Posts Written OnJune 2010

Your Guide to the 1st Annual Long Island Wine & Food Festival

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor This weekend, the Long Island Wine & Food Festival invades the East End. This weekend-long celebration of Long Island's bounty promises to be a lot of fun and the Saturday schedule is jam-packed with events at wineries throughout wine country. In fact, it's so packed that it might be hard for you to decide just where you should go, so below are some of the events I'd recommend from full list (posted here). These are just a few of the events that seem the most interesting and well thought out. I'm sure that all of…

New York Cheese: Ewe’s Blue

By Aaron Estes, Cheese Editor As a part-time cheesemonger, I am routinely asked for my recommendations for cheeses. Composing a cheese plate for a party, pairing with a specific wine and making an addition or substitution for a recipe are all issues that I handle in a typical day when standing behind the counter.  And, as we move into the summer months, more and more people are grilling outside and looking for that perfect blue cheese to top their steak, melt over their burger or even toss with a salad of field greens.  Invariably, my first suggestion is “Ewe’s Blue”…

Lamoreaux Landing Winemaker Paul Brock Leaving to Take FLCC Instructor Position

By Evan Dawson, Managing Editor Paul Brock, head winemaker at Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars on Seneca Lake, is preparing to leave the winery for a new job as an instructor of viticulture and enology at Finger Lakes Community College. FLCC is expanding its emphasis on wine growing and winemaking and Brock tells us, "It was an opportunity I could not refuse." Brock is well suited to a classroom setting; he's an intellectual who brought new ideas to Lamoreaux Landing and often enjoys discussing and debating winemaking. Under Brock's leadership, Lamoreaux Landing expanded its single-vineyard riesling program in the past year…

Oak Summit Vineyard 2008 Pinot Noir

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor John and Nancy Bruno, owners of Oak Summit Vineyard in the Hudson Valley only do pinot noir. It's the only grape the grow in their 6-acre vineyard. It's the only wine they make. And they are proud of the fact that they only use estate-grown fruit — not always the case in the Hudson River Region. Their website states "There are no other grapes allowed in our wine. What you get in the bottle is what you see in the vineyard." The idea that wine is made in the vineyard has been pushed into the…

New York Cork Report Tasting Table: June 18, 2010

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor I promise we'll get back to Tasting Table as a weekly feature here on Fridays, but in the meantime, I'll put them together when I can — like today. As always these are short notes taken almost directly from my tasting notebook: Brimstone Hill Vineyard 2008 Vidal Blanc (Hudson River Region | $10): Honey, golden raisin and pool water on the nose. Light apple flavors but also a lot of honey, like Bit o Honey candy. Not overly sweet, but needs acidity. Rating: 77 Croteaux Vineyards 2009 Cuvee Sparkle (North Fork | $24): Grapefruit, strawberries…

Bouke 2009 Perlant

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Now here is something unique on the local wine scene. Look at a bottle of Bouke 2009 Perlant ($17) and it might not seem like a one-of-a-kind. Scan the back label and you'll learn that it's a blend of pinot gris, pinot blanc and pinot noir — interesting maybe but not unheard of. To understand what is so unique about this wine, you need to either know a little French, or crack open the screwcap closure and pour. You see, in France, "perlant" refers to a wine containing a faint amount of CO2 — not…

Brewery Ommegang Ommegeddon

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor I dig brettanomyces in beers as long as it’s not overpowering, so I picked up the 2009 edition of this “Funkhouse Ale with Brettanomyces” from the self-proclaimed little slice of Belgium in Cooperstown, Brewery Ommegang. A yearly specialty brew, it was cellared at the brewery; Ommegang recommends aging this and many of their beers so I had no qualms about trying it at 13 months old. Ommegeddon pours a four-finger head with fair lacing retention and a cloudy peaches-and-cream color.    The nose doesn’t show a lot of brett – mostly citrusy yeast esters and a…

Whitecliff Vineyards 2009 Riesling

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Disappointingly few rieslings made in the Hudson Valley from Finger Lakes fruit maintain the true character of the fruit's origin. There are many reasons why this could be, some unavoidable. Trucking fruit or juice from central New York to the Hudson Valley certainly isn't going to make for a pristine start to the winemaking process. That can't help. Add manipulative or extremely low-tech winemaking techniques (lack of temperature control during fermentation for instance) and it's easy to see why many rieslings made and bottled in the Hudson Valley under the "New York State" AVA can…

Cheese Geek Aaron Estes Joins NYCR Team as Cheese Editor

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor As the New York Cork Report continues to evolve and grow, it's important that we never lose sight of the fact that wine (and beer) are not meant to be enjoyed in a vacuum. You need food and friends to get the most out of wine and vice versa. With that in mind, please welcome Aaron Estes our new Cheese Editor. I've known Aaron for just over five years — a fact that I'm able to remember only because I first met him at his wedding, which was only a couple months before my own.…

Expansion and a New Direction at Schulze Vineyards

Schulze Vineyards & Winery doubled its production area this spring. by Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Region Editor When I arrived at Schulze Vineyards & Winery to sit down with owner Martin Schulze to discuss his namesake winery’s expansion, I shouldn’t have been surprised that there wouldn’t be any actual sitting. Martin is someone who is well known on the trail for working 25 hours a day — this day wasn’t any different. And Schulze was getting ready to rack his latest batch of Ruby in preparation for bottling. “I only have 2,000 gallons left of the Ruby and what is this,…