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Moving to The Cork Report

When I launched this site, it was because there was very little being written about the Long Island (and eventually New York) wines I was discovering and falling in love with. If there had been something like the NYCR already out there, it’s doubtful that I would have started the blog at all. But, other than Howard Goldberg’s weekly column in the Long Island section of the New York Times, virtually nobody was writing about Long Island wine — at least not in a compelling, authoritative way. When I started writing about wines from the Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley and…

New York Wine News Roundup (June 21, 2016)

Editor’s Note: TasteCamp 2016 organization and debriefing consumed enough time in the last several weeks to sideline news reports, and so this list represents what we think were items of note during the period.  NEWS Wine Spectator – 6/15/2016 James Molesworth teases readers with a new found interest in Long Island wines. Innovation Trail – 6/15/2016 Finger Lakes wineries take the “sunlight into wine” concept even farther as solar energy becomes a bigger part of the regional program. Watertown Daily Times – 6/15/2016 Cold-climate winery Coyote Moon awarded “Winery of the Year” an the New York International Wine Competition. Finger Lakes…

Corks of the Forks: There’s (Good) Wine in the Mountains of Vermont

I just got back from three days immersed in the Vermont craft beverage world as part of my annual TasteCamp conference.  I started it in 2009 right here on Long Island and we’ve visited wine regions like Northern Virginia, Niagara (both sides of the border), the Finger Lakes, Quebec and the Hudson Valley since. Typically, I’m joined by 30-40 fellow writers and members of the wine trade. The idea is to taste as much as we can and meet as many brewers, winemakers, growers and other fermentation-ists as possible. It’s not a junket, either. We all pay our own way.…

SPONSORED: 2016 Adirondack Wine & Food Festival | June 25 & 26

The 2016 Adirondack Wine & Food Festival is coming up in just a couple of weeks — and it’s looking to be a great event that features wine and other products from across the state. “This festival celebrates the bounty of amazing craft beverages and locally made foods that New York has to offer and we’re not short on vendors for this year’s event,” said Owner Sasha Pardy. The vendor list for the 2016 Adirondack Wine & Food Festival includes 21 wineries, 4 breweries, 4 distilleries, 2 cideries, 19 artisan food vendors, 6 food / beverage trucks, 1 local restaurant…

TasteCamp 2016: Vermont Sponsors

TasteCamp 2016: Vermont kicks off on Friday with a visit to la garagista in Barnard, Vermont. We’ll have nearly 40 writers and wine trade members who will be descending upon Vermont for the long weekend and I personally can’t remember being more excited for an edition of the immersive experience that I created back in 2009. This isn’t a junket. Our attendees pay their own way, but local sponsorships do enable us to keep costs down and cover transportation costs. I know I can speak for the rest of the planning committee when I say that TasteCamp 2016: Vermont wouldn’t b…

Coming in June: The Cork Report’s 2015 Eastern Rosé Tasting

New York wine remains the core of this website, but — as you’ve probably noticed — I’ve started to stretch my legs a bit. I’ve been learning about and tasting wines from other eastern states, which I’m arbitrarily defining as any state that isn’t California, Oregon or Washington, more. My time organizing TasteCamp up and down the east coast, as well as my time on the Drink Local Wine board, taught me something: there are some seriously delicious wines made in places even a local wine advocate might not expect — places like New Jersey, Connecticut, Colorado, Michigan, Virginia, Vermont,…

From the Archives: Finger Lakes Flooding Leaves Devastation but Minimal Impact on Wine Industry

Photo Courtesy of Miles Wine Cellars Facebook Page Editor’s Note: On most Thursdays — call them Throwback Thursday if you’d like — we’ll pull a story from the more than a decade of NYCR and republish it. This week’s “From the Archives” was written by Evan Dawson and Paul Zorovich, and covers flooding in the Finger Lakes two years ago. On Tuesday night, May 13, northern Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes was hit with the most severe storms it’s had since Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Reports say that between 4 and 9 inches of rain fell, coming largely in two waves…

Pearmund Cellars 2015 Petit Manseng

Petit Manseng isn’t a grape that I know a whole lot about. I know it’s mostly grown in southern France and that it can get very ripe while retaining a lot of acidity — and thus is often made in a sweeter, even dessert, style to balance that acidity. I also know that it’s gaining some traction in the Virginia wine industry. Retaining acidity is always a plus in a region where summers can get very warm. But its thick skins and loose clusters also help in a region that deals with humidity, heavy rain and hurricanes. With high brix levels (and…

Virginia #Tastemaker: Jim Law | Linden Vineyards

“Tastemaker” is a term typically used to describe a person — either a sommelier or writer in the wine world — who decides what is good, cool or otherwise interesting. With our new #Tastemaker profiles, I’ve decided to usurp the term to mean someone who actually makes the wines, ciders, spirits, etc. that we love. A “tastemaker” should make something, after all. I’m always wary of labeling any single person or thing the “best” or “most” anything — but Jim Law, winegrower and owner of Linden Vineyards, is at least among the most influential figures in Virginia wine. Winemakers and grape…

Weekly New York Wine News — May 16, 2016

Whitecliff Vineyards’ new gamay planting in their new Olana Vineyard NEWS Thrillist – 4/29/2016 The Finger Lakes top this wine pros list of “Best US Wine Regions” to visit. TimeOut – 4/29/2016 Hudson Valley wineries are suggested as great out-of-town destinations for NY City dwellers. Your Niskayuna – 5/4/2016 Copoccia Winery has already outgrown its first home and seeks new space in the Capital District. Wine Enthusiast – 5/5/2016 Profiles of wine makers who dream big, on the east end of Long Island. New York Upstate – 5/12/2016 Two new wines on the market: a Billsboro sparkling Riesling appears and…