If you’re a wine connoisseur, you may plan on heading to the Finger Lakes region in New York, which has been named the best wine region in the US. The ranking comes after a panel of experts and editors picked an initial 20 nominees, and the top 10 were determined by voting by the public in the USA Today 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards contest.
We have the movement of glaciers way back in the Ice Age to thank for formation of Finger Lakes, which is comprised of 11 slender bodies of water flanked by wilderness, vineyards and farmland. The region includes more than 130 wineries and five wine trails, and tourism around the industry generates US$2.8 billion (€2.38 billion) on an annual basis. The most popular trails are Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, and two of the oldest wineries in the region, Dr. Konstantin Frank and Hermann J. Wiemer, are well-known for their Rieslings.
Competition in this contest was stiff as the US is home to 238 American Viticultural Areas (AVA) grape-growing regions designated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Lodi in California came second and Leelanau Peninsula in Michigan came third. Completing the top ten was 4. Santa Barbara County in California, 5. Walla Walla Valley in Washington, 6. Hill Country in Texas, 7. Grand Valley in Colorado, 8. El Dorado in California, 9. Willamette Valley in Oregon, and 10. Yadkin Valley in North Carolina.