Posts Tagged“chardonnay”

WTN: Roanoke Vineyards 2006 Chardonnay (North Fork of Long Island)

Roanoke Vineyards is still relatively new on the North Fork scene, but its red wines are already among the best made on the East Coast. In time, I believe they will also prove to be among the most long lived wines as well (I’m talking 20 years here). The wine that first "hooked" me on Roanoke was their 2000 merlot. I have one bottle of that wine left and when I opened a previous bottle a year or so ago, it wasn’t even close to peaking. We’ll see how patient I’ll be. But, no matter how good any winery’s red…

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WTN: Castello di Borghese 2005 Chardonnay (North Fork)

Even the most casual Long Island wine lover knows Castello di Borghese, located in Cutchogue. Their vineyards are where the Long Island wine industry got its start back in 1973—then known as Hargrave Vineyard after founders Alex and Louisa Hargrave. As such, a visit to Castello di Borghese offers visitors a chance to travel back to infancy of Long Island wine. That’s this producer’s past. That’s the past and because winery’s current owners, Marco and Ann Marie Borghese put the property back on the market for $9.2 million (it was purchased for $4 million in 1999). The entire estate is…

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WBW #32: Regular vs. Reserve

Today is the second Wednesday of the month, and lately that means it’s Wine Blogging Wednesday. This month’s edition–the events 32nd–is hosted by The Wine Cask Blog, which has asked participants to compare two wines from the same winery and same vintage, but one a ‘regular’ bottling and the other a ‘reserve.’ Definitely a fun concept and one I looked forward to. Rather than just do one comparison, I decided to do two pairs–one white, one red, one from the Finger Lakes, one from Long Island. Starting with the whites, I tasted and compared two 2005 chardonnays from Treleaven Wines…

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WTN: Brotherhood Winery 2004 Chardonnay (New York)

I’ve written a few times about Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, NY up in the Hudson River Valley. It is one of the region’s larger producers and makes a wide array of wines–from honey wine to spiced holiday wine to riesling to a ruby ‘port’. They don’t have any vineyard holdings of their own, so they source grapes from throughout New York State–primarily the Finger Lakes and Long Island. The grapes that went into this 2004 chardonnay were grown on Long Island’s East End, but no further details are available. There’s a lot of chardonnay grown here, so it certainly isn’t…

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WTN: Peconic Bay Winery 2005 Steel Fermented Chardonnay (North Fork of Long Island)

I can still remember my first sip of Peconic Bay Winery’s steel fermented Chardonnay like it was yesterday. I had just moved to Long Island and was then only flirting with the region and its wines. This flirtation has since become an all-out love affair and I count this wine as one that stoked the fire of my neophyte palate. At the time, my vision of Chardonnay was of the flabby butter bombs with big everything – oak, vanilla, fruit – that I had tasted from both Australia and California. Based on my early experiences with those wines, I used…

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WTN: Channing Daughters 2005 Brick Kiln Chardonnay (The Hamptons, Long Island)

While I enjoy some of their reds, its the white wines at Channing Daughters Winery that really stand out in my mind. Their winemaker, Christopher Tracy, can almost always be counted on for balance in his whites. In other words, if he uses a lot of oak, there’s always ample fruit and acidity. The wines also tend to be layered and nuanced, which is good because they aren’t the most affordable wines on Long Island. Tracy makes a few, distinct, chardonnays and Channing Daughters 2005 Brick Kiln Chardonnay was released a few months ago. The 100% chardonnay fruit that went…

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Meet Mickey Mouse. Drink New York Wines.

I just got an email telling me that Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort’s Blue Zoo restaurant will soon be pouring six, count em six, New York wines. So, now you can take your kids to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse…and then enjoy some some delectable Finger Lakes and Long Island wines with dinner. The wines chosen by Blue Zoo’s team are: Atwater Estate Cabernet Franc Heron Hill Ingle Vineyard Riesling Heron Hill Semi-Dry Riesling Sheldrake Point Riesling (my review) Raphael La Fontana Wolffer Estate Selection Chardonnay I’ve had all of these wines with the exception of Atwater’s cab…

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WTN: Channing Daughters Winery 2004 L’Enfant Sauvage Chardonnay (The Hamptons)

You’ve heard me say over and over that Long Island is a cool-climate wine region. That’s nothing new. But the South Fork, also known as the Hamptons, is actually even cooler, with a growing season that is typically ten or so days shorter. Some have said that this makes it  better suited to white wines than red. I’ll open that can of worms another time, but there are some stellar whites made on the South Fork.Channing Daughters Winery, one of three wineries in the Hamptons region is doing some of the most exciting things with white wine on the entire…

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Clovis Point (Jamesport, NY): Current Releases

Last week I wrote about Clovis Point, one of the North Fork’s newest wine labels, but I didn’t say much about the wines themselves. And many of you didn’t like that too much. I must have gotten at least ten emails saying "what about the wines, Lenn?" So, here’s a brief rundown of the wines Clovis Point currently has available on their website: Clovis Point’s 2004 Chardonnay ($13.50). This wine was fermented mostly in stainless steel with just a little barrel-fermented chardonnay and Gewürztraminer added. With bright fruit, super-subtle barrel notes and nice balance at this price point, this was…

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WTN: Bedell Cellars 2005 Gallery (White Blend)

This week on Appellation America, I have recommended a white wine that I think captures the unique terroir of Long Island’s North Fork as well as any I’ve tasted. 2005 Bedell Gallery ($45), from Bedell Cellars is a complex, richly textured blend of 52% chardonnay, 32% sauvignon blanc and 16% viognier. This is a unique blend for the North Fork, or most anywhere else for that matter. Five separate lots of chardonnay were barrel fermented in French oak with primarily native yeast, and were blended with the viognier and sauvignon blanc. Pale straw yellow in the glass, the aromas immediately…

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