New wines being bottled

Jefferson County wineries are bottling the region's first wine from a white cold-hardy grape.

Otter Creek Winery owner Kyle R. Hafemann calls the La Crescent grape the "north country's Riesling," which he said is similar to the taste of the cold-hardy grape.

La Crescent is the second cold-hardy grape variety to mature after Frontenac. Frontenac grapes have been bottled for a few years and, after four years of growing, La Crescent grapes "finally matured," Mr. Hafemann said.

Mr. Hafemann said he's bottled about 550 gallons of the La Crescent wine at Otter Creek, Philadelphia. In the local wines, some of the juice will come from the wineries' properties, some from other local grape growers and some from other regions, such as the Finger Lakes.

"It's a good-quality wine grape, just as good as the Riesling if not better," he said. "We'll wait to see if we enter it in competitions."

Thousand Islands Winery is also bottling wine from the cold-hardy white.

"It's a whole new standard for viticulture," said Craig Hosbach, winemaker at Thousand Islands, Collins Landing.

The winery will bottle about 540 gallons sometime in the next few weeks, Mr. Hosbach said. Staff are waiting for the results of one more laboratory test before bottling begins.

"It will be a very nice wine," he said. "We think we will sell out of it before we have more."

He said the winery will probably enter the wine in competitions.

La Crescent grapes, released by the University of Minnesota in 2002, survive temperatures down to 36 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The university also developed other cold-hardy varieties, including Frontenac, Frontenac Gris and Marquette.

In the next few years, local wineries plan on introducing wines made with Frontenac Gris and Marquette grapes.

Mr. Hosbach said the Frontenac Gris should make a sweeter wine compared to its cousin Frontenac and the Marquette grapes should make a dry red.

Nicholas D. Surdo's Yellow Barn Winery in the town of Hounsfield will also bottle some La Crescent wine, probably about 25 gallons, he said.

"I think it's different from anything people have tasted before," he said. "I think it's going to be a pleasant surprise."

He said he'll have about 50 gallons from Frontenac Gris grapes, too.

"Every year, it will continue to grow as the vineyards continue to mature," he said.

As grape growing and wine making continues to grow along the Thousand Islands-Seaway Wine Trail, the wine from cold-hardy varieties presents an opportunity for the local agricultural and tourism industries.

"This is an opportunity for the wine industry to grow," said Jay M. Matteson, agricultural coordinator for the county. "Hopefully, it's going to be something people find superior to the wines they're used to."