By Lenn Thompson, Editor-in-Chief We'll end our Regional Wine Week reviews this week with a recently released "Super New York" (think Super Tuscan) blend from Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, NY. Hudson-Chatham Winery 2007 Empire Reserve ($22) is the brainchild of owners Carlo and Dominique DeVito, and is made with grapes from three vineyards in New York's three biggest wine regions blended in equal proportions — Long Island merlot, Finger Lakes cabernet franc and Hudson Valley Baco Noir. According to Carlo, "The idea of Empire was to create a wine that was uniquely New York, and attempt to blend vinifera and…
Posts Written OnOctober 2009
Blue Point Brewing Company Oktoberfest
By Kevin Burns, Beer Columnist Last week's review featured a Marzen-style beer and this week is no different. We're being seasonal here, after all. This week I decided to try Blue Point Brewing Company's take on the Octoberfest style. Blue Point's Oktoberfest pours a clear amber color with a thumb's width of off-white head. The nose is pleasant, with a light sweetness and malt underneath strong aromas of bready yeast. The body has pale malt and a light sweetness up front before thinning out a little in the middle. There are faint hops underneath before a mild, dry, yeasty finish.…
The Unique Tasting Room Experience That is Schloss Doepken
By Julia Burke, Niagara Correspondent This week I decided to take a break from my usual Niagara Escarpment stomping grounds and take a trip down to the Chautauqua-Lake Erie Wine Trail. Following the lake forty miles from southern New York into northwestern Pennsylvania, the Chautauqua-Lake Erie Wine Trail includes twenty-one wineries and nearly 30,000 acres of vineyards. A visit seemed long overdue. During my visit I tasted at Quincy Cellars, Sparkling Ponds, Mazza, Schloess Doepken, Johnson Estates and Noble Winery. All were interesting, and I hope to devote a future post to a discussion of their individual merits. However, my…
Indian Summer Finally On the Way: Just In Time or Too Late?
By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Photo, taken this morning from Heron Hill's riesling vineyard, is courtesy of Heron Hill Winery There is a vital question that will soon be answered in the Finger Lakes: Is it too late for an Indian summer? Next week, meteorologists expect temperatures to soar back into the mid-60s. But we've been mired in the mid-40s for nearly a week. Grapes still on the vine have been hanging tough, though they haven't been adding much sugar. To my surprise, I found a wide range of ideas and opinions about what the vines are capable of…
Harvest Winespeak Defined
A destemmer awaiting clusters (Photo courtesy of Ramón Mira de Orduña Heidinger) By Tom Mansell, Science Editor Anyone with any involvement in wine knows that the world of wine has a unique vocabulary. In a wine context, words like flabby, austere and even "mineral," take on meanings far from their dictionary definitions. Additionally, like in any trade, specific techniques for producing wine lead to specific names for such techniques. While many people in the trade read this blog, I'm willing to bet that the majority are interested wine drinkers. In this edition of what I hope will become a recurring…
Glenora Wine Cellars Video: The Music of Fermentation
Long Island Merlot Alliance 2006 Merliance
By Lenn Thompson, Editor in Chief Regional Wine Week continues today with a review of the Long Island Merlot Alliance's latest release, Merliance 2006 ($35). Formed in 2005, the Long Island Merlot Alliance (LIMA) strives to develop quality standards in the production of classically-styled Long Island merlot and to establish Long Island as the leading region for merlot in the New World. After an initial press splash, the group has been somewhat understated, choosing to focus on vineyard research and conducting tastings to identify the qualities that help define "typical" Long Island merlot. In March, founding members Raphael, Pellegrini Vineyards, Sherwood…
Regional Wine Week: What are YOU Drinking?
By Lenn Thompson, Editor-in-Chief Every Monday (more or less) our editors and contributors tell you what we're drinking. Sometimes the wines are local — sometimes not. Sometimes the wines are actually beer. But this blog isn't just about us. It's about you too. We want to know what you're drinking too. If the traffic metrics that TypePad provides are to be believed, there are a lot more of you reading this blog than commenting, so here is my challenge to all of you lurkers out there: In honor of Regional Wine Week, tell us what local wines you're drinking or…
Heron Hill Winery 2007 Blaufrankisch Reserve
By Lenn Thompson, Editor-in-Chief I think that I'm like most wine geeks in that I like wines that make me think. I don't mean all the time. Not every wine. Sometimes we just want wines that we can drink, have with our meal, and enjoy throughout the course of an evening. But on other occasions, I want a wine to stop me in my tracks and demand further consideration and pondering. Even rumination. This Heron Hill Winery 2007 Blaufrankisch ($35) is a wine that had me thinking. And wondering. We'll get to that in a minute though. First, a little…
Out of Sorts… Comes a Wine More Special
Photos courtesy of Heart & Hands Wine Company By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor This whole hand sorting business seemed like a good idea — until I nearly threw up on the sorting table. And it wasn't the fact that this was a vibrating table that turned my stomach. Let me back up. Most wine producers in the Finger Lakes do not hand sort the fruit after it's picked. They rely on vineyard crews to make careful passes when the fruit is still hanging, cutting off the rotting, green or — worse — sour fruit. Once the fruit is picked,…