Looking for a great last-minute Christmas gift? How about the New York Cork Club?
I don’t mention the club very often here on LENNDEVOURS (I don’t want to clutter this blog up with sales pitches) but it’s something that I always enjoy picking the wines for.
Basically, members receive two bottles of New York wines every month, delivered to their door. These aren’t wines that are in any way affiliated with the club, Greene Grape Wine (my partner in this venture) or me. These aren’t end-of-vintage wines that wineries are trying to unload. They aren’t mediocre bottles that no one wants.
I pick the wines myself, help Greene Grape get their hands on them and then Greene Grape sends them to our members. This is really a unique way to run a wine club, but we have all been members of awful wine clubs where the wines are boring, if not worse.
I try to pick not only the best wines, but also the most unique ones, that New York has to offer. In the past year, I’ve chosen a Long Island malbec, an Rkatsiteli from the Finger Lakes and Tocai Friulano from the Hudson Valley. These aren’t wines that you can find at your local wine shop, but we can find and get them for you.
One member sent me an email a while back asking "If the wineries and Greene Grape aren’t paying you, why do you do this?" The answer is simple: I do it because I’m really into these wines and I know that they can be hard to get outside of the state. Heck, I can’t even find many Finger Lakes wines down here on Long Island. And I know that very few LI wines find their way up there.
In 2008, I hope to explore even lesser known regions of New York wine country and find some sold out, library wines for the club. The Niagara Escarpment is next on my radar, and I’m also talking to a couple wineries about wines that aren’t available anywhere else.
Learn more today. It might just be the perfect Christmas gift for the wine lover on your list.