Posts Written OnMarch 2013

A Report from New York City Beer Week

A couple weeks ago, I was able to partake in portions of the 5th annual New York City Beer Week, a celebration including over 100 venues, 300 events, and the takeover of hundreds of tap lines. Some of the city’s most acclaimed restaurants, bars, and chefs helped showcase the importance of craft beer on a massive scale. I made my way into Brooklyn to check out a few events and brews. Although there were plenty of imports on the participant’s beer lists, there was a noticeable emphasis on what’s being brewed locally. Establishments that embrace a “locavore” approach to their…

Continue Reading

What Do People Think of New York State Wines? (Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Edition)

I am always curious to know what people in wine country think of New York State wines. Not Finger Lakes wine country, mind you, or Long Island wine country. I mean just about any other state or country. My visit to Santa Barbara County, and then Los Angeles, has to be encouraging on the anecdotal, entirely unscientific level. “The Finger Lakes is doing some special things,” said Sashi Moorman, one of the finest winemakers on the west coast and a huge force in the Santa Barbara wine industry. “I’m not fully up to date with what they’re doing, but riesling,…

Continue Reading

Is there a Market for Long Island Wine Beyond New York?

Since I first became involved with Long Island wine, I have said privately and publicly that I simply do not understand the general lack of national distribution. I have argued that with wider distribution there would be increased recognition and demand, which will benefit all of the wineries on Long Island. In response to my recent NYCR piece which included another comment with regard to Long Island wine distribution issues, I received two comments. Charles Massoud, proprietor of Paumanok Vineyards in Aquebogue, commented: “As to distribution, indeed we may never be able to distribute beyond our local market, because our…

Continue Reading

Lenz Winery 2008 White Label Chardonnay

There are very few Long Island wines at $12 worth putting in one’s mouth. With what it costs to make wine here, that price range just isn’t one that is played in often — and when it is, it’s even more rare for the wine to be good. Lenz Winery 2008 White Label Chardonnay ($12) is a nice, straightforward chardonnay with low oak footprint that will appeal to a wide range of drinkers and complement an array of foods. Yellow apple and Bartlett pear dominate the nose, but there are also subtle tropical fruit and citrus blossom notes, and a…

Continue Reading

Marquette Making its Mark in North Country Wine

The prospect of growing and making red wine in cool climates meets with some well-known challenges — reaching adequate ripening levels, controlling acidity, getting good color extraction, as well as surviving disease and predators. Until just a few years ago, it might have been considered madness to conceive of, let alone attempt to pursue, the table red in places where the winter snow can get as deep as the high trellis wire, or where there can be bare ground on days with temperatures so cold that cars and equipment won’t start until the morning sun has been on them for…

Continue Reading

What We Drank (March 5, 2013)

  Here’s just a sampling of what our editors and contributors were drinking last week… David Flaherty: Mikkeler, Beer Hop Breakfast Despite the fact I am writing this as the sun is coming up, I am decidedly not having this beer for breakfast today. Call me a wuss, but I tend to shy away from 7.5% abv beers before my morning Fruit Loops. For those of you not familiar with the Danish brewery, Mikkeler, it’s worth noting that it at the forefront of the new wave of “gypsy brewers.” Not possessing a brewery of his own, Mikkel Borg Bjergsø bounces around…

Continue Reading

Fork Finds: Paumanok Vineyards Centennial Chardonnay 2012 @ Grand Central Oyster Bar, New York, NY

This weather cycle has not been particularly kind to those attempting to visit or live and work on the East End in 2013. The Blizzard Formally Known as Nemo shut down the LIE for days and less-than-aggressive snow clean up on residential streets made it a little hard to get around out here. Fear not! There’s a way for Long Island wine loving concrete jungle dwellers to get a fix of something new and different from the North Fork without leaving Manhattan. Or even Midtown. Although she doesn’t look a day over 70 and her marble staircase is as grand…

Continue Reading

Naked Flock: the Tinkerers of Hudson Valley

Jonathan Hull has done what many of us city dwellers only dream of: he has run off to the country to make stuff. A former insurance broker, he recently quit that job and has now immersed himself full-time in making cider and wine deep in the Hudson Valley. Working in the same orchard planted by his grandfather (and subsequently run by his father), Jonathan oversees nearly 40 acres of apples, as well as a one-acre vineyard.  His son, Dylan, 22, has been working with him for over 15 years, and is now in charge of outside sales and meeting new…

Continue Reading

Donbavand Joins New York Cork Report As European Correspondent

Does the New York Cork Report really need a European Correspondent? I never thought so, until I ‘met’ Will Donbavand via Twitter some time ago. Here was this guy in the UK who was just as passionate and excited about New York wine as anyone already on the team. You see, the company he works for, Wine Equals Friends, imports some of New York’s best wines into the UK. After a few private and public exchanges about specific New York wines, I was convinced that Will would fit in just fine with the team. Along with Wine Equals Friends’ founder…

Continue Reading