Posts Written ByTodd Trzaskos

What We Drank 2014.03.12

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor:  SingleCut Beersmiths Full Stack IIPA Long Island has enjoyed a beer renaissance in the years since I moved here just over a decade ago. Breweries continue to pop up all over the Island. Beer bars (or at least bars with a handful of good beers) are increasingly common. But my section of Long Island has been slow to get on board, with only one or two options if I want to go out for an interesting pint of beer. No more. We’re still not drowning in craft beer options, but there are a handful of places…

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Frontenac: Mutant Vintage

It was very tempting to approach this subject indirectly through a wine science fiction sort of allegory. The tale of a race decimated by plague and forced to breed with other relative species in order to survive. The social stigmas faced by the viable offspring:  the challenges of relocation and settling of new lands,  the strange and divergent characteristics that began to appear in subsequent generations. It’snot far off, as a version of the inter-specific hybrid grapevine story, and of the unexpected mutants that currently exist among us, in the form of the cold climate grape called Frontenac. The Frontenac grape…

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What We Drank (March 5, 2014 Edition)

Gibson Campbell: 2004 Chateau Lynch Bages, Pauillac It’s not often I get to drink good Bordeaux.  In fact, I almost never do. That’s why this bottle was so exciting for me.  The age of the wine was not evident at first glance with bright ruby around the rim and a dark garnet core. It’s a classic Bordeaux blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, and petit verdot. It opens up on the nose with cooked mushroom and cooked beef. After some time in the glass, a soft oak character and cigar-box notes start to show. The palate shows more fruit…

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What We Drank (February 20, 2014 Edition)

Editor’s Note: We’ve taken a bit of a break from WWD of late, but the team has requested that we bring it back — so we are. Contributing Editor Todd Trzaskos will be running this feature going forward. Thanks, Todd! Michael Gorton Jr.: Rocky Point Artisan Brewers CROM  (Double IPA) Lenn and I decided we needed a beer night.   We were going to hit up a local joint that has been doing well after it had some tough reviews when it first opened.  But alas, they were closed.  So we settled, if you wanna say, on another craft beer joint…

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Adirondack Coast Wine, Cider & Food Festival – 2013 Vintage

Harvest is upon us, and while the North Country vineyards and wineries prepare for the rigors of the season, they are also getting ready for a celebration once most of the field and winery work is done.  On Saturday October 12th from 1PM to 8PM the Crete Civic Center in Plattsburgh, NY will be hosting the second annual Adirondack Coast Wine, Cider & Food Festival which has already grown since last year, in the number of vendors and events, as well as the hours of operation. Most of the Adirondack Coast producers, as well as at least one ice cider producer…

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A Toast to the Adirondack Coast Wine Trail and Others

Reports of veraison are finally beginning to arrive from the North Country, and after such wet weather, both the sunshine and this growth stage are welcome news.  It’s not just the grapes that are growing in upstate New York though — so are the wine trails. Recent legislation makes the Adirondack Coast Wine Trail an official part of the New York State Highway map. It’s just a little trail across sixty-six miles of road, linking seven wineries and cider houses, but it is a major development milestone for a new region that adds to the diversity of wine growing in the Empire State.…

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Will Changes in the Cornell Cooperative Extension Program Leave Some Out in the Cold?

Questions about the pace of global climate change and its effect on viticulture have been frequent topics of conversations in vineyards and wineries around New York. A less talked about, and even less understood change also taking place with another force that has significance to the industry.  The Cornell Cooperative Extension is on a path of reorganization, that while still in the definition phases, might ultimately change the way that folks in the field interface with its services. The Cooperative Extension service of the USDA has for nearly 150 years followed a mission to “help people use research-based knowledge to improve…

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Cape Winery Sprouts in the Thousand Islands

The official opening of the Cape Winery in Cape Vincent, NY is not until Memorial Day, but a recent springtime Saturday “soft opening” saw over a hundred people in the tasting room, more than a dozen cases of wine leave the premises in the hands of happy consumers, and folks joining the infant “case club.” The current version of the New York State Wine Regions map shows expanded areas all around the state, and this latest opening already asks for those boundaries to be expanded even more. Situated on a spit of limestone-based land that has Lake Superior on one…

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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…

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New Cornell Grapes Named and Released. NYCR Reader Submission Chosen.

The Lilac Ballroom of the Riverside Convention Center in Rochester, NY filled quickly earlier this week for a late morning session of the Viticulture 2013 Conference, where the commercial names for two new wine grapes released from the Cornell breeding program were to be announced. White wine grape NY76.0844.24 will now officially be called “Aromella“, and the red grape NY95.0301.01 will be recognized as “Arandell“. Over 1100 suggestions from around the globe had poured in after the request for assistance was publicized last year, first here in the Cork Report, and then as picked up by other news outlets. Horticulture Professor Bruce Reisch…

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