My first post for the WellFed Network’s new wine blog, Wine Sediments, was published this morning. It probably won’t surprise any of you that my column is going to highlight lesser-known wine regions and grape varieties. It’s name? The Vines Less Tasted. Look for it every Thursday. Read this week’s edition: ‘Berger or Blau, It’s Made for Food — And How.

Three of the Finger Lakes’ most respected wineries, Anthony Road Wine Co., Fox Run Vineyards and Red Newt Wine Cellars are jointly launching a dry Riesling named Tierce (a reference to the wine’s theme of three). Tierce will be released at a dinner at Red Newt on May 5. I’m hoping to find some way to get there for it. I really like the label and get this — they’ve used a screw cap on it. Get more information.

"Welcome to LENNDEVOURS…my new food- and wine-related blog. Here you’ll find stories and news on my adventures in the culinary world, including restaurant reviews, wine reviews, commentary on food trends, tales of my fun serving as a recipe tester for various outlets and anything else that comes to mind. My goal is to eventually make money (maybe even a living) as a food writer…and this is just the first step toward making that goal happen." Two years ago today, the above was written as the first-ever post on LENNDEVOURS. That’s right folks, LENNDEVOURS turns two today. It’s hard to believe…

Recently, The Modern, the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) fine dining restaurant started pouring “M” as its house red. Every restaurant has a house red, so what’s the big deal? Well, The Modern boasts a wine list of over 900 wines, but instead of choosing a wine from France or California as its house red, it stayed much closer to home — the North Fork of Long Island. Richard Olsen-Harbich, winemaker at Raphael in Peconic, and Stephane Colling, wine director at The Modern, developed “M,” a custom blend of 95% merlot and 5% Malbec from the 2003 vintage. Colling, a…

Merlot rules Long Island wine country. It’s the most planted variety and its quality led to the creation of the Long Island Merlot Alliance. But it’s hard to ignore the many great varietal cabernet francs being grown and made here as well. Pellegrini Vineyards does a particularly great job with this lesser-known Bordeaux varietal. Thei 2001 Cabernet Franc ($18) has an extremely expressive nose (typical of the variety) that fills the air with raspberry, black cherry and sweet spice. Juicy with some acidity and low tannins, the palate is ripe with raspberries accented by white pepper and minty-basil notes. I…

Thanks to Tom over at Fermentation, I was turned on to a newish wine blog that I’m really enjoying reading — Good Grape. The  talented writer behind Good Grape is a sales and marketing person by day who loves small wine producers. Sound familiar?  Read the blog — you’ll be glad that you did. I’m particularly a fan of the Cluetrain Mainfesto.

…I only wish he could proofread for me.

Last Saturday was the Lenz Winery Comparitive Blind Tasting I posted about a few weeks ago. All in all, I had a great time at the event. I don’t think I’ve ever been to or held a blind tasting where I didn’t learn something…and this one was no different. Look for a complete write-up here soon, but in the meantime, I thought I’d mention some highlights of the day and post some pictures. Before the tasting even started, I was caught off guard when I met a LENNDEVOURS reader for the first time. I was checking in for the event…