While I was in line to check out at the liquor store a couple of weeks ago, I saw this wine on the shelf. Traminette (tra-man-et) is a varietal I had never heard of before, however, I had heard of Seneca Lake’s Fox Run Vineyards during one of my wine classes. I decided to give it a try! The winemaker, Peter Bell, spoke to our class about the importance of balance in wine and how to manipulate it. I will cover that in more detail in a future blog post.

Similar to a traditional cool climate Gewürztraminer, this wine is semi-dry with aromas of melon, mango, honey, minerals and faint lemon citrus. However, it did not have as many floral or spicy aromatics as Gewürztraminer. The citrus followed through on the palate with some creamy textures of mango and pineapple. It was bright, delicately smooth and had a long finish. I served it slightly chilled before dinner and it was absolutely delicious. This wine would go well with a salad, dumplings topped with a spicy sauce or Thai food. I would highly recommend trying this wine if you like Gewürztraminer or a semi-dry Riesling!

Traminette is a French-American hybrid grape, created to replicate the flavors of a white table grape (a grape you can buy at the grocery store). However, the hybrid ended up making a complex, flavorful wine and provided high yielding crops that could withstand a cold environment. One of the parents of this grape is actually Gewürztraminer! To make the wine, Fox Run Vineyards sources the Traminette grapes from Simmons Vineyard on Keuka Lake. This practice is actually quite common in the world of winemaking. If the wine is exclusively made with grapes grown on the estate vineyard, the label will usually say ‘Estate Bottled’. If it does not say that, then one or more of the varietals used to make the wine has been sourced from a vineyard off of the property.

The next time we visit Seneca Lake, we are going to make a stop at Fox Run Vineyards, but until then, I am going to keep on trying their wines!

The sunset in the photo above is gorgeous, but sadly it comes with a cost. The smoke from the wildfires raging on the West Coast has travelled all the way to New York State, where this picture was taken. If you are interested in donating to relief funds, consider checking out these websites:

Oregon Community Foundation

Oregon Wine Country (scroll all the way to the bottom)

California Community Foundation

California Fire Foundation

Vintage: 2018

Alcohol: 11.5%

Producer/Winery: Fox Run Vineyards

Region: Seneca Lake, Finger Lakes, NY

Grapes: 100% Traminette

Price: $15