Life has been a bit different of late, but in a good way. I’ve made a concerted effort not to spend as much time online when I’m at home, with the goals being reading more and getting more sleep, frankly. It’s worked pretty well, but now I’m painfully behind in my blog reading, blog posting, and wine tasting.

The New York wine and food world doesn’t stop just because I’m not writing about it however, so here are a few notes on things going on that you may not have seen.

* Hamptons Restaurant Week is coming up starting March 30 and LENNDEVOURS.com is a proud media sponsor of the event. This is the sixth edition of the program and there are some great restaurants participating this year. I’m hoping to schedule at least a couple babysitters throughout the week so that Nena and I can go to at least one of them.

* Bedell Cellars will be hosting a party at The Modern
in Manhattan on Monday to announce the official release of Musee, their
new premier red blend. I can’t make it into the city for the event, but
Sasha Smith, who covers the NYC beat for LENNDEVOURS, will be there. I
will, however, be reviewing this wine over the weekend at home.

* Long Island Wine Camp, a
great program on the North Fork, has three sessions scheduled over the
next few months March 13-16, April 17-20 and May 29-June 1. It’s $829
per person, not cheap, but it includes three nights at a local B&B
(with breakfast) lunches in the vineyards, dinner at a local restaurant
the first night, a wine pairing dinner at one of the participating
wineries, a case of local wine to take home at the end and other
various tastings and gifts. The two spring sessions are being dedicated
to Slow Food and members will get $100 off per person.

* Long Island Spirits, Long Island’s first legal distillery since the 1800s has finally received it’s licensing and has started producing its first batch of LiV Vodka (pronounced ‘live’). They are using local Long Island potatoes to make LiV in small batches.

I’ve driven by the building that will now house their active distillery over and over on my way to wine country and it’s beautiful. I’m hoping to stop in over the next few weeks for a tour with co-owner and distiller Rich Stabile. It will be interesting to taste this first batch and also see where Rich takes things in the future. Surely flavored vodka is a no-brainer, but I wonder if we’ll see some products made from grapes and other local fruit. Grappa? Eau de vie? Stay tuned.