Posts Written OnSeptember 2005

You’ve probably seen Jason’s Vineyard on the right hand side of the Main Road (Route 25) heading east in Jamesport. But have you ever tasted the wines made from those grapes? I first encountered Jason’s Vineyard wines about a year ago when I was going from tasting room to tasting room looking for the North Fork’s best sparkling wines. My journey took me to Pindar, where I was able to taste a few Jason’s Vineyard wines. I was so impressed that his wines were the only bottles I purchased that day. So who is Jason and why are his wines…

There’s no doubt about it — my favorite white varietal is riesling. Of course, I don’t like every one I try. They need to have that that zing of acidity that ‘forces’ me into another sip (and another and anoter and another). New York’s Finger Lakes region is pretty well known for it’s riesling, with Dr. Konstantin Frank probably the most well known outside of the state. This relatively winter-hardy varietal has done very well in the region becuase it ripens even in the cool Finger Lakes climate and because good wines can be made from riesling that isn’t at…

About a week ago, there was a story in the San Francisco Chronicle about New York Wines. If you’ve been reading LENNDEVOURS for a while, you know that I typically find lots of problems with stories written about New York wines. They either unfairly compare them to California or Bordeaux (and basically say they suck because they aren’t the same) or focus only on the "big name" wineries that the same people write about again and again and again. Dave McIntyre’s piece, however, will not draw the ire of this NY wine writer. In fact, I really liked it. While…

In this week’s  "Long Island Vines," New York Times writer Howard Goldberg announced the formation of the Long Island Merlot Alliance. He does a nice job introducing the endeavor…which has come of often when I’ve spoken to winemakers and winery owners. People tend to feel very strongly about the LIMA…on both sides. I’ve written before that I’m not sold on pushing merlot as "the region’s flagship wine" mostly because I’m not sure that all of the best wines here are merlot or that the one-varietal push is what Long Island needs to stand out. Proponents point to Oregon starting as…

Nena sent me an email this morning that just said: "You’re really slacking with LENNDEVOURS lately." You know, she’s right. Between my day job demanding more full-time attention, various print writing projects I’m working on and (oh yeah) us dealing with mortgage brokers, home inspectors and the like as we try to buy our first Castello di Thompson…I’ve just not has nearly as much time as I’d like. But, as you can see in the above picture, we’ve still made time to enjoy some vineyard trips. My parents were in town last Friday through Monday morning and we spent Sunday…

Last weekend, as I walked through the barrel room at Pellegrini Vineyards with the lovely Mrs. LENNDEVOURS and four friends, one of the biggest reasons I love wine hit me yet again — there’s always something more to learn……always. In fact, I’m not sure you can ever know everything there is to know about my favorite farm product (and beverage). We were at Pellegrini taking part in the first class in their wine education series, “Sensory Training, Tour and Tasting,”  ran this summer. We started with a tour of Pellegrini’s vineyard, winery and various barrel rooms as Juan “John” Eduardo…

On Sunday, October 2nd, Martha Clara Vineyards is hosting "Feast for the Gulf Coast" a fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. From noon to 6:00 p.m. there will be live music, wine, seafood, BBQ and a gumbo cookoff…all for $25. It’s my understanding that all of the food/wine/entertainment has been donated, so $25 is a steal of a deal…and even if it were $125 it would be an event worth checking out both for the event it self and for the important cause. All proceeds are being donated to Habitat for Humanity Katrina Relief, the Farm Bureau Hurricane Ag…

I’ll write more soon about our winery visits from this past weekend, but I wanted to give Osprey’s Dominion Vineyard credit for dontating $1 for every bottle purchased in their tasting room during September. The tasting room, however, wasn’t a great experience on Saturday. The staff seemed completely overwhelmed and they were unpolished (bordering on rude). It was not one of the best experiences we’ve had.