Posts Written OnJanuary 2011

The New York Cork Report Tasting Table — January 24, 2011

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor These are a some wines that have crossed the NYCR tasting table recently but will not be reviewed as part of a standalone post. As always, these are transcribed almost directly from my notebook with little editing: Benmarl Winery 2009 Baco Noir ($28): Black cherries with spicy oak and leather. Medium body with low tannins and lower acid than many bacos. Red berries, brown spice — clove and nutmeg — leather and vanilla-toasty oak. A bit too much oak for me. Rating: 83 Channing Daughters Winery 2008 Mudd Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc ($20): Intense citrus on…

Video: Talking 2009 Reds and Regional Progress at White Springs Winery

By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor It won't be long before the 2009 reds from the Finger Lakes will hit the market. Despite what you might have heard, there will be some quality wines (and not all varieties suffered the same growing conditions).  One easy way to annoy a Finger Lakes winemaker is to make a blanket generalization, dismissing the vintage. In this video, White Springs Winery winemaker Derek Wilber explains how things have changed to allow the local industry to make good wines in tougher vintages.

Op-Ed: The Horrifying Trend That is “Wine on Tap” (Jim Silver, Peconic Bay Winery)

 By James Silver, General Manager of Peconic Bay Winery, Nautique Wines and True Believer Cider  Photo courtesy of Dr. Vino I was recently asked by my distributor to put Peconic Bay wines into kegs for sale in Manhattan, to accounts you would no doubt recognize, who have embraced this curious new “wine on tap” (WOT) service system.  I never recoil from a sale, but the idea of presenting our wines in this pedestrian manner immediately began to weigh on my sensibilities.  The defense of WOT is so amorphous, and chanted with a religious zeal, while the drawbacks, in my mind…

The New York Cork Report 2010 Wines of the Year

Photo by Morgan Dawson Photography By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Almost the entire New York Cork Report team gathered on the snow-covered North Fork this past weekend to taste through the finalists in our "Wines of the Year" program — which also included beer this year. We tasted a seemingly endless lineup of distinctive and delicious New York wines — both during the tasting and during various meals and winery visits. Not that we needed it, but this weekend served as a reminder of just how good the best New York wines are. I think we've all grown tired of…

Are Small Wineries in Danger? Craig Wolf Discusses HR 5034, Consumer Choice, Dangers to Children and More

By Evan Dawson, Managing Editor If you care, even a little, about New York State wines, you need to follow the developments of HR 5034, a bill that Congress could address this year.There is already a wealth of background reporting on the bill, but we'll sum up the bill this way: It's written by the wholesalers and small wine producers are concerned that it could destroy their business by eventually making it illegal for consumers to get wine directly from the winery. Want to buy wine from California? Opponents of the bill fear it won't be that easy if HR…

WBW #70: Bringing Wine Blogging Wednesday Back from the Brink

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Before bloggers and social media-interested winos took their virtual wine tastings to Twitter, there was Wine Blogging Wednesday, the monthly tasting I created back in 2004 (after being inspired by a similarly styled food blog event). As an online wine community, we worked our way through 69 straight months of themes, hosts and wines. Then, somewhat abruptly, we went on an unannounced hiatus. Personally, I think the proliferation of winery-, importer-, PR agency-driven (and thus free sample-driven) Twitter-based tasting events pushed WBW interest to the side. People will taste anything if they don't have to…

Video: The Promise of this Hillside: Ravines Wine Cellars’ Next Vineyard

By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Tom Petty once mused that the waiting is the hardest part, and perhaps no one knows that better than a winemaker. A great vintage can require years before it can be enjoyed. And planting vines, well, pull up a chair. It's going to be a while. Morten Hallgren, owner and winemaker of Ravines Wine Cellars, is hoping that the wait will end in the next couple of harvests. He planted a vineyard behind his tasting room, but only after re-working the site and carefully considering the property. The six acres of vines now planted…