should put Riesling back into their wine mix.”

The entire mile of waterfront along Lakeshore Drive in Kershaw Park will be closed to traffic, allowing visitors to walk the length of the festival. In the past, local restaurants and businesses have benefited from the influx of visitors. “We’re doing something entirely unique,” says Jacobson. “The wineries love it and our businesses love it.”

Ingle adds that the festival has also had a positive and long-term influence on tourism in the Finger Lakes Region—now home to nearly 100 wineries. People attend the festival, sample some wines and return to the region later in the fall to visit the individual wineries. Tasting rooms throughout the region have continued to see steady traffic, even as the state’s economy at large has been slow to rebound from the recession.

But the enthusiastic festival co-founders insist that their motivation continues to be much simpler. “Basically, our thing is that we want to make sure that everybody is having a good time and we want to support this community,” says Jacobson.

You can download a free Finger Lakes Riesling Festival app to access a live chat, a map of the festival, a schedule of events and current information. The app is hosted on Apple and is live on iTunes.