Posts Written OnJanuary 2008

4th Annual Long Island Real Ale Festival: Mild Preview

By Donavan Hall, Beer Columnist Last year I attended the Long Island Real Ale Festival with my beer writer hat on. This year, I’ll be there as a brewer. On January 6, my brewing buddy, Mike Voigt, and I mashed-in and brewed up a batch of an English-style Mild that we’ll be proud to serve at this Saturday’s Long Island Real Ale Festival held annually at the Blue Point Brewery in Patchogue. The beer has been fermenting away at Mike’s house for the last couple of weeks and earlier this week it was ready to transfer into the firkin.  We…

“Pruning” by Christopher Watkins

By Poet Laureate Christopher Watkins   Pruning Early morning, and like middle-schoolerschicken-pimpled beside a swimming pool, the once-mighty vines stand humble, naked in their rows;I swear they’re shivering—a finishing schoolof apprentice scarecrowspracticing on snowflakes… I walk the morning-after battlefield — the fightan ancient rite of deconstruction —marveling at the meagerquintessence of these vines: arms thinas antennae, slender trunks poorly mimickingtheir elder’s muscularity; reminded of a bubblegumcartoon, I imagine Old Vines walking byand kicking sand in all the littlevine’s faces, then stealing off their girls… A long year ahead, and I have no song I can singto march them onwards, but…

Twisted Logic

By Jamie Gabrini, Special Columnist Please note: the rather forceful opinions of Jay are in no way, shape, or form, a reflection of Lenn’s, or of any other contributor on this site. Indeed, they often wish she’d get off the damn soap-box already. Ignorance is bliss. Truly. Aside from being cursed with stellar beauty and rapier wit, I’ve a thirst for information that won’t quit (and feel free to decide which attribute I exaggerate… ) Admittedly a conspiracy theorist, I love digging into books that pick apart social issues and highlight the erring of our American ways. And, since I…

High-End Spirits from the Garden State? Yes.

By Robin Meredith, Cocktail Columnist Even those of us with a relatively enlightened, cliché-free view of New Jersey may be surprised to find out that one of the nation’s most intriguing spirits hails from the Garden State. The most densely populated state in the country seems pretty far removed from the dark hollows of Kentucky and Tennessee or all those wacky mavericks distilling brandy and eau-de-vie in the mountains out west. Laird and Company of Scobeyville, NJ (not far from Red Bank) produces an impressive range of apple-based spirits and has a truly fascinating history. Billing itself as “America’s oldest…

The Sweet Hereafter

By Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Escarpment Correspondent One of the coolest parts about living in an area with a burgeoning wine region has to be the fact that you get to literally watch history unfold. Of course, some history takes place outside in the kind of cold that burns your lungs and freezes your eyeballs, but when I regain feeling in my fingers I’ll be able to look back on January 3 of this still-new year as the date that marks the first local harvest of ice wine grapes at not one but two local wineries. When temperatures dropped into the…

WTN: Lieb Family Cellars 2004 Bridge Lane Bubbly (North Fork of Long Island)

Lieb Family Cellars’ Blanc de Blancs, made entirely using the pinot blanc grape, has long been a favorite (look for a review and rating later this week). But at $35, it’s not the sort of bubbly we can keep on hand for casual consumption. Luckily, they’ve recently introduced a sparkler under as part of their second-label Bridge Lane product  line — a 2004 Bridge Lane Bubbly ($27). Bright and impressively flavorful from the first refreshing sip, this affordable bubbly is made with 60%  pinot noir and 40% chardonnay by French-born Gilles Martin (formerly of Martha Clara Vineyards and currently winemaker…

Sunday Baby Blogging

I can’t believe that this little guy is going to be 1 at the end of the month. I also can’t believe how his gear has overtaken our living room. I guess it will only get worse, right? His birthday party is next Saturday. Nena spent yesterday making meatballs. This week she’ll make sauce and lasagna. Her mom and sister are bringing the rest of the food. I’m handling the wine and my parents are bringing some beer from my hometown. 25 people in our little house is going to be ‘cozy’ but we’ll have fun. We are also taking…

WTN: Brooklyn Oenology 2005 Chardonnay (North Fork of Long Island)

A couple weeks ago, Sasha wrote about Brooklyn Oenology’s debut this fall. Eating local has become a part of every day life for many of us, but drinking local hasn’t quite caught on. But, as we all think about how we can reduce our carbon footprints, drinking wines made closer to home makes perfect sense. Shipping wine across the country or around the world — in those heavy bottles — burns a lot of fossil fuel, emitting a whole lot of carbon dioxide. For Brooklynites, Alie Shaper owner of and winemaker for Brooklyn Oenology (BOE) is making it that much…

Bedell Cellars Set to Release New Red Blend, Musee

Remember Bedell Cellars’ Cupola, their flagship red blend? Well, they haven’t made it recently, apparently deciding to discontinue the product line. Instead, they’ve released a new high-end blend with their 2005 Musée, price at $65, making iti their most expensive wine (and $15 more than the last Cupola if I remember right). Joining wines like their Gallery, TASTE Red and TASTE White, Musée’s front label features artwork by a renowned artist. This time, Chuck Close a well-known painter and recipient of the 2000 National Medal of Arts, has contributed the beautiful label, a photo daguerreotype of grapes. Musée is a…

WTN: Lieb Family Cellars 2004 Cabernet Franc Reserve

Every time I taste a wine like this one, I wonder if Long Island wineries aren’t crazy to push merlot as the be-all-end-all red in the region. Crazy might be overstating it a bit, but I wonder if cabernet franc would get more publicity in these parts if it were a better known variety amongst the wine-drinking population. You all know of my undying devotion to the grape probably best known as the key red France’s Loire Valley. But I’m not alone. Not by a long shot. General Manager Gary Madden, the sometimes-reluctant face of Lieb Family Cellars, loves the…