Posts Written OnSeptember 28, 2010

By Lenn Thompson The NYCR's Niagara USA contingent — regional editor Bryan Calandrelli and beer editor Julia Burke — talk a lot about their home region's pinot noir, and with good reason. I've only had a few, but at least one impressed already. After tasting Freedom Run Winery 2007 Cabernet ($25), I'm much even more excited about cabernet franc's potential in the region. Made with 65% cabernet franc and 35% cabernet sauvignon — all estate-grown fruit — was a standout wine in a recent tasting of New York reds. This is a cabernet franc-lover's kind of wine and was the…

In what will likely be our last two-white wine shipment, I'm happy to announce this month's New York Cork Club selections: Paumanok Vineyards 2009 Sauvignon Blanc and Atwater Estate Vineyards 2009 Dry Riesling. If you haven't herad of the New York Cork Club (NYCC), it's pretty simple. We've partnered with BacchusWineOnline.com to create a wine club that features only wines made in New York — making them more accessible to people around the country. We can't ship to every state, shipping laws being what they are today, but we can ship to a lot of them. For more information and…

  By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor HARVEST East End, last weekend's two-day celebration of Long Island wines and foods organized to raise money for East End Hospice and the Peconic Land Trust, was an absolute success by any measure. Congratulations are due to everyone involved in putting the event together, including the Long Island Wine Council, the Long Island Merlot Alliance (LIMA) and presenting sponsor, Wine Spectator. Pulling so many wineries, restaurants and people together is a challenge — and it was met expertly. Donnell Brown, executive director of LIMA and event director for HARVEST, told me an email "HARVEST…

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor It's raining outside this morning and it's supposed to do so on and off for the next few days. With rain arriving just as the red wine harvest was about to begin, it's hard not to remember 2005 when some local vineyards were soaked with twenty-plus inches of rain over the course of eight days — after a near-perfect summer. We're not getting that kind of rain this week, but growers and winemakers are still spending a lot of time watch weather reports and staring doppler radar. I've found 2005 reds inconsistent and the variation…