Posts Written OnMarch 2006

As many of you know, last weekend I had the unique chance to blind taste several wines from The Lenz Winery against great (and much more expensive) wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux at an event held for Lenz wine club members. Lenz is well known for using blind tasting such as this one to advance its standing in the overall wine market. In a 1989 tasting against French heavyweights like La Grande Dame, Chateau Petrus, J. Drouhin, Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche, and Veuve Clicquot tasters were unable to single out the Lenz wines as inferior in quality. Saturday’s tasting wasn’t…

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone. Tonight isn’t a night for wine, so I think I’ll be drinking more than my share of Guiness, Smithwick’s and also some locally produced brews from Southampton Publick House. Or, maybe I’ll drop some green food coloring into some white wine 😉 Nah, I wouldn’t do that. At least not before drinking all that beer.

What an awesome weekend I have coming up. Sunday morning, I’m holding a rose tasting panel at Pellegrini Vineyards’ to explore the different styles of rose/pink/blush wine being crafted here on Long Island. Joining me on the tasting panel will be both Wine Chicks, Dr. Vino, the Wine Goddess and John, currently of Pellegrini Vineyards and soon-to-be head winemaker at Shinn Estate Vineyeyards. Right now I’ve assembled almost twenty wines for us to try. We won’t be grading or rating the wines. Instead, we’ll explore their differences and try to identify similarities (if there are any). The other exciting part…

Eric Asimov, chief wine critic of the New York Times has made the leap into wine blogging with a blog titled The Pour. Interesting. Very interesting indeed. I’ve always respected Eric’s writing and his knowledge of both wine and food (even if I don’t always agree with what he has to say) and I think it lends credence to the power of blogs that people like Eric are joining the fray. How is this going to change wine blogging as a whole? I think that remains to be seen, but I think that bloggers who want to make a name…

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…