Dry white

Finger Lakes Riesling

Robe — Pale green-gold

  • lime
  • green apple
  • peach
  • slate
  • honey off-dry
Palate
Racy and vivid, dry to off-dry, piercing Mosel-like acidity
Ageing
5–15 years
Serving
9–11 °C

On the steep slopes above New York's deep glacial lakes, whose waters buffer the brutal continental winters, Riesling has found America's finest cool- climate home. Finger Lakes Riesling is vivid and racy — dry to off-dry, all lime, green apple and wet slate — with a piercing acidity far closer to the Mosel than to California.

Long a region of sweet hybrid wine, it was transformed by growers who bet on European vinifera and above all on Riesling. Small, northern and utterly distinctive, it is the East Coast's benchmark for fine white wine.

The blend

A typical modern composition

Where it is made

Producers

A few estates working in this style today — a sample, not a ranking

Through time

Indicative presence index, 0–100Origins & Antiquity — 0The Monastic Middle Ages — 0Exploration & the Fortified Age — 0Classifications & the Golden Age — 5Phylloxera & the World Crises — 10The Modern & New World Era — 72Antiquity0500150017001875195072