It is a familiar story – the owner of a winery in a region not known for quality wines believes his riesling vines, which are ideally located on the sunny side of hills rising up from a lake, are capable of making great wine. Breaking from the pack, he commits himself to quality above all else. He goes “all in”, hiring a winemaker from a long family tradition of working with riesling in that grape’s home country, Germany. Slowly, his efforts are rewarded and he gains a reputation among local villagers for making a quality wine on par with the best. Eventually he begins to sell a small amount beyond his local area and one day a few bottles make their way to a major wine publication, where they are given the highest marks and six of his wines are given “top value” awards.

What makes this story a bit different is that these wines do not come from France . . . or Spain . . . or Portugal . . . or Chile. They come from the Finger Lakes in New York and are carefully crafted by winemaker Johannes Reinhardt at John Martini’s Anthony Road Winery. Okay, we spoofed you a bit in the title of this post but honestly would you have read this far if you knew these were New York wines? Maybe for the same reason New York City dwellers hardly ever visit the Statue of Liberty, New York wines tend to be off our radar. But renegades like John and Johannes are making world-class wines right under your nose. So, gotcha!

We’re thrilled to welcome John in the Manhattan wine store this Friday, March 27 from 5-7pm and the Brooklyn wine store this Saturday, March 28 from 6-8pm to pour his Dry Riesling 2007 – a Wine Spectator “top value” in the most recent issue. In Brooklyn, he’ll also pour his Martini-Reinhardt Selection Riesling 2007, one of our New York Cork Club selections for March. Our New York wine guru, Lenn Thompson, writes about the Cork Club here.

Anthony Road Dry Riesling 2007 (Manhattan)
Anthony Road Dry Riesling 2007 (Brooklyn)
Martini-Reinhardt Selection Riesling 2007 (Brooklyn)