Posts Tagged“hudson-chatham winery”

#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,…

Inside Copake Wine Works, aka “Frankly Wines North”

The first Saturday tasting at Copake Wine Works felt slightly subversive: Standing behind a table in the front window, co-owner Christy Frank splashed Greek white and Moroccan syrah into the glasses of customers who were possibly more used to tried-and-true Chardonnay and G&Ts on lazy August afternoons. The wines were quenching, though, and well-priced, so many left with bottles of Semeli “Mountain Sun” Moschofilero and Ouled Thaleb Syrah cradled in their arms. On Instagram, Frank has called Copake Wine Works, the three-month old wine shop she and her husband, Yanai, run in this sleepy upstate village, “Frankly Wines North,” and its shelves offer a mashup…

5 Questions with… Bryan Van Deusen, Hudson-Chatham Winery

Some might say Bryan Van Deusen of Hudson-Chatham Winery was born and bred for his current role. Not in the way that perhaps a family winery passes through the generations and how their children are often groomed to one day take the helm, but rather in the way that while many of us were on family vacations to the beach or amusement parks the Van Deusen clan would head to wine country. His parents love of wine (are you reading Lenn and Evan?) clearly influenced his youth and as you’ll see from this week’s edition of our “5 Questions with…” feature has also…

Hudson-Chatham Winery 2011 Chelois

Hudson-Chatham Winery,  located in Ghent, NY, has assumed a leadership position in the Hudson River Region AVA when it comes to focusing on quality versus tourism. There are other too, of course — places like Tousey Winery, Whitecliff Vineyard and Millbrook Winery — but what makes Hudson-Chatham unique is that owner Carlo DeVito and winemaker Steve Casscles are leading the region in quality primarily with hybrid grapes. Hudson-Chatham is probably best known for its delicious and surprisingly age-worthy baco noir-based wines but one of the grape (and wine) that I find most interesting in the portfolio is chelois — a…

2013 Harvest: Hudson Valley Update

Editor’s Note: This short piece was sent to us by Carlo DeVito, owner of Hudson-Chatham Winery and publisher of East Coast Wineries.  So far we’ve had a good year in the Hudson Valley. Many of the hybrids in the region have been picked. Chardonnay, cabernet franc, and merlot are still on the vine. A cold, wet spring gave growers fits and starts at the beginning of the season. Disease pressure was high and frost damage hit certain areas hard. But a dry summer resulted in wonderful grapes that remained. A shaky period during September was a little scary, and some wineries…

Hudson-Berkshire Wine & Food Festival This Weekend

People often debate whether “local” is measured by state or by miles.  The Hudson-Berkshire Beverage Trail measures it in miles. Tucked in between the northern-most portion of the Hudson Valley and the Berkshire Mountains, the Trail is home to a handful of wine, beer and spirit producers that cross the New York – Massachusetts state line. If you’ve never heard of them before, they’re offering you an excellent opportunity to check all their members in one spot this Memorial Day Weekend, when they’ll be hosting their inaugural Hudson-Berkshire Wine and Food Festival. The three wineries involved — Brookview Station, Hudson-Chatham,…

Hudson-Chatham Winery 2011 Leon Millot

As I taste more wines made from hybrid varieties — particularly red ones — I’m starting to think that the problems I’ve had in the past with these wines is not so much a grape problem, but rather a winemaker/winemaking one. For many years, the winemaking talent in regions reliant on hybrids (mainly because they are on the viticultural fringe) has been a bit lacking when compared to the world’s top regions. Wines like baco noir and DeChaunac weren’t very good, sure, but neither were the wines made from merlot, chardonnay and riesling. I was talking this over with a…

Harvest 2012: Estate Seyval Blanc at Hudson-Chatham Winery

From Hudson-Chatham Winery owner Carlo DeVito:   [quote] We harvested approximately one ton of seyval blanc from our North Creek Vineyard, Block 1 location yesterday. Brix were at 21. We would have actually let it sit longer, but extreme bird pressure and deer pressure led us to pick it earlier than we would have liked. We had several growing experts come in a take a look at it and help us make our calculation to pick. All agreed that we had excellent fruit, and nice production. We’ve found bird pressure immense this year. Possibly, with the drought-like conditions in the…

New York State Wine Outlet to Open in Shanghai, China

Over the last 12-18 months the United Kingdom has emerged a potentially important market for New York — and other East Coast — wines. In fact, delegations from the Finger Lakes and Long Island are there right now for the 2012 London International Wine Fair. Now, more New York wineries than ever are looking even further east for new markets — all the way to China. A handful of wineries, including Channing Daughters Winery, Lieb Family Cellars and Pindar Vineyards, already sell or have sold wine in China. But, later today, Empire State Cellars, the New York-only tasting room and shop in Riverhead,…