Posts Written OnDecember 2008

The LENNDEVOURS 2008 Wines of the Year

By Lenn Thompson, Founder and Editor This is a post that I look forward to writing every year. I dread it too. On one hand, it's fun to look back at all of the New York wines I've tasted over the past 12 months. On the other, how can I possibly choose a handful of the "best" wines, especially when I wasn't tasting them with this post in mind? For 2009, I have already promised myself that I'll come up with a formal process for the LENNDEVOURS wines of the year, but that doesn't do me any good for 2008…

Quick Q&A with Tim Moore, Owner, Imagine Moore Winery

We're joined by Tim Moore of Imagine Moore Winery for this week's edition of Q&A. Imagine Moore is still a relatively new player in the Finger Lakes wine community, but there are plenty of things to like about the operation. They source fruit from sustainable vineyards and print their labels with organic inks, to name just a couple of those things. What (and where) was the first bottle of wine you remember drinking? It was in the mid 80’s and being from California and relatively young, it was a bottle of Korbel Sparkling Wine out of my best friend’s house…

Sherwood House Vineyards 2005 Sherwood Manor

Sherwood House Vineyards is a North Fork winery that flies under the radar. They have a tiny little tasting room — the smallest I've ever seen — nestled amongst their vineyards where they pour their Old World-styled wines. Their winemaker is Gilles Martin, formerly of Martha Clara Vineyards, who makes wine for a few other smaller local producers. The focus at Sherwood House is set squarely on merlot and chardonnay, with cabernet franc and a couple different roses also in the portfolio. This wine, their Sherwood Manor ($45) red blend is the newest edition (with a blanc de blancs coming…

Happy Holidays from LENNDEVOURS

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past several days. We're in upstate New York visiting family for the Christmas holiday, having a good time as you can see above. Those are Jackson's first snowmen by the way. A few notes from our trip thus far: I found a great beer shop just outside of Albany, and picked up several nice brews, including a well-done IPA from a local brewer that was new to me, Brown's Brewing Company in nearby Troy, NY We met our friends C and A at Provence for dinner Friday night for what was an…

Looking Back at 2008 in the Niagara Region

By Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Escarpment Correspondent When Lenn asked me to write about the five most exciting wines of 2008 from the Niagara region, I assumed that I could rattle them off in a heartbeat. But when I really sat down to put my list together, I realized something; it takes a lot these days to really get me going – at least when it comes to wine. In established wine regions, I usually reserve my excitement for estate-grown wines or hard-to-find varietals. In Niagara wine country, however, things are a bit different. For one, we’re still in the pioneer…

LENNDEVOURS in Mutineer Magazine’s December Issue

I'm happy to report that this blog has been named one of the 12 "Blogs You Should Be Reading" in Mutineer Magazine's December/January issue. This is the third issue that editor Alan Kropf has put out and it's unlike any of the other wine magazines out there. The magazine's tagline really says it all: "fine beverage…redefined" There is also a brief story about Finger Lakes wine (and Shaw Vineyards) that features my top 5 reasons to be excited about the region. Check out Mutineer Magazine and if you ever see it around, pick up a copy and I think you'll…

When Common Sense and NY State Politics Collide: The Wine Bag Issue

By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Correspondent I do not intend to make a cabernet out of a concord here, but this is ridiculous. And it's a microcosm of the dysfunction that has rotted this state for years. The owner of one of western New York's largest wine and liquor stores may be fined $10,000 by the New York State Liquor Authority because he had the audacity to sell wine gift bags to his customers who were buying, you know, wine. Here's the short version: The law is written to enumerate the various things that a wine or liquor store is…

Jason’s Finger Lakes Wines of 2008

By Jason Feulner, Finger Lakes Correspondent Lenn asked me to write a "wines of the year" post, but as enthusiastic as I am about Finger Lakes wines, I feel ill-equipped to name a "wine of the year" since the joyous rigors of life keep me from driving around the Finger Lakes as much as I'd like. Through events and site visits, I probably tasted four dozen rieslings this year and sampled the spectrum of varietal selections at about 20 wineries. That's a lot of tasting, but there are a lot of wineries in the Finger Lakes region (at least 115 at this point). While…

Quick Q&A with Frank Scarola, Owner, Scarola Vineyards

For this week's holiday edition of the Q&A, we pose our questions to Frank Scarola of Scarola Vineyards, a still-new producer that definitely flies under the radar. The wines are made at Wolffer Estate under the watchful eye of Roman Roth, but the Scarola family has plans for a tasting room on the North Fork, hopefully soon. As with many new producers, they are playing the waiting game with the New York State Liquor Authority. In the meantime, the wines are available directly from the Scarola and at a few shops in the tri-state area. What (and where) was the…

Will Governor Paterson’s Budget Mean the End of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation?

By Lenn Thompson, Founder and Editor It's not news to anyone in New York that the state government is running under a serious deficit. It's all over the news and even before it was being talked about so much, many knew and feared that this day would come. Now, Governor Paterson is trying to rectify the situation with his proposed 2009 budget. Economic times are tough, seemingly, every where, with everybody. This isn't a political or economic blog, so I'm not going to write today about the entire budget and the decisions Governor Paterson has made. But there are a…