Weekly New York Wine News — March 21, 2016

NEWS Drinks Business – 3/4/2016 Bibendum adds Finger Lakes producer Forge Cellars to it’s U.S. portfolio, as British interest in American wine and dining increases. ABC News – 3/16/2016 In a new development to the story of last year’s Long Island wine country crash that resulted in four fatalities, the truck driver met with DUI charges, limousine driver has been indicted on counts of criminally negligent homicide and other charges. Suffolk Times – 3/17/2016 Southold Farm and Cellars is denied the zoning variance they would need to bring them into compliance and keep them in operation. Westchester Magazine – 3/18/2016…

Martha Clara Vineyards 2013 Estate Reserve Merlot

It can be easy to dismiss Martha Clara Vineyards as a producer of fine wine. I mean, it’s the winery with the animals, the weddings and the concerts, right? Yes. It has all of those. Wine isn’t necessarily at the center of everything at Martha Clara. There is a wide swath of people that visits the winery every year and winemaker Juan Eduardo Micieli-Martinez has built a portfolio clearly meant to appeal to that diverse audience. But let’s not forget, there are plenty of fine wine lovers who visit Martha Clara too and to those folks, I would recommend Martha Clara Vineyards’…

Eve’s Cidery 2014 Northern Spy

It’s been a long journey to get here, but this is my first-ever cider review. In a few ways, it’s only fitting that it’s Eve’s Cidery 2014 Northern Spy ($17/750ml). First, it was a bottle of Eve’s Cidery Perry Pear — a gift from a friend — that really opened my eyes to the possibilities that lay beyond the commercial-style ciders and perrys that I’d had in the past. Second, Eve Cidery’s Autumn Stoscheck then nudged me along toward this moment by suggesting that the New York cider community needed someone like me to start paying attention to it. She then sent me…

Corks of the Forks: A Look at the “Other” Local Grapes

A couple months ago, I devoted my column space to what has become the de facto “signature variety” for Long Island wine country: merlot. There are approximately 700 acres of merlot planted on Long Island — roughly 30 percent of the total vineyard acreage — and there are reasons for that. It grows and ripens dependably and consistently, even in all but the most horrid of vintages. That’s important here and why it’s the backbone of the industry.  But the East End isn’t like many parts of Europe where regulations dictate what grapes can be grown where. Long Island growers…

Pennsylvania #Tastemaker: Anthony Vietri | Va La Vineyards

Photo courtesy Jeff Alexander “Tastemaker” is a term typically used to describe a person — either a sommelier or writer in the wine world — who decides what is good, cool or otherwise interesting. With my new #Tastemaker profiles, I’ve decided to usurp the term to mean someone who actually makes the wines, ciders, spirits, etc. that we love. A “tastemaker” should make something, after all. I spent the first 20-plus years of my life living in Pennsylvania. I was born there in one of Pittsburgh’s northern suburbs, went to college in a small town called Meadville, PA and then went to…

Weekly New York Wine News — March 14, 2016

Photo via Stuart Pigott NEWS Northern Grapes Project – 3/8/2016 Representatives from Cornell delivered two presentations at the Norther Grapes Symposium, the annual conference on cold-climate viticulture and wine making. Dayton Business Journal – 3/8/2016 Boundary Breaks Late Harvest Riesling No. 90 makes it on this list of world class dessert wines. Finger Lakes Times – 3/10/2016 Sayre Fulkerson of Fulkerson Winery and Marc Fuchs of Cornell’s Geneva Experiment Station respectively received Vineyard and Research Unity Awards at the New York Wine & Grape Foundation’s annual banquet. Press and Sun Bulletin – 3/12/2016 First time wine festival in Binghamton with…

Looking Ahead After 12 Years of the New York Cork Report

12 years ago today, I launched this site — then known as LENNDEVOURS. It was my second blog, the first being a fairly generic one that I treated a bit like a diary or journal, and it started covering food and wine in a broad sense. I had just started drinking Long Island wine and not long after, when I couldn’t find a website with information that I wanted about those wines anywhere, I decided to create it myself. Not long after that, I got my first wine columnist gig for a local newspaper. My wife — my most staunch supporter…

Wolffer Estate Vineyard 2013 Chardonnay

Roman Roth has a way with chardonnay. Always has and probably always will. I don’t drink a lot of chardonnay, mind you, but I can recognize and appreciate well-made chardonnay of any style. For Wolffer Estate Vineyard 2013 Chardonnay ($19) Roth started with seven separate lots — all hand-harvested and fermented separately in 70% stainless steel and 30% French oak (his portion also completed malolactic fermentation). After six months of sur lie aging, those seven lots became one 1,117-case production. As I look back over my notes, I see that I wrote “fruity” three times, but it’s not just fruity.…

New York #Tastemaker: Christopher Bates | Element Winery (Among Many Other Places)

“Tastemaker” is a term typically used to describe a person — either a sommelier or writer in the wine world — who decides what is good, cool or otherwise interesting. With my new #Tastemaker profiles, I’ve decided to usurp the term to mean someone who actually makes the wines, ciders, spirits, etc. that we love. A “tastemaker” should make something, after all. There was one person I didn’t take into account when I set out to ‘take back’ the term tastemaker from writers and sommeliers with this weekly series: Christopher Bates. He’s also a sommelier — and well-regarded one at that. But…

Weekly New York Wine News — March 8, 2016

NEWS Syracuse.com – 3/1/2016 Award winning amateur wine maker Randy Agness finally goes pro in the Finger Lakes, with an initial release of Riesling from Seneca Lake. * News Editor had the opportunity to taste some Agness 2014 home Riesling and Gruner Veltliner at the 2015 Wine Bloggers Conference and gave them both enthusiastic thumbs-up. Cornell Cooperative Extension – 3/2/2016 An extensive report analyzing New York’s brewery supply chain documents the expansion of the state’s malt barley and hops plantings as well as the premiums paid for locally grown ingredients. North County Now – 3/4/2016 Far northern New York economy…