just got back from the perfect one-day wine trip in the Hill County that started at the beautiful Fall Creek Winery in Tow, north of Marble Falls (driving down the 200 or so yard drive with cypress trees lining the entrance). Owners Susan and Ed Auler are the founders of the modern Texas wine industry and have more medals and ribbons from wine tasting events than can fit into their large, inviting tasting room. I took a picnic lunch to go with their wines. The Mission San Antonio de Valero line displays the Alamo on the label, and a portion of the proceeds goes for the preservation and restoration efforts of the Alamo. Huge future here. Also tasted was possibly the best wine ever made in Texas —Fall Creek Meritus 2005. I guessed blind that it was the B.V. Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley ($100). The Mission wines are $9.99 and the Meritus is $40. On to Flat Creek about 20 minutes east of Marble Falls. Madelyn and Rick Naber have created a gorgeous tasting room and bistro, and the wines there are also first class. My favorites are the Buckin ’ Horse White (a Viognier with just the right touch of natural residual sugar), $17.95; The Super Texan 2006 (a top blend with Sangiovese being the major component), $19.95; and the Muscato Blanco 2007 —not a dessert wine, but a great complement to grilled spicy shrimp and other spicy foods (about 3 percent or 4 percent residual sugar), $16.95 per 500 ml bottle. Finally, over to Texas Hills Vineyard in Johnson City, owned by Kathy and Gary Gilstrap. Not having been there, I was caught off guard by the high quality of the Sangiovese 2005, $10.50; the Syrah 2007, $19.95 the Kick Butt Cab, $25; and the TORO di Tejas (A Tempranillo) 2007, $25. After this, less than an hour back to Austin. It was a lovely day.

New York’s Finger Lakes, The Wine World’s Best Kept Secret Part 1 There are now more than 70 wineries around the three primary lakes that look like fingers spread out below Rochester and Syracuse in upstate New York. Of the three best wineries I encountered, two are on Lake Keuka and one is on Lake Seneca. This article will focus on Lake Seneca. First, let’s discuss the state of Riesling today. This is a wine still considered by many as just too sweet, or in the alternative, one that doesn ’t go with food. The truth is that Riesling is produced at almost all sugar levels, starting at .1 percent and soaring to over 20 percent, and it is a perfect match for a plethora of foods. Most wine writers and sommeliers consider Riesling an under- appreciated and misunderstood grape. For example, one with high alcohol, low acidity and over-the-top fruit that is overripe from a very warm, sunny climate is indeed inferior. It has become evident to me, from the empirical method, that many of the best Rieslings in the world are now being produced in the frigid Finger Lakes area. Prior to the early ’50s, it was generally accepted that vinifera grapes such as Riesling could not survive New York ’s winters, and that only native grapes such as Concord and French-American hybrids like Seyval Blanc and Baco Noir should be planted. It took a Russian immigrant with a Ph.D. in plant sciences who spoke six languages — English not being one of them—to “change the landscape.” When he was merely a janitor at Cornell University’s Geneva Experiment Station on Lake Seneca in the early ’50s, Dr. Konstantin Frank chanced to meet the president of the leviathan Gold Seal Winery, Charles Fornier, and they struck up a conversation in French.

Among other things, Frank told Fornier he could be successful with vinifera grapes there because he himself had done it in Odessa, where it was so cold that when he spit it froze before hitting the ground. Fornier hired him on the spot as director of research and let him start his experiments with vinifera grapes, and in 1962, Dr. Frank opened his Vinifera Cellars on the southwestern hills of Lake Keuka. Other wineries sprinkled the shores of Lake Keuka, but it wasn ’t until 1977 that Glenora Wine Cellars opened the first winery on the much larger, wider and deeper Lake Seneca, about 20 miles to the east. Although I was not able to taste through all of the Finger Lakes wines in two and a half days, I believe I hit many of the high spots. I regret not staying another day to taste the wines of Herman Wiemer and others, but I will rectify that in the near future. Even though you can’t find these wines at your local wine shop, Texas now allows interstate wine shipments, so just call or e-mail to order. I suggest putting off the shipments until mid-October, as the summer heat may vitiate the wines. My favorite wines: Chateau Lafayette Reneau, Dry Riesling and Proprietor’s Reserve Chardonnay. Red Newt Cellars (also one of my favorite dinner restaurants) Riesling and Cabernet Franc. Fox Run Vineyards (also, my favorite lunch spot): Dry Riesling and Chardonnay Reserve. Glenora Wine Cellar (my favorite place to stay—Glenora Inn—and the best dinner view): Sparkling wine, Chardonnay Reserve, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Seyval Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon Vintner ’s Select.l Next month: Lake Keuka.