Finger Lakes Wine of the Week:
Boundary Breaks Vineyard 2012 Late Harvest Riesling
By Nicholas Baldwin
Located in Lodi on the East Side of Seneca Lake, Boundary Breaks Vineyard is a youngster among the vineyards of the Finger Lakes. They specialize in Riesling, focusing solely on that grape. So it’s not surprising that they make some really good Riesling wines, like the 2012 Single Vineyard Late Harvest Riesling. The grapes used for this wine are left to ripen and concentrate for months after the initial Riesling harvest. These late hand-picked grapes turn in a beautiful wine reminiscent of German Auslese wines. It has flavors of ripe apricot, honeysuckle, sweet Meyer lemon, melons and kiwi. It has a big 14.2-percent alcohol-by-volume, but you can’t detect the higher alcohol level because it’s balanced nicely by the ripe sugar.
This is a thick unctuous wine with a long linger finish on the palate. It’s a perfect pairing for lots of different desserts, especially peach tart, crème brûlée and even homemade vanilla ice cream with a fresh fruit compote. There are a lot of dessert wines made in the Finger Lakes, but this is one of the best, scoring 92 points from Wine Enthusiast magazine. This is a wine that is drinking great now, but will continue to develop unique flavors for the next 10 to 15 years.
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 of Nicholas Baldwin’s wine tasting notes, click here.
