Kings of Leon (Millot)

A look at four vintages of Keuka Lake Vineyards Leon Millot – And Some Thoughts on Virtual Tastings

I haven’t kept track of exactly how many, but over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic I’ve taken part in a lot of virtual tastings – both as host/panelist and as a participant.

Early on I felt excited to do so. At the time, I couldn’t visit wineries so it felt great to just be tasting wine again with like-minded wine lovers with the winemaker in front of us — even if it was over Zoom or some other platform. I accepted every invitation that I received and sought out others as well.

Honestly, they were great diversions during the peak lock-down period of all of this.

I don’t remember exactly when they stopped being fun, but they definitely did. Sometimes the attendees were the problem. They’d ask questions unrelated to the wines we were tasting or use the Zoom chat as an opportunity to talk about themselves (sommeliers were usually the ones guilty of this.).

It wasn’t just the attendees. As with many things, wineries and regional promotional organizations lost sight of the most important thing: their audience and what they want to hear. They got redundant. Even boring. The same winery owners started showing up for seemingly every tasting, saying the same exact things, and answering the questions the exact same way. Worst still, wineries started sending tasting room or sales staff to present the wines instead of the winemaker. I count many of those folks as friends in this industry, but if you can’t answer basic questions about the wine you’re presenting, you aren’t the right person.

Honestly, I don’t really want to hear from ownership either unless he or she makes the wines. I haven’t done a formal poll, but I know that most trade people feel the same way.

I hadn’t accepted any invitations to a virtual tasting for many months before Mel Goldman, owner of Keuka Lake Vineyards invited me to one. Why did I say yes? Two main reasons.

First, it would be a chance to meet (even if virtually) winemaker Ben Sherman, who arrived at the winery before the 2020 harvest. And second, the tasting was focused on one of the quirky cult wines of the Finger Lakes — the winery’s Leon Millot, a grape that is a very old hybrid from Alsace.

I’m glad that I accepted the invitation. Participants (mostly fans of the winery) got to hear from both Mel and Ben, and it was fascinating to taste three different vintages of wine — 2006, 2015, 2017, and 2020.