Posts Written OnOctober 18, 2010

By Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Regional Editor The combination of my three previous years’ experience making wine at home and this year’s epic growing season has created incredibly high expectations for my personal 2010 wines. No longer am I content to just make a wine that is “not bad.” Once again I'm getting pristine fruit from some of the Niagara region's best vineyards and I have no excuse not to make wine just as good if not better than the pros. This season I’m sticking to grapes that I know and love: pinot noir and cabernet franc. Leading off this year’s…

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Most don't think of New York City as one of New York's up-and-coming wine regions, but with a handful of urban wineries are making a wide variety of wines within the city limits. And while not all of these outposts source fruit locally, many do, including Red Hook Winery. Long before Red Hook's first bottles hit store shelves, wine lovers in the tri-state area were keenly aware of the project. Led by Mark Snyder founder of Angels' Share Wines, a boutique wine distributor, Red Hook is already well known for it's star West Coast winemakers…

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor In the past I’ve found some of Brewery Ommegang’s Belgian-style offerings a tad hit-or-miss, but lately the Cooperstown brewery has been blowing me away. I enjoyed a bottle of this Tripel Perfection at my resident beer geek watering hole and was immediately seduced by its buttery mouthfeel and head-to-toe class. Tripel Perfection pours a gently hazy golden blonde into a goblet with a three-finger head that maintains throughout the drinking session with elegance. The nose is apricot, pineapple and tangerine, and hints of clove and coriander, with a seductive leesy richness, giving way to a…