Posts Written OnSeptember 2007

A Guy’s Game Day

It’s Sunday. It’s fooball season. You know what I’m doing today, right? And today, it’s extra special…it’s my first game day with my son sans mommy, who is out East today with 9 friends for a vineyard tour with Jo-Ann Perry of Vintage Tours. I, of course, couldn’t extract myself from the planning process, so I made sure they will be well taken care of at their five tasting room stops. They left about an hour ago and I’m sure they are enjoying themselves as I type this. In a few hours, depending on how long Jax naps, he and…

Continue Reading

Now We’ve Got the Niagara Escarpment Covered Too

The LENNDEVOURS team just keeps growing of late. I’m happy to report that Bryan Calandrelli has joined the squad as our Niagara Escarpment correspondent. Of course, Bryan isn’t a newcomer to blogs by any means. Many of you will recognize him from his two wine blogs Water Into Wino and Niagara Escarpment.net, Bryan moved to the Niagara Escarpment earlier this year from New York City, where he and his fiancee spent an almost unreasonable amount of time driving back and forth from the East End of Long Island on wine-tasting jaunts. When he doesn’t have his nose deep in a…

Continue Reading

12 at 12 Years Old: BrooklynGuy’s Thoughts

I’m still working on my write up of the 1995 Long Island reds tasting from last weekend, but one of the participants, Neil, has finished his already. This was only the second time that I’ve tasted with Neil, the first being Brooklyn Uncorked last spring, but his love of wines from the Loire and Burgundy was joyously apparent as he tasted these wines. He even liked some of the wines that the rest of us didn’t care for, wines with medicinal and other funk. He was a pleasure to taste with, thoughtful, insightful and fun. We really had a great…

Continue Reading

WTNs: Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars Current Releases (Finger Lakes)

Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars is one of New York’s most well-known wineries, and with good reason. In addition to being a truly pioneering producer, they craft some of the Finger Lakes region’s best wines-particularly their whites. Last weekend, I tasted through their current whites, dry rose, and sparklers. So, in quick-fire style, here are some notes on them: Dr. Konstantin Frank 2006 Dry Rose ($18) A medium, orange-tinged pink, the nose is extremely faint and austere with just a little red berry aroma. Medium bodied and with a terrific mouth feel, and crisp finish, this wine is marred…

Continue Reading

Long Island Wines in the Blogosphere

Yeah yeah. I’m the Long Island wine blogger. You come here expecting to read about Long Island wines — the good, the bad and the ugly. But, it’s not like I’m the only wine blogger writing about Long Island wines. This week, two other blogs have trained their tongues and keyboards on Long Island wine. First, Ruuari over at Grape Thinking tastes and blogs about Wolffer Estate Vineyards’ 2005 La Ferme Martin chardonnay. Who knew he could even get Long Island wine in Georgia? I’m glad he could, and of course appreciate the tip of the cap towards my blog…

Continue Reading

Is Vintage New York Doing New York Wines Justice?

By New York City Correspondent Sasha Smith When Vintage New York opened in 2000, it seemed like a pretty remarkable gamble to open a wine store devoted entirely to New York wines — and in Soho no less. Even I, a longtime New York state wine booster, thought its best shot at survival was to play up the fact that it was open on Sundays, a rarity at the time. But thanks to some smart decisions like offering a $1-a-pop tasting of any wine in the store, as well as good timing — the store has certainly benefited from the…

Continue Reading

Pascal Zugmeyer Joins Shinn Estate Vineyards as Tasting Room Manager

It’s harvest season, but freshly picked grapes aren’t the only thing moving into the winery at Shinn Estate Vineyards. Owners David Page and Barbara Shinn have hired Pascal Zugmeyer, a certified sommelier, to run their tasting room and manage events at the winery. Pascal brings extensive experience at restaurants in New York City and around  the world, and will no doubt bring a unique perspective to the North Fork. He’ll be in the tasting room Wednesday through Sunday.

Continue Reading

Finger Lakes Early Harvest Report

By Finger Lakes Correspondent, Jason Feulner It hasn’t rained much here in the Finger Lakes this year and it has been warm to boot. A local Syracuse television station just posted this print and video report about the potential of the 2007 grape crop in the Finger Lakes.  It looks like it might be good news for both whites and the ever-elusive Finger Lakes reds.  The video report is a bit silly but shows some great vineyard and grape cluster shots! In a cooler growing climate like the Finger Lakes the number of growing days for ideal ripeness is sometimes…

Continue Reading

LENNDEVOURS Q&A: Kelly Urbanik, Assistant Winemaker, Bedell Cellars

On Long Island, as in most wine regions, the ‘stars’ are the winemakers, but you rarely hear much about the assistant winemakers and other cellar rats who work hard to produce the wines we enjoy so much. With that in mind, I decided to get in touch with Kelly Urbanik, assistant winemaker at Bedell Cellars and ask her our usually batch of questions. What (and where) was the first bottle of wine you remember drinking? The first wines I remember drinking were the home wines that my Dad and Grandpa made together. My grandpa had a small vineyard, and our…

Continue Reading

A Sad Tale of the Drunk and Idiotic in Wine Country

When it comes to Long Island, or any other wine country, it’s important to remember that there will always be times when—no matter steps a winery takes to avert unfortunate, drunken incidents—a pathetic subset of losers will still act like jerks and ruin the fun for everybody else. With that in mind, I wanted to share a story I heard via email over the weekend from a tasting room manager who will remain nameless for obvious reasons. Out of respect for this individual and other parties involved, I’ll keep my version of the story appropriately anonymous—except for an interesting piece…

Continue Reading