Browsing CategoryNew York

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,…

Continue Reading

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…

Continue Reading

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…

Continue Reading

#NYTastemaker: Steve Casscles | Hudson-Chatham Winery

“Tastemaker” is a term typically used to describe a person — typically either a sommelier or writer in the wine world — who decides what is good, cool or otherwise interesting. With our new “NYTastemaker profiles, I’ve decided to usurp the term to mean someone who is making the wines, ciders, spirits, etc. that we taste. The traditional “tastemaker” doesn’t really make anything, after all. Not really, anyway. I’ve known Steve Casscles and have written about him and his wines — particularly his baco noir-based wines — for many years now. What has always struck me as most interesting about Steve, though,…

Continue Reading

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…

Continue Reading

Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard 2013 Josef Vineyard Riesling

It’s easy to get complacent when you taste a lot of Finger Lakes riesling — overall quality has risen to the point that even producers that historically fell below the median are now making wines I’m happy to drink. It’s almost to the point that one can take for granted that Finger Lakes riesling is going to deliver. Then you taste a wine like Hermann J. Wiemer 2013 Josef Vineyard Riesling ($39) and you’re reminded just how high the ceiling is for Finger Lakes riesling. The Josef Vineyard, located 10 miles north of the winery, is just south of the better-known Magdalena Vineyard.…

Continue Reading

Lieb Cellars 2014 Reserve Pinot Blanc

You won’t find a lot of pinot blanc here on Long Island but the best-known producer is Lieb Cellars where, legend has it, it was once thought to be chardonnay. Thankfully it’s not treated like most chardonnay in the cellar. It doesn’t see a splinter of oak during or after fermentation and the result is bright and citrusy with aromas of lemon zest and pulp, red grapefruit, lemon verbena and sea breeze. Juicy and even more saline and minerally on the palate, it’s crisp, dry and needs food to sing. Focused citrus flavors turn a bit more floral as the wine…

Continue Reading

From the Archives: What We Learned From 656 Glasses of Cabernet Franc

Photo by Morgan Dawson 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. This week, I pulled a 2009 story by managing editor Evan Dawson from about a cabernet franc tasting at the New York Wine & Culinary Center.    When the demonstration room at the New York Wine & Culinary Center filled up at 10 a.m. on Tuesday morning, 328 glasses of cabernet franc lit up the amphitheater like strands of single-color Christmas lights. It was a bit daunting for the 42 winemakers, winegrowers,…

Continue Reading

Orange Wines in the Finger Lakes: What Was Old is New Again

Across the Finger Lakes, creative winemakers like August Deimel, Katey Larwood, Steve Shaw, Peter Becraft, Vinny Aliperti and others are employing traditional techniques with well-known grape varieties to produce innovative, new wines. Frequently referred to as “orange” or “amber,” these new wines are challenging establish perceptions of mainstay wines made from varieties such as chardonnay, gewurztraminer, vignoles and even riesling — the iconic grape of the region. What the wines have in common is that they are white wines that utilize extended skin contact during maceration and subsequent fermentation. This approach represents a major deviation from winemaking practices commonly employed…

Continue Reading

Keuka Lake Vineyards 2015 Leon Millot Nouveau

And now for something completely different. Keuka Lake Vineyards 2015 Leon Millot Nouveau ($18) is the first 2015 red to cross the NYCR tasting table and perhaps not surprisingly, it counts Beaujolais Nouveau as its main inspiration, though it’s not made strictly in the same way. Leon Millot fruit grown in Dundee, NY at Tabora Vineyard was picked on September 9. It was de-stemmed, crushed and after four days fermenting on the skins was pressed and finished fermenting without the skins. Once fermentation finished, the wine spent a month in neutral oak barrels before being bottled on October 27. If you’re counting,…

Continue Reading