In California's wine powerhouses, Napa andSanta Rosa in Sonoma County, you can sip a glass of world-class locally grown wine with every meal. But that luxury comes with an exceptional price tag that could keep fixed-income retirees out of the area. Luckily, many other wine-producing regions in the United States offer exceptional beauty and a low-key lifestyle coupled with a much more affordable cost of living. Ithaca, N.Y., and Jefferson City, Mo., both have median home prices below $200,000 while surrounded by gorgeous farmland. "You could probably do well financially if you retire there because it's not that glitzy yet," says Mary Ewing-Mulligan, president of the International Wine Center and coauthor of Wine Style: Using Your Senses to Explore and Enjoy Wine, about the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. "I just tasted a whole lot of Finger Lakes Rieslings, and the wines are very exciting."
The other cities mentioned?
Clemmons, NC
Georgetown, TX
Grand Junction, CO
Ithaca, NY
Jefferson City, MO
Leesburg, VA
Napa, CA
Portland, OR
Santa Rosa, CA
Seattle, WA
So, do you have any Finger Lake wine favorites. Some are, as they say, bottom of the barrel.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'd say that --in general-- it's best to stick to whites in the Finger Lakes. Recently, we've been drinking a lot of wines from Six Mile Creek Vineyard, since it's just a stones throw from us on Route 79 East. But there are lots of great vineyards to choose from.
ReplyDeleteWait, didn't you say you weren't a drinker?!