It has been raining for more than 36 hours here at my house and it’s showing few signs of letting up. I don’t measure rainwater totals here, but I can say definiteively that it’s rained “a lot” across the East End of Long Island. Ever since around 20″ of October rain wrought havoc on the 2005 harvest and vintage, many observers pay far closer attention to rain here in Long Island wine country, but they needn’t worry. Sure, this is a lot of rain, but it’s fairly well timed and should have little-to-no impact on the 2011 vintage. “We
Posts Written OnAugust 15, 2011
Heron Hill Moves to Screwcaps for Most Wines
In a matter of weeks, Heron Hill Winery customers will find many of the winery’s wines closed under screwcap. The winery recently completed the installation of a screwcap bottling line (pictured above) that owner John Ingle described as “not an insignificant investment.” Ingle described the plan for Heron Hill wines in simple terms: The wines that need to be preserved for as long as possible — with no change or evolution that comes from gradual oxidation — will be bottled under screwcap. The wines that Heron Hill considers to be capable of evolving into something greater will be bottled under…
Photos From 2011 Roanoke Vineyards Winemakers’ Smackdown
I spent a beautiful pre-rains Saturday evening at Roanoke Vineyards this past weekend to attend the latest in their series of “Smackdown” events; events where wine industry folks blind taste wines head-to-head while attendees taste along with them. It was great fun to see old friends, make new ones and meet journalist and author George Taber (pictured above center), who hosted the evening. Blind tasting is hard. Very hard. And also extremely humbling. But, the panelist seemed to have fun with it, engaging playful trash talk throughout the evening. Rather than give a blow-by-blow or sip-by-sip account, which I don’t think…