New York - Seneca Lake (east) - Shalestone Vineyards

Shalestone Vineyards - (August 2016) I wanted to stop here because of the zweigelt wine. All dry wines.

We walked to the tasting room and were served by the owner and winemaker. He explained that he only did dry reds, which he likes, and that was the reason for his winery.

I started with the 2014 zweigelt, a medium‐bodied Austrian grape wine that was fruit forward and
a mellow tannic structure. It was different and I didn’t know what to expect. The Harmony, a blend
of cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and merlot, was fruit forward, more mellow than the zweigelt,
but higher in tannins. The 2014 cabernet franc was fruity and full‐bodied with a black pepper aroma;
heavy tannins, while the 2013 Cross‐Rows, a blend of merlot, syrah and lemberger, which are
interplanted in the vineyard, lost its forward fruit flavors to the heavy tannic finish.I finished with Red Legend, a blend of cabernet franc, lemberger and merlot, which again, lost the fruit forward with the heaviest tannic finish.