For our current March/April 2015 issue’s Wines of the Season column, we asked local winemakers to send us wines that fit into the category of light, fresh varietals that they’re excited about for spring. Hosted at Coltivare in Downtown Ithaca, the EFL staff and a number of other wine professionals and enthusiasts tasted the submitted wines. Below is one of the wines that made our final list of favorites. For the full list, be sure to pick up a copy of the issue!

Finger Lakes Wine of the Week:

Dr. Konstantin Frank 2014 Grüner Veltliner

By Nicholas Baldwin

A major presence in the Finger Lakes for more than 60 years now, Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars has tallied a significant amount of awards and accolades. So it’s not surprising that their Grüner Veltliner, one of the lesser-known grapes in the region, is a shining star among their most recent vintages.

With the nickname Groovie, Grüner Veltliner is the most widely planted grape in Austria. With similar soils and terrain here in the Finger Lakes, it makes sense that it shows well here. Dr. Konstantin Frank produces a bone-dry style with less and 0.5-percent residual sugar and 13-percent alcohol-by-volume. The 2014 vintage shows off bright acidity on the side of your tongue with flavors of white pepper, lemon, ripe grapefruit, peach and sweet herbs. In this young stage, it has a light-to-medium body, but a long finish. As it ages, it will show much fuller and richer.

Grüner Veltliner makes for a great pairing with a wide varietal of food, especially some harder to pair foods like asparagus. Smoked salmon and trout with crème fraiche would make a fantastic match with a chilled bottle of Dr. Konstantin Frank 2014 Grüner Veltliner.

Nicholas Baldwin has worked in the wine and spirits business for more than 12 years and traveled the world visiting vineyards. He holds numerous wine certifications. 

For more Wines of the Season tasting notes from our March/April 2015 issue, click here!