Posts Written OnOctober 2006

October 24: Wine Dinner at Blond Restaurant with Castello di Borghese

Next Tuesday night at 8 p.m., Blond Restaurant and Bar in Miller Place, NY will be hosting A Fall Sensation Celebration with the wines of Castello di Borghese. The evening includes a six-course dinner prepared by Blond’s owner and executive chef, Samih Nelovic and entertainment by Walter Finley and accomplished acoustic singer/songwriter. This restaurant is about two miles from our house, but we haven’t been there in years — at least three or four. The last and only time we were there we thought the food was good, but overpriced and the service was just okay. But, I hear that…

This Week On Appellation America (10/19/06)

This week on Appellation America, you can read my recommendations for two chardonnays made by Roman Roth at Wolffer Estate — a 2003 Reserve Chardonnay ($20) that shows nice balance and a stellar 2005 Late Harvest Chardonnay ($37) that should be good for another decade or five. Soon, they will also be publishing a Q&A I did with Raphael’s Richard Olsen-Harbich, who is also a LENNDEVOURS contributor. Rich has been working in the local wine industry for nearly three decades and actually authored the three local AVAs: Long Island, North Fork of Long Island, and Hamptons, Long Island. Appellation America…

The Challenges of Editing

Once again I find myself apologizing to you, my readers, for the pathetic posting performance this week here at LENNDEVOURS. You see, there is this little project I’m working on — editing the next issue of the Long Island Wine Gazette — that has been sucking up all of my evenings. Before taking over the LIWG, my only "real" editing experience was as the assistant sports editor of my college newspaper, and that was a short-lived appointment. I wrote a story about how Cal Ripken’s consecutive games streak was bad for the Orioles, about twenty angry letters arrived and I…

WBW #26: The Contest

WBW#26 host Beau Jarvis of Basic Juice has compiled the tasting note from Where’s Wino?, but now comes the fun part. Head on over to Basic Juice and try to identify the 19 mystery wines. No, you don’t need to guess producer, vintage and varietal. You only have to guess the origin. And yes, there are even prizes. Just get your guesses in by this Saturday (October 21).

Tasting Vintage Variation — A Flight of “Flight”

You can buy bottle after bottle of mass-produced, ubiquitous wines like Yellowtail Shiraz or Cavit Pinot Grigio without even looking at the year on the label. That’s because year-to-year variation is barely perceptible in those wines. Huge vineyards, huge production and blending options that lead to a “house style” all result in fairly consistent flavors year in and year out. That’s boring and lame if you ask me. That sort of cookie-cutter consistency is not the case here on Long Island, where even the largest vineyards are miniscule by world standards. And, with generally cool weather that changes considerably from…

Long Island Mid-Harvest Report

Last year’s grape harvest was remarkable both for the hot, dry conditions that lasted all summer long and the almost twenty inches of rain that was dumped on the East End over eight days right in the middle of harvest. White grapes were largely unaffected because they had already been picked, but many of the Island’s red grapes weren’t so lucky. That rain completely decimated some producers to the point where they didn’t make red wines last year at all. Others escaped mostly unscathed and have made some tremendous wines. There will be less 2005 red wine on shelves once…

Curry-Seared Scallop with Spiced Green Pea Puree

Tomorrow is my sister in-law Kim’s birthday. She, along with my in-laws, were here this weekend to help us paint the nursery so we did a little dinner Saturday night to celebrate. The last few dinner parties we’ve thrown, I’ve done something as an amuse bouche — for a couple reasons. First, by skipping this course myself, it allows me time to get organized and caught up in the kitchen for subsequent courses. And, as in the case of this scallop, it’s an easy way for me to cook some seafood for my guests…but I don’t have to eat it.…

A Shower and a Snap

After a week or so of gorgeous weather (sunny, warm, dry), a storm dumped a lot of rain on Long Island last night. I’m still trying to find out exactly how much and how much of an impact it is going to have. It was a relatively short storm.  Potentially more worrisome is the cold snap predicted for this weekend. I’ll see what I can find out today, tomorrow and through the weekend. But it’s my guess that all of my winery contacts are a bit preoccupied right now. Stay tuned. UPDATE: Alice Wise at the Cornell Cooperative Extension reports…

Long Island Pumpkin Ales — Too Much About the Spice?

By Contributing Columnist Donavan Hall Over the last week or so, the weather on Long Island turned cool.  A few of the trees in my yard took this as a signal to start dropping their leaves — my yard is littered with auburn, brown, garnet and orange.  The signs of Fall are everywhere.  Last weekend, I took my family to the Garlic Festival (see Denise’s article on Growers and Grocers), the second in what might prove to be an annual event.  In addition to last weekend being a celebration of garlic (I was seriously tempted to brew a garlic beer…