Browsing CategoryLong Island

Harbes Vineyard 2013 Chardonnay Ice Wine

At the end of 2015, I promised myself that I’d make an effort to taste as much Long Island chardonnay as possible this year. A string of mediocre wines a few years ago convinced me to more-or-less ignore the category for a while, but that’s not fair. It’s time to take another look, and I’m working on a 2013/2014 chardonnay tasting report for an upcoming issue of Long Island Wine Press. Those reviews will trickle out here on the site over time, but today let’s talk about Harbes Family Vineyard 2013 Chardonnay Ice Wine ($35). It’s not real ice wine —…

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New York Cork Club: The Best New York Wine Delivered to Your Door

If you read this blog, you’re obviously interested in New York wine. But, depending on where you live, you may not have ready access to very much of it. If that’s you, we’ve got the solution. We’ve partnered with The Cellar d’Or — a great wine and cider shop in Ithaca, NY — for the New York Cork Club. Every month, I pick two great New York wines and they are delivered to your door. The wine itself never exceeds $50 for those two bottles (shipping costs vary) and by joining, you’ll get everything from classic wines from the top wineries in…

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Corks of the Forks: What is #LICharacter?

When the Long Island Wine Council hired Ali Tuthill last spring as its first marketing director, many in the industry were curious about what she would try to do, and what she’d be able to accomplish. After a somewhat quiet period that was no doubt spent meeting with winery owners and winemakers, getting the “lay of the land” as it were, the wine council has launched a new website, logo and branding — all with the goal of creating a cohesive brand for Long Island Wine Country.  You can see the results at liwines.com and, as someone who works in…

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Macari Vineyards 2014 “Life Force” Sauvignon Blanc

(Photo via northforker.com) You can see a story I’ve written about Macari Vineyards’ use of concrete egg-shaped fermentation vessels later this month in the winter Long Island Wine Press — but in the meantime, I can tell you about a wine made using one of the two eggs found in the cellar right behind the tasting room bar: Macari Vineyards 2014 “Lifeforce” Sauvignon Blanc ($27). Of what is planted today, sauvignon blanc is clearly the white wine grape most important to Long Island’s future as a wine region. There’s more chardonnay in the ground, but more doesn’t mean better. Sauvignon blanc take well to our…

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From the Archives: TasteCamp 2009 — An Interview with Remy Charest

Editor’s Note: Every Thursday — call it Throwback Thursday if you’d like — I’ll pull a story from the more than a decade of NYCR stories and republish it. This week’s post is an interview I did with Remy Charest right after the first-ever TasteCamp — which was held right here on Long Island in almost seven years ago. Remy hasn’t missed a TasteCamp since and has become a vital cog in putting the event on as a permanent member of the planning committee. We announced this year’s TasteCamp earlier this week. I keep forgetting to mention that TasteCamp EAST 2009 was actually…

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Southold Farm + Cellar 2014 “Counting Stars” Sparkling Petit Verdot

With Southold Farm + Cellars 2014 “Counting Stars” ($28) — a sparkling red wine made from 100% petit verdot grapes — co-owner and winemaker Regan Meador has created what might be the most food-versatile wine available on Long Island today. That’s not a declaration that I take lightly, either. A lot of people thought he was a little crazy (maybe he is) for making sparkling wine from petit verdot — a late-ripening variety most often used to add color, tannin and acid to red wine blends — but ultimately, it’s petit verdot’s character that makes this wine such a great complement to so…

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From the Archives: Roanoke Vineyards Debuts on the North Fork

Editor’s Note: Every Thursday — call it Throwback Thursday if you’d like — we’ll pull a story from the more than a decade of NYCR stories and republish it. As you may or may not know, Roanoke Vineyards’ primary tasting room — the one on Sound Avenue — closed to the public at the end of December. It will re-open February 1 after some renovations only for wine club members. That got me thinking back to when Roanoke first opened and the first time I wrote about them back in November of 2004, when this story first appeared on the site. This summer,…

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Corks of the Forks: 5 Resolutions for a Local Wine Drinker

I’ll be the first to admit that I think New Year’s resolutions are a bit silly, which is why I rarely proclaim them privately — let alone publicly, in print. Would I like to lose some weight? Sure, and I will. Should I be a nicer person and help others? Absolutely. I’ll try to do that, too. Without measurement and being held accountable, these types of resolutions often fall by the wayside around Feb. 1 every year. But when it comes to the wine portion of my life — what’s left over after a full-time day job in a high-tech…

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Pellegrini Vineyards 2014 Sauvignon Blanc

Pellegrini Vineyards 2014 Sauvignon Blanc ($25), one of Zander Hargrave’s first releases as winemaker at Pellegrini Vineyards — a job he took over just before the 2014 harvest — offer a bit of Long Island wine’s past, its present and it’s future. The Hargrave name goes back as far as Long Island wine history can go. Zander’s parents, Louisa and Alex Hargrave, founded Hargrave Vineyard, Long Island’s first commercial winery, in 1973, and Zander’s uncle, Charlie Hargrave, has been a vineyard manager on the North Fork for more than a decade. In 2011 Zander was hired as assistant winemaker at the now-closed…

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Corks of the Forks: A holiday gift guide for the wine lover

The following are some of the wine-related gifts I’d love to receive this year, but this list isn’t going to do me much good. My wife is done with her shopping. She has been for weeks, maybe months. She’s done buying for my family, her family, our kids and me. I, on the other hand, have barely started shopping for her, but that’s not relevant for a wine column. Besides, that’s what Amazon Prime is for. Wine. Every year I’m surprised at just how few people buy me wine. I’m a wine lover! Wine lovers, by definition, love wine. And…

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