Stormhoek Geek Dinner Post Coming Soon

I’m on deadline for a few print writing gigs, but I wanted to do a quick post about our Stormhoek Geek Dinner over the weekend. Ten wine lovers, with impressive wines and a great menu of food…how could it be anything but a great time? Details to come, but my favorite wine of the night was probably either their 2004 Shiraz or 2005 Sauvignon Blanc. Others really love the Pinotage.

WBW #21 & IMBB #26 Fabulous Favorites Festival — Wolffer Estate 2003 Late Harvest Chardonnay and Grilled Poundcake with Grilled Peaches

When Alberto and I decided to team up for WBW #21 and IMBB #26, I had aspirations of doing a five- or six-course tasting menu with our favorite foods with our favorites wines. As happens way too often for my liking, a hectic real life forced me to scale back severely. Instead of multiple wines and courses, I’m offering one wine with one dish. But, this combination more than makes up for the lack of quantity with quality. Almost immediately upon announcing the event, I wanted Nena to pick the wine or wines we would pair with food. I should…

Net Neutrality. It’s Worth Battling For.

I didn’t realize it before now, but food bloggers the Internet over are staging a protest today against the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement (COPE) Act. Basically, telecommunications and cable companies want to be able to guarantee high data throughput to customers who are willing to pay additional money for improved performance. It would seem that large, well-funded companies would be able to pay some money and have their sites load a lot faster than sites like this very blog. Opponents of these greedy jerks have have coined the name Net Neutrality for the existing system, which offers open and…

LENNDEVOURS Cab Franc Update — What I Would Be Doing

As I announced a few weeks ago, I’m going to be making my own wine at Raphael this fall — from a 25-vine row of cabernet franc grapes. With all the dreary weather we’ve been having lately, I rescheduled my appointment last weekend to visit "my" vines. Hopefully I’ll be able to check them out over Memorial Day weekend. But, a local vineyard manager (who used to manage Raphael’s vineyards), Ben Sisson sent me an email yesterday that served as a reminder as to just how busy I’d be if I were truly managing those vines: "So Lenn, How’s life…

Poor Planning = Bad Beer Festival

As you may or may not have noticed via the comments on my original post announcing the Long Island Beer Festival, it did not go well. Not well at all. It was tremendously oversold, lots of people were turned away at the door and apparently even if you got in, the food was gone almost immediately and it was too backed to move. Then, to top it all off, I’ve heard that the fire department shut down the event. I’ve sent several emails to the organizers, Shoreline Beverage, trying to get an official statement and asking how I can direct…

WTN: Paumanok Vineyards 2004 Grand Vintage Chardonnay ($30)

A couple months ago, I wrote about the "chardonnay shift" towards steel-raised wines — which I tend to prefer as opposed to the heavy, sometimes-flabby barrel fermented wines. I tasted three different chardonnays from Paumanok Vineyards yesterday for a story I was working on. One was 100% steel fermented — fresh, crisp and refereshing. It was what I expected. The other two were barrel fermented, and while both had nice acidity and avoided overuse of oak, one wine truly stood out. Fermented in new French oak barrels, Paumanok 2004 Grand Vintage Chardonnay ($30) actually has me questioning my own chardonnay…

Summer Sippers from Sagaponack

It’s not quite beach season yet here on Long Island, but it’s probably on a lot of peoples’ minds. And, Wolffer Estate in Sagaponack has released three wines that belong on the beach — and at your next BBQ. As you have probably noticed, Long Island wine’s “sweet spot” in terms of price-for-quality tends to be in the $20+ realm. Unfortunately, that turns a lot of wine drinkers off (silly, silly people), but one of my favorite wines for less than $15 has long been Wolffer’s simple-but-tasty La Ferme Martin Chardonnay ($14). My first bottle from the newly released 2004…

Reminder: Fabulous Favorites Festival (WBW/IMMB) is This Friday

Don’t forget, the Fabulous Favorites Festival is this Friday. This blog event, bringing Is My Blog Burning and Wine Blogging Wednesday together for the first time, is sure to be a lot of fun for everyone. Originally I had planned on doing an entire tasting menu of favorites, but we may just focus on a couple favorites instead. Hey, it’s only Monday…we have plenty of time. Join us and send your posts to fabfavfest@googlemail.com