Posts Written ByTodd Trzaskos

Weekly New York Wine News — January 5, 2015

I’ll Drink to That Podcast – 12/23/2014 Levi Dalton interviews Christopher Tracy – winemaker and a partner at the Channing Daughters winery, on New York’s Long Island. Plus Erin Scala takes a look at the history of wine production in New York state. New York Times – 12/26/2014 The owners of Finger Lakes wine cellars are squaring off against business interests to store liquefied petroleum gas in their neighborhoods. New York Winemakers Fight Gas Storage Plan Near Seneca Lake. Syracuse.com – 12/29/2014 Gas storage plan under Seneca Lake draws letters to the editor and a heated commentary. WXXI News – 12/29/2014 New York…

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North Country Passing – Rob McDowell

North Country wine growers and cold climate viticulture lost a visionary, sharp witted, friend, colleague and sometimes antagonist when Rob McDowell passed away earlier this month on December 13th. Rob grew and operated Purple Gate Vineyard in Plattsburgh and was one of the first people to dedicate serious efforts to the propagation of cold hardy hybrids in the Lake Champlain Valley of New York. Rob was a founding member of the local wine community and shared generously of his knowledge at site visits, meetings and workshops, with locals and visitors alike, some who would go on to become growers and winemakers…

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Lovely Louise Swenson

Elmer Swenson is a respected and nearly mythical figure in the cold climate wine growing community, but do we ever wonder what force was behind his success? He had his own motivations for breeding grapes which developed at an early age, and then later in life he greatly expanded the vine breeding work of prior generations. His ‘amateur’ vine propagation began in 1943 and continued when he was a dairy farmer and had full responsibility for the family operation. Upon retirement from dairy, Elmer went to work for the University of Minnesota as a fruit nurseryman and eventually, grape breeder. When he retired again, he continued…

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North Country Report: Patience Needed to Tame Acidity

2014 was what most vacationers would describe as a pretty ideal summer and subsequent transition into autumn. Crop load in the north country has been good on those plants that had healthy wood after the bone-chilling winter. The season was marked by beautiful clear days and sporadic rains when we needed them.  It was good sleeping weather at night and it never really got too hot which was great for camping but a bit of a challenge for the grapes.  Sugar levels were behind and  worked their way up, but slow grape maturity had been holding pH readings low and Titratable Acidity (TA) high,…

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The Spirits of Volunteerism

Early last month a story broke in California about a small winery that had been subject to hefty fines levied by state labor authorities for the use of willing volunteers, and then fined again during their process to try and mitigate the unintended wrong. This has prompted conversations across the industry and across the country as wineries and their advocates look to their own state laws to see what kind of risks they might be exposed to. Hans Walter-Peterson in the Finger Lakes has mentioned the situation in recent issues of the Finger Lakes Vineyard Update newsletter, and we are recently…

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Tasting for Terroir in Cold Climates

Harvest is closing in fast and winery tasks are in high gear, whether it be crush pad prep or the bottling of last year’s vintages. From large producers to little amateur outfits like our own, the story is the same as one season rolls quickly into the next, and what comes in through one door must pass out another and make room in between. While I was bench testing blends for the 2013 whites, I got to thinking about a very interesting and informative cold-climate tasting from earlier this summer, when it seemed like we still had all the time…

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What We Drank ( July 23, 2014)

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor: The Commons Brewery, Flemish Kiss Among all of my beer-loving friends, I have two guys that I always absolutely geek-out with when we get together. We always try to pick up new beers that we haven’t had, explore styles that we know we like and occasionally try something that we don’t really expect to like. Over the weekend, I got together with one of these friend and we tasted a bunch of stuff but mostly farmhouse styles and Brett-influenced beers. Of the two Brett beers, the one was harsh, searingly dry and too much about the…

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AVA in the ADK?

Conveying a sense of place has become a real priority for fine wine, no matter where in the world it is grown. Wine has the responsibility of not only needing to taste and smell good, but for afficianados and for marketing purposes it is expected to also serve as a reliable ambassador for its region of origin. It’s supposed to mean something when you see a unique place name on a bottle’s label, and before long it just might mean that it is coming from New York’s North Country. Producers way upstate have worked together and an AVA application has…

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What We Drank ( June 11, 2014 )

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor: Schloss Gobelsburg 2013 Gobelsburger Gruner Veltliner, Kamptal I’ll write more about this soon, but I’ve been lucky enough over the past month or so to become the wine buyer for a soon-to-open restaurant here on Long Island. It’s going to be a gastropub with a focus on beer, so the wine list isn’t front and center, but the chef and owners have tasked me with creating a fairly small wine list that will appeal to a wide audience but also push them out of their comfort zones a bit too. And of course my target is…

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Playing Some La Crosse

La Crosse is a grape from the cold climate quiver that is a pet favorite of mine. Having worked with it in the Cornell trial vineyard and in and the home winery for a few vintages, I’m intrigued by what smells and tastes like potential. It’s yet another of the Elmer Swenson-propagated diaspora of hybrid vines which offer options and hope to winemakers who grow and press  in places that are USDA Zone 5 and below. A complex hybrid offspring of Seyval Blanc, and named for the Wisconsin city on the Mississippi,  it offers some improvements upon its parent, and…

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