Posts Tagged“pinot blanc”

Heron Hill Winery 2012 “Morris Vineyard” Reserve Pinot Blanc

Heron Hill Winery 2012 “Morris Vineyard” Reserve Pinot Blanc ($18*) offers a delicate nose of Bartlett pear, mango drizzled with lime juice and green melon. Medium bodied and showing a bit of mid-palate sweetness, the palate is dominated  by green apple and tropical fruits. That residual sugar brings nice weight and a nice nudge of acidity drives a juicy finish that lingers with subtle sweetness and distant lemon verbena herbal note. Producer: Heron Hill Winery AVA: Finger Lakes Harvest Date(s): September 11, 2012Brix: 21.5 ABV: 12.5% RS: 1.48% TA: 6.1 g/l pH: 3.26 Production:  235 cases Release Date: October 4, 2013 Price: $18* (3 out of 5, Very good/Recommended)

Hector Wine Company 2012 Pinot Blanc

Don’t over-chill your white wine. That’s the lesson of Hector Wine Company 2012 Pinot Blanc ($20). Right out of the fridge, it’s neutral and nearly characterless. But as it warms the nose unfolds with notes of dried pineapple, lime peel, wet gravel and white pepper. Similarly, once a bit warmer, the medium-bodied palate shines with apple and pineapple flavors and a wonderful mid-palate mouthfeel that is somewhat is silky and fresh at the same time. White pepper and chalky earth flavors peek through toward the finish, which lingers just a bit and shows some bitterness at the end. If you…

Lieb Cellars 2009 Blanc de Blancs

  There are times when I want sparkling wine to be yeasty, funky and autolytic. Other times, I want bubbly that is pure, clean and driven by citrus and mineral flavors — and that is when I’d reach for Lieb Cellars 2009 Blanc de Blancs ($35). Fresh and bright, the nose offers aromas just-ripe pear, lemon zest, lemon meringue pie and citrus blossom with only the most subtle yeasty qualities. Dry and piercingly crisp and refreshing, the palate combines fruit flavors like pear, green apple and golden raspberry with a distinct marine minerality. Gentle mid-palate richness is balanced by frothy,…

LENNDEVOURS Q&A: Gary Madden, GM at Lieb Family Cellars

What (and where) was the first bottle of wine you remember drinking? I was in grad school working at an expensive downtown restaurant in Chicago (called Nick’s Fishmarket, originally from Honolulu), managing the service bar where all the wine was stocked, and the conductor of the Chicago Symphony came in with guests, ordered two each of spectacular wines and left half the wines for the staff — a Lafite Rothschild (1976 maybe?), a Chevalier Montrachet, and a German Bernkastel Docktor. I was only 22 and could never afford wines like that! What event/bottle/etc made you decide that you wanted to…

April: Lieb Family Cellars’ 3rd Annual Oysterfest

Throughout the month of April, Lieb Family Cellars will be toasting the arrival of spring with its third annual OysterFest. Every Sunday in April, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., tasting room visitors will be able to sample a variety of wines and oyster dishes prepared by local chefs. The winery will offer a special vertical tasting of three vintages of their signature wine pinot blanc (including their Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine, a LENNDEVOURS favorite). They will also be releasing their 2004 Cabernet Franc. April 15: Canal Cafe Presents Po’ Boy Oysters Chef’s Parker and Paul Hodges create their…

WTN: Lieb Family Cellars 2005 Pinot Blanc Reserve

When it comes to pinot blanc, its resemblance to chardonnay isn’tlimited to finished wines. Pinot blanc’s leaf structure, clusters andberries so resemble chardonnay that there are many vineyards in Europewhere plantings of the two grapes are intermingled. Here on the North Fork, pinot blanc is grown in a few vineyards, butat Lieb Family Cellars, it’s an important, indespensible part of theirportfolio. In a field on Oregon Road in Cutchogue, you’ll find a 13acres of what Lieb Family Cellars, much like those Europeans, oncethought to be chardonnay vines. Genetic technology has since proventhat the grapes aren’t chardonnay at all. These vines,…