Posts Written OnAugust 2011

The New York Cork Report Tasting Table — August 5, 2011

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor These are tasting notes for some wines that have been tasted at the NYCR tasting table but won’t be reviewed in standalone posts. Bouke Wines 2010 Rose ($16): Made with cabernet sauvignon and merlot.Aromas of pomegranate, cranberry and strawberry. The strawberry is more pronounced on the round, medium-bodied palate. Mostly red fruit flavors but a hint of leafy earthiness and cinnamon candy too. Good acidity balances ripe fruitiness well. Channing Daughters Winery 2010 Mudd Vineyard West Sauvignon Blanc ($20): 5% chardonnay blended in. Expressive nose delivers lime, grapefruit, honeydew melon aromas and light hints of…

2011 Harvest: Cassis Season Has Begun in the Hudson Valley

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor This year’s first harvest report comes courtesy of Carlo DeVito, owner of Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, NY. “Hudson-Chatham Winery, Brookview Station Winery and Tousey Winery have started their cassis crush. Black currants usually come in the middle of July. All over the valley, they’re making cassis. Somewhere between 12,000 to 15,000 bottles of cassis will be made in the Hudson Valley this year. The region is the largest maker of artisanal cassis in North America. Here’s an up close photo of the cassis being punched down.”

News Brief: The Winemaker Studio is Now Open

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Anthony Nappa and Sarah Evans’ new venture The Winemaker Studio opened its doors to the public for the first time last Wednesday. Evans, the chef de cuisine at North Fork Table and Nappa, the former winemaker at Shinn Estate Vineyards, are pouring and selling wines he makes under his own label while also offering wines from three other winemakers’ labels: Suhru Wines from Russell Hearn of Pellegrini Vineyards and Premium Wine Group, Grapes of Roth from Roman Roth of Wolffer Estate Vineyard, and Leo Family from John Leo of Clovis Point. The Winemaker Studio is open…

Long Ireland Beer Company Opens Tasting Room at Riverhead Brewery

  By Donavan Hall, Long Island Beer Correspondent Every few months or so our little brewery goes through a number of cylinders of compressed CO2 gas. It's an easy enough thing to load up the cylinders in the brewery truck and drive out to our compressed gas supplier in Riverhead — a one man job really, but it's more fun when there's two. When Mike, my brewing and business partner, decided to turn our hobby into something a little more large scale and serious, he asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. So the two of…

Donavan Hall Returns to NYCR as Long Island Beer Correspondent

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Today Donavan Hall, our original beer editor years ago, returns to the NYCR team as a beer correspondent covering the Long Island beer scene. I met Donavan many years ago, perhaps before I ever started blogging. Our chance meeting was at a brewpub with a group of like-minded fiction writers who were gearing up for National Novel Writing Month. While I've given up on my fiction writing, Donavan continues to be one of the more prolific writers I know, writing beer themed novels as well as the source for Long Island beer information, his Long…

Donavan Hall | Beer Correspondent, Long Island

When Donavan Hall arrived on Long Island in 2002 he found a region of the country where the seed of craft beer could be planted in fertile soil. A compulsive writer by predilection, he set about writing a craft beer guide for Long Island and covering the burgeoning craft beer scene for various print publications and blogs. In the summer of 2009 the first edition of his Long Island Beer Guide was published. At about same time, together with Rich Thatcher and Mike Voigt, he founded the Long Island Beer and Malt Enthusiasts, a consumer organization whose mission is was…