(Pictured left to right: Eric Fry (Lenz), Kelly Urbanik (Bedell), Adam Suprenant (Osprey's Dominion), Miguel Martin (Palmer), Rich Olsen-Harbich (Raphael), Pascal Zugmeyer (Peconic Bay), Greg Gove (Peconic Bay) and Jim Silver (Peconic Bay). By Lenn Thompson, Long Island Editor and Editor-in-Chief I just got home from a riesling-filled evening with some of Long Island's best winemakers, tasting a total of 24 rieslings from a variety of regions — the Finger Lakes, Long Island, Alsace, Washington, Mosel. Tasting with a group of winemakers is always a fun exercise. Opinions were all over the map about the various wines, and I'll be…
Posts Written OnSeptember 2009
Q&A: John Leo, Winemaker, Clovis Point
By Lenn Thompson, Long Island Editor and Editor-in-Chief John Leo, winemaker at Clovis Point, was worn in the Hudson Vally region of New York and grew up around wine — his Italian maternal grandparents made it in their basement. He got into the wine business, after graduating from Syracuse University, in the "selling end" of the business, working at retail shops and restaurants in Manhattan and at Louis M Martini winery in St Helena, California. After two years in the Hudson Valley working for a winery that had to close up shop, he came to Long Island in 1994 to…
This Is Your Grape. This Is Your Grape On Downy Mildew.
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Photo by Morgan Dawson Photography Downy mildew is like the slasher movie killer in the vineyard: You almost never see it, but when it does make an appearance there is a trail of destruction in its wake. And all summer long, we heard how this was a disease pressure year like few others — a slasher movie, to be sure, in the unsuspecting vineyards. Check out this photograph of grapes ravaged by downy mildew. It was taken in a Finger Lakes vineyard that serves only as an experimental block and thus is not designed…
The Wine of His Life: Anthony Road Set to Release Riesling TBA
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Photos by Morgan Dawson Photography If you're the type of wine drinker who tunes out when people start talking about "dessert wine," I'm going to ask you to abandon your prejudice. This is the story of a wine that is way beyond a simple after-dinner drink. With apologies to the many nicely made ice and dessert wines in New York state, the TBA is so much more than that. And in this case, it's a wine that a German-born winemaker Johannes Reinhardt dreamt about for years, wondering if he'd even get the chance to…
TasteNY on Long Island’s North Fork Tomorrow Night
By Lenn Thompson, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Tomorrow night, I'll be co-hosting, with the folks at Peconic Bay Winery, a tasting of nearly 20 rieslings as a part of the TasteNY project I kicked off several months ago. I'll be joined by several local winemakers, including Anthony Nappa (Shinn Estate), Juan Micieli-Martinez (Martha Clara Vineyards), Greg Gove (Peconic Bay Winery), Kareem Massoud (Paumanok Vineyards), Kelly Urbanik (Bedell Cellars), Miguel Martin (Palmer Vineyards) and Rich Olsen-Harbich (Raphael). Jim Silver from Peconic Bay has pulled together some 'ringer' wines — well-rated wines from Washington State, Germany, France and Austria — and several of…
Pindar Vineyards’ Les Howard Announces Winemaker’s Cruise in Mediterranean
By Lenn Thompson, Long Island Editor and Editor-in-Chief Not only is Les Howard, a Long Island native and winemaker at Pindar Vineyards, improving the wines at the winery, he's organizing some unique promotions for wine lovers. He has just announced that he has partnered with with Crystal Cruises and Food and Wine Travels to create “Wines and Food of the Mediterranean,” an exclusive Winemaker’s Cruise that sets sail on May 25, 2010 from Venice to Barcelona for twelve days aboard the six-star Crystal Serenity. The Winemaker’s Cruise includes educational wine tastings and seminars, a winemaker’s dinner, a private shore excursion…
What We Drank (September 7, 2009)
Happy Labor Day, everyone. We hope this long weekend meant lots of delicious, locally focused meals and drinks. It would appear that only Evan and I are chiming in with What We Drank this week, but coincidentally, we both picked local wines (a rarity) and both happen to be from the 2001 vintage. Evan Dawson: Miles Wine Cellars 2001 Milestone You've had that feeling before. That moment when you grab a bottle of wine from your cellar and say, "Where the heck did THIS come from?" My wife and I have no idea where we got this bottle of '01…
A Sunday at Peconic Bay Vineyards
We stopped by Peconic Bay Winery today on a gorgeous North For Sunday afternoon. I could tell you about the well-balanced riesling, the ever-improving-in-the-bottle steel chardonnay or the "wow" Peconic Bay Winery 2001 Oregon Hills Merlot, but instead I'll leave you with this picture of Jackson. He spent half an hour inspecting the Musque-clone chardonnay fruit. He's optimistic for a great Long Island vintage. He needs a refractometer, doesn't he? A future grape grower?
Raphael 2007 Cabernet Franc
By Lenn Thompson, Founder and Editor-in-Chief In the hotter, riper years, one of my favorite local cabernet francs almost always comes from Raphael, where winemaker Richard Olsen-Harbich eschews oak completely with his franc. Of course without oak, the fruit is forced to stand alone. You can't cover up underripe fruit. Without oak, you can taste the season — good or bad. I found the 2006 vintage of this wine, from that cool, rainy growing season, thin and underwhelming. Not so with this Raphael 2007 Cabernet Franc ($16), made from fruit grown during what might be the best one ever for…
Finger Lakes 2009 Vintage: Working Hard for a Happy Ending
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Photos by Morgan Dawson Just as hailstorms and cold snaps are destructive to a vineyard, sweeping generalizations are destructive to a harvest report. This year, more than any in recent memory, it is nearly impossible to describe the Finger Lakes pre-harvest conditions in one or two declarative statements. That's because Mother Nature did some — let's just call it like it is — weird, weird stuff this year. Take the case of Hermann J. Wiemer, which utilizes three vineyards on Seneca Lake. One of them, the HJW vineyard behind the winery itself, endured a recent…