Posts Written OnMarch 2011

By David Flaherty, New York City Correspondent In the heart of Brooklyn, Brad Estabrooke is making gin that channels the spirit and soul of New York. When I approached the storefront in Brooklyn, well after dark, I began to wonder if I should pull out my walkie-talkie and call for backup

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor For a significant portion of their potential customer base, a winery's website is the first point of contact and communication. It's the front lines in the battle for mind share and dollars. Most New York wineries have websites nowadays — even if many are painfully out of date — but how well do wineries monitor leads and inquiries that come in via their website or email? We wanted to find out. So, over the last six to eight weeks, more than 170 New York wineries — across the Erie, Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley, Long Island…

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Photos courtesy of North Fork Patch and Roanoke Vineyards With events like The Judgment of Riverhead and its "Smackdown" series, Roanoke Vineyards has been putting on some of the North Fork's more interesting winery events for a while now. These are events that are easy to appreciate and enjoy — for both the creativity behind them and the fact that they aren't all about Roanoke Vineyards wines. On Saturday, sixteen local wine lovers — including fellow bloggers/journalists — Henry Powderly and Michael Gorton — competed in the "March Madness Smackdown Tournament" a bracket-style blind taste-off…

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Bedell Cellars' red wine program focuses mainly on blends — First Crush Red, Taste Red and Musee — and two consistently good merlots. But, as anyone who knows him will tell you, winemaker Rich Olsen-Harbich is a cabernet franc lover. And while he didn't make this Bedell Cellars 2009 Cabernet Franc ($30) start-to-finish, he did finish and bottle it. When Olsen-Harbich took over in June, he wasn't sure what the previous winemaker had in mind for this wine. "All I could do was drive it in the direction I felt it should go," he said…

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor I don't drink a lot of Rhone wines. It's not because I don't like them — I do actually — but it's just not a region that is well represented in my cellar or in any of my local shops. Some of the best Rhone wines I've had have been because friends have opened them in my presence or given me a bottle to take home. Honestly, it's a region I'd like to explore more (especially Northern Rhone) but I just haven't yet. Anyway, I was excited when this month's WBW host, my friend and…

By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor Chris Stamp wants to show me something, but he wants to keep it a secret, and he knows I'm a writer. I'm here to chat, to taste his 2010 wines, to understand how a guy like him can carry so much energy, all the time. But he wants to show Evan Dawson, private citizen, not Evan Dawson, writer. I am not conditioned to go off the record easily. I favor transparency and openness and sunlight. But Stamp won't budge — not yet, anyway, as he explains it. So I relent. "Okay, we're off the…

By Aaron Estes, Cheese Editor Outside of the state, New York is known for your basic white cheddar. Nothing complex, nothing earth shattering

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor The New York Cork Report (formerly known as LENNDEVOURS) turns seven today. That's 2,959 posts and 9,354 comments worth. Wow. Seven years of New York wine, beer, food and spirits — and more importantly the people behind them — seems both like an eternity and a blink of an eye. I think I can speak for the entire team when I say that it's an honor to write about these people, places and passions. We're thankful for the opportunity and try to do them justice. This isn't an easy post for me to write —…

  By Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Region Editor The keynote speech at this year