Scott’s First Solo Riesling: A Homegrown Entry for the NY State Fair

So this happened! Scott’s wine has been officially entered in the New York State Fair!

To get you up to speed, starting in 2022, Scott took viticulture and enology classes at FLCC while still employed full-time as an ICU nurse (he still is, by the way). While in school, he worked in the vineyards at Boundary Breaks and interned for the fall 2023 harvest at Silver Thread, and then worked at Silver Thread during last year’s harvest, too.

All in his (ahem) spare time.

Last fall, he put his hard-earned lessons to work and made his first solo batch of wine: a dry Riesling using juice from Fulkerson Winery.

He started the fermentation at our lake house in Interlaken, then brought it back to Pittsford to age in glass carboys, eventually bottling it in the basement. When all was said and done, there were just under 100 bottles!

Last week, we entered his wine into the amateur winemaking competition at the New York State Fair. We dropped off two bottles at (fittingly) Fulkerson, which just happens to be one of the drop-off spots for the competition, and submitted our entry online.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at his winemaking process (scroll through the pics):

It’s been so cool to watch this come together—basement chemistry meets Finger Lakes terroir. Stay tuned for what happens next. Win or not, we’re proud of this one!

Interested in learning more about Scott’s winemaking journey? Check out this post.

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Cheers from the lake,
— Niki & Scott