By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Full disclosure: Lenn and I were approached in the planning stages about how this project might work.We offered some basic feedback but removed ourselves from the process. An ambitious new collaboration will launch in April, and it unites New York State's three largest wine producing regions. The Three Sisters Project will link "sister wineries" from Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and the Finger Lakes. Each sister winery will sell one another's wine in the tasting room and will seek to educate customers about the unique qualities of the individual regions. “Interest in local foods…
Posts Written ByEvan Dawson
Book Update: The 90,000-Word Journey
Evan chatting with one of his book's subjects, Red Newt's Dave Whiting By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Photos by Morgan Dawson Photography It still needs a title, but the hardest part is now over. My posts for the Cork Report have been a bit less frequent than I'd prefer over the past month, and I wanted to explain why that is. I've been in the final stages of writing a book and it has monopolized my time. My publisher set a manuscript deadline of March 15. I'll submit it several days before that date. On Saturday I wrote…
Finger Lakes Sparkling Wine: Looking for Room at the Dance
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor In the flickering glint of the strobe lights, amidst the pulsing beat and bodies, it was impossible to see the edges of the room. No matter. The party was in the middle, and it centered around Riesling. He was always the magnet, the draw, the energy. Tonight, like most nights, he had brought a few friends. The girls would wink and nod at his entourage, but ultimately they were fighting for the mysterious man who was known for being simultaneously acerbic and sweet. He always gets the girl. That's pretty much the story of…
Owner of 3 Brothers Winery Recovering After Attack; Two Arrested
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor State police photos Two men are charged with felonious assault after allegedly attacking the owner of a Seneca Lake winery on Saturday afternoon. Police say the attack happened at about 3:30 p.m. Thomas Wulff, 28, and Michael Wulff, 27, of Pennsylvania, are accused of beating Dave Mansfield, owner and president of Three Brothers Wineries & Estates. Mansfield suffered a broken bone in his face and other facial injuries. He was treated and released from Geneva General Hospital. The two men, who are brothers, were part of a large group touring wineries in a limousine.…
Mini-Rieslings: Hazlitt Hopes To Take a Major Step With Customers
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Photo courtesy of Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards has just released a new mini-format riesling and they believe it will provide more options for consumers and restaurants. As shown at right, the wine will be sold in packs of four, with each bottle containing 187 milliliters of wine (or exactly 1/4 a standard bottle of wine). "People want a single-serving bottle," Hazlitt's Director of Marketing, Brad Phillips, told me. "There are a lot of customers who don't want to have to get rid of a whole bottle of wine. So this format not…
New Chocolate and Wine Bar Opens In Rochester With Local Emphasis
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Admit it: On more than one occasion, you've said to yourself, I'm going to quit work and start my own bed and breakfast/wine bar/restaurant. Danielle Lewis and Michael Goldberg got sick of saying it, so they decided to finally do it. The result is Rochester's newest foodie attraction: Chocolate & Vines, located in a renovated house in the Neighborhood of the Arts. Lewis and Goldberg bought the house nearly two years ago and spent 18 months renovating it. They live upstairs, with the downstairs converted into a chic mini-restaurant with seating for roughly two…
Tasting a Treasure: Restaurant Turns Up Rare Bottle of 1966 Dr. Frank Riesling
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Photos by Morgan Dawson Photography I could barely believe the photograph, sent from a friend. The bottle in the picture said Dr. Konstantin Frank 1966 Johannisberg Riesling, but it did not make sense that a restaurant was selling such a bottle in December of 2009. In Florida. My mind raced. How did the restaurant get this wine? How did they know it was still worth drinking? How could it possibly be worth drinking at 43 years old? If it was real, could I get one? And what would it smell and taste like? A…
New York State White Wine of the Year: Arrested Development and Achieving Balance
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes EditorPhotos by Morgan Dawson Photography We were getting nowhere. Our initial evaluations of the Finger Lakes white wine flight had produced no clear choice for Wine of the Year. We had summoned only one conclusion: These were excellent wines and choosing one seemed nearly impossible. Slowly we began to pare down the six wines (everything was done blind), and our conversation focused on the search for balance. Which wines showcased the regional strengths most profoundly? We never did reach a unanimous conclusion, which I found healthy. But we were pleased with the selection of Billsboro…
What California Thinks About the Finger Lakes: The Good and the Worrisome
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Photograph shows a vineyard atop Mount Veeder, Napa Valley I recently spent four days in various parts of northern California wine country, including Napa Valley and the Russian River Valley. During public tastings and private appointments, in wine shops and food markets, I asked people what they heard or knew about Finger Lakes wines. I expected some out-of-date responses, perhaps including: "The Finger Lakes makes wine? Real wine?" "The Finger Lakes makes whites, I hear, but the reds suck." "The Finger Lakes, yes, I've heard of it. Bully Hill." But in all of our…
Finding the Chautauqua-Lake Erie Wines of the Year — and Finding a Region’s Emerging Personality
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Photos by Morgan Dawson Photography In a chic western New York wine bar called Sapore, on a quiet Sunday afternoon, a group of colleagues and competitors did something they had never done before. They poured one another's wines in an introduction to the New York Cork Report and an effort to promote the Chautauqua-Lake Erie wine trail. Producers chose to feature only white and dessert wines for this tasting, and while these wines represented the best of this wine region, they're not showing the same quality that consumers can find in the Finger Lakes and Long Island. But for now, they don't…