Posts Written ByCorin Hirsch

Inside Copake Wine Works, aka “Frankly Wines North”

The first Saturday tasting at Copake Wine Works felt slightly subversive: Standing behind a table in the front window, co-owner Christy Frank splashed Greek white and Moroccan syrah into the glasses of customers who were possibly more used to tried-and-true Chardonnay and G&Ts on lazy August afternoons. The wines were quenching, though, and well-priced, so many left with bottles of Semeli “Mountain Sun” Moschofilero and Ouled Thaleb Syrah cradled in their arms. On Instagram, Frank has called Copake Wine Works, the three-month old wine shop she and her husband, Yanai, run in this sleepy upstate village, “Frankly Wines North,” and its shelves offer a mashup…

How Awestruck Is Wooing Drinkers To Cider

About 5,000 people live in Walton, New York, an unassuming town on the edge of the Catskills whose main drag is lined with quaint brick buildings and come fall, so many scarecrows that it’s sometimes called ‘Scarecrow Capital of the World.’ Walton might also earn a prominent spot in the story New York’s modern cider boom as the home of Awestruck Ciders. I took the hilly, two-and-a-half hour drive to Walton recently after sampling some fizzy Eastern Dry, a vaguely tropical cider that was so poised  — and at $9 for a 750-milliliter bottle, so well-priced — that I thought the…

Millbrook Vineyards’ “Local Juice” — Then and Now

Early spring vines at Millbrook Vineyards and Winery, ready to do their thing. During the steep drive up to Millbrook Vineyards & Winery, in some spots the only thing you can see are rows of grapevines stretching to the horizon. The effect can be both eerie and disorienting — wasn’t I driving through the Hudson Valley a minute ago? — especially on a drizzly, raw April day when there’s not a soul, or leaf, in sight. Looks can be deceiving. Inside the beamed winery — a converted dairy barn — is the clamor and hum of machinery. It’s bottling day…

NY Drinks NY: Tasting New York In 60 Minutes Or Less

Since I recently moved back to New York state, I looked forward to the NY Drinks NY tasting  for weeks as a way to plunge back in and get reacquainted with New York wine. But then a business lunch ran late and I hoofed it in to Astor Center with barely an hour to spare. Merda! With thirty-five producers, seven wines (roughly) apiece, and 60 or so minutes, I definitely needed an organizing principle. Tracking down my Hudson Valley neighbors seemed a solid place to start. Soon, I found all — three of them? Benmarl Winery, Brotherhood Winery, and Whitecliff…