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Lindsay Prichard, Finger Lake Correspondent: Bellangelo 2010 Fifty/50 As Memorial Day was winding down on Monday night, I decided to check the wine cellar to find a wine that would pair well with the latest History Channel mini-series that I had planned to watch. With the prospect of work the next day, I decided to pull an easy-drinking white. I had a few candidates in mind, but settled on the 2012 Fifty/50 from Villa Bellangelo. Although I had tasted several of Bellangelo’s wines, I had never tried this particular one. Fifty/50 is a blend of 50% Riesling and 50% Gewurztraminer with Riesling…

Lindsay Prichard, Finger Lake Correspondent: Pappy Van Winkle 15-year-old Reserve Bourbon I was recently in Nashville to visit my son who lives there. The city is famous for lots of things: music, food, history – and an abundance of southern bourbon. I’m not a whiskey aficionado and my normal drink of choice would be wine or beer. But I decided to take a “when in Rome” approach and sample some of the South’s finest. I had heard about “Pappy” from my whiskey-drinking friends, but had never tried it myself. When our server brought it out, he said “if heaven was a whiskey,…

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor – Domaine Chignard 2012 Fleurie “Les Moriers” My birthday was last weekend. I turned 39, so it wasn’t any sort of milestone. Not worth spending money on a birth-year wine. That’ll be next year. I did use my birthday as an excuse to go wine shopping though. I spend most of the house wine budget on local wines, but I decided to visit the only decent wine shop for 30 miles and came home with this beautiful Fleurie. Beaujolais is always a good bet in my house. It’s one of the few regions that my wife…

  Editor’s Note: Starting today, we will publish WWD twice a month, rather than every week, going forward Amy Zavatto, Contributing Editor: Macari Vineyards 2010 Riesling Kelly Urbanik’s first vintage with the Joe and Alexandra Macari, this Finger Lakes-sourced beauty started off with a little petroleum on the nose that blew off after a bit, and then opened up with aromas of beeswax, fresh, juicy pears, nougat, and white flowers. It’s mouth filling and lush, with weight and length that tells of the warm vintage this came from, but with a delicious zing and bite of minerality, grapefruit juice, and zest, and…

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor: Paumanok Vineyards 2012 Riesling Saturday night, we hosted three couples — new-ish friends we’ve made through our first grader, actually — for drinks before heading out to dinner together to our local BYO joint. I pulled nearly a case of New York wines from my cellar and I could easily have picked any of them for WWD this week. Instead, I’m going to write about this bottle that one of the couple brought for us as a “host/hostess gift.” It’s rare that someone brings wine to my house (why? I WANT it as a gift, always) and I hadn’t…

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor: Jules Taylor Wines 2011 Barrel Fermented Sauvignon Blanc I don’t get wine as a gift very often, but when a teammate at my day job was in town from the Bay Area, he brought me a couple wines that he and his wife enjoy. His wife is the general manager of an importer, so that means more than it might otherwise. When I saw “Barrel Fermented” on the label, it gave me pause. My disdain for oaky whites is well documented. But only older barrels were used here and I have to tell you — I really…

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…

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…