Posts Written OnJuly 14, 2009

The Great Northern Migration (of Grapes, That Is)

By Jason Feulner, Finger Lakes Regional Correspondent I encourage followers of the New York winery scene to check out this article by Syracuse Post-Standard writer Don Cazentre. For some time, wineries in the frozen hinterlands north of Syracuse in the Thousand Island region, the Tug Hill Plateau, and the Adirondack foothills have been making a brazen attempt to grow a significant amount of grapes using cold-hardy hybrids developed by Cornell and the University of Minnesota. This article focuses on the operations in the Thousand Islands region and specific varieties developed by the University of Minnesota. Formerly, these wineries relied heavily on grapes sources from vineyards…

TasteNY Kicks Off in California and Georgia

The Top 5 Wines from the Dirty South Wine's TasteNY Tasting of 12 Finger Lakes Rieslings By Lenn Thompson, Founder and Editor-in-Chief I'm still digging out at work after a week in hot, often-sunny Orlando last week, but the New York wine world certainly doesn't stop for lil ole me! You might remember that I announced TasteNY back at the end of May. In a nutshell, is that I hand-pick a set of New York-made wines, beers or spirits and get them into the hands of a small group (10-12) of bloggers. The first edition features a mixed case of…

Keegan Ales Joe-Mama’s Milk Stout

By Kevin Burns, Beer Columnist A few weeks ago I reviewed Ithaca's TEN which won the 2008 gold medal of the F.X. Matt Memorial Cup as the best beer in New York State. Well this week we decided to review the 2009 winner of F.X. Cup, Keegan Ales' Joe-Mama's Milk Stout, their latest draft-only release. It's a coffee stout that blends coffee from the Muddy Cup Cafe with Keegan's wildly popular milk stout Mother's Milk. Joe-Mama's poured a pitch black color with a finger width tan head. The aroma has some light roasted malt, but is dominated by coffee beans.…