A sparkling wine from Swedish Hill in Finger Lakes wins New York’s most coveted wine trophy

Swedish Hill captures New York’s wine trophy

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Two Cayuga Lake wineries captured New York’s most coveted wine awards Tuesday: A $17 sparkling wine from Swedish Hill Winery was voted best wine, and Sheldrake Point Vineyard took the best winery title for the second straight year.

The medium-dry, non-vintage Riesling Cuvee from Swedish Hill, a 24-year-old family business near the lake’s western shore, beat out a record 850 wines to win the Governor’s Cup silver chalice at the New York Wine & Food Classic.

Sheldrake Point, launched in 1997 by Canadian native Bob Madill, won top-winery accolades for its 2007 Reserve Riesling, 2008 Gewurztraminer, 2008 Late-Harvest Riesling and 2009 Dry Riesling. It overlooks Cayuga Lake nearly 10 miles south of Swedish Hill’s vineyards in the town of Seneca Falls.

The wineries are nestled in the heart of the Finger Lakes, one of America’s oldest wine-and-grape regions. Finger Lakes wineries have garnered a global reputation for their Rieslings during the last decade, and the versatile grape is now the widely grown European vinifera variety in west-central New York.

Opened by Cindy and Dick Peterson in 1986, Swedish Hill won the best wine trophy in 1994 and captured both the Governor’s Cup and Winery of the Year in 2008, a year after Ian Barry became its chief winemaker.

“It’s always a shock to win,” said the couple’s son, David Peterson. “This is the second in the last three years, so that’s even more unbelievable.”

His 72-year-old mother, a former banker, suffered a stroke earlier this month.

“It really did light up her face — she’s in the hospital — to hear we’d won,” Peterson said. “We really hope this is something that will help her get back on the road to recovery.”

The winning wine was a late entry in the 25-year-old competition and “is fresh and crisp rather than creamy, toasty,” he said. “It emphasizes the Riesling character and it’s certainly not how at least Champagne in the traditional sense would be made.”

The two-day contest, sponsored by the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, is open to all of New York’s 280 wineries. It was judged by 24 experts, half of them from New York, four from California, six from other states and two from Britain.

A new specialty wine champion award was added in 2008 to recognize the quality of the increasing number of wines made from honey and fruits other than grapes. That award went this year to Elfs Farm Winery & Cider Mill in Plattsburgh near Lake Champlain for its Appalachian Trail Apple Wine.

Online:

New York Wine & Grape Foundation: www.newyorkwines.org

(This version CORRECTS that Sheldrake Point Vineyard won in part for its 2009 Dry Riesling.)