Browsing CategoryFeatures

The Road Forward: What You Can Expect from the New York Cork Report in 2016

Happy New Year! After a great week-plus largely away from my laptop, it’s time to dive back into things for the new year and that includes a slight change of focus and direction here on the New York Cork Report. In March, this site will turn 12. That’s far longer than I expected it to last, but as I look back on 2015, I think I’ve lost my way a bit. For a variety of reasons, the site has become largely a wine review site — something I never expected or wanted. Wine reviews, while valuable, are nothing more than a snapshot of…

Continue Reading

Thanksgiving in New York Wine Country

It’s that time of year once again — the time when we ask our friends in the New York wine industry to share their Thanksgiving traditions as well as their wine (or cider or beer) pairing plans for the holiday. I’ve also asked the NYCR team to chime in with their plans. Here at New York Cork Report international headquarters, I’m feeling a bit behind schedule. Typically I’ve pulled all of the wines we’ll have on Thanksgiving Day by now — but I haven’t pulled a single one from the cellar yet. Perhaps not surprisingly, we drink mostly New York wines and…

Continue Reading

Corks of the Forks: The Last Thanksgiving Wine Story You’ll Ever Need to Read

When considering your Thanksgiving wine choices, here’s the only advice you need: Drink good wine. Don’t complicate it any more than that. OK. You probably want to know why it’s that simple, and I’m happy to explain it. I’ve written Thanksgiving-related stories for at least a decade, just like every other wine writer — from local guys like me to national columnists in the big, glossy magazines. Some feel compelled to do so, but often we’re told to write these stories because they’re apparently popular, though I don’t actually understand why. None of my friends or family members stress about…

Continue Reading

From the Archives: Our First NYCR Wines of the Year Tasting

Editor’s Note: Every Thursday — call it Throwback Thursday if you’d like — we’ll pull a story from the more than a decade of NYCR stories and republish it. This week, I pulled a quick story I wrote right after the first-ever New York Cork Report “Wines of the Year” tasting, back in January of 2010. 5 tasters. 8 hours. 19 flights. 54 wines. That was my Saturday as I joined most of the New York Cork Report team for a tasting that would determine our 2009 Wines of the Year. It was an incredibly fun, exciting day, but it also an…

Continue Reading

NY Drinks NY Means that Winter is Over. I Promise!

At this point, winter has been such a relentless bitch many of us will drink anything to keep warm and shut out the dark, grey days. But with Spring fast approaching, I’m here to remind you to be mindful of what’s in your glass. Don’t just slug whatever bottle you have on hand in order to stay indoors. For me - NY Drinks NY heralds Open Season on Spring wine. New, shiny things I have yet to taste. This yearly event brings together three dozen or more wineries from across New York State for a Grand Tasting and … marks…

Continue Reading

NY Drinks NY: Tasting New York In 60 Minutes Or Less

Since I recently moved back to New York state, I looked forward to the NY Drinks NY tasting for weeks as a way to plunge back in and get reacquainted with New York wine. But then a business lunch ran late and I hoofed it in to Astor Center with barely an hour to spare. Merda! With thirty-five producers, seven wines (roughly) apiece, and 60 or so minutes, I definitely needed an organizing principle. Tracking down my Hudson Valley neighbors seemed a solid place to start. Soon, I found all — three of them? Benmarl Winery, Brotherhood Winery, and Whitecliff…

Continue Reading

The Spirits of Volunteerism

Early last month a story broke in California about a small winery that had been subject to hefty fines levied by state labor authorities for the use of willing volunteers, and then fined again during their process to try and mitigate the unintended wrong. This has prompted conversations across the industry and across the country as wineries and their advocates look to their own state laws to see what kind of risks they might be exposed to. Hans Walter-Peterson in the Finger Lakes has mentioned the situation in recent issues of the Finger Lakes Vineyard Update newsletter, and we are recently…

Continue Reading

5 Questions with… Meg Tipton, Keuka Spring Vineyards

Keuka Spring Vineyards has received a lot of attention the last couple years especially after receiving the Governor’s Cup trophy for their 2012 Riesling at last year’s annual New York Wine & Food Classic competition. One of the people diligently working hard to make it all happen is assistant winemaker Meg Tipton. Tipton had already found her career path, for years working at an ad agency an then as a director for an international housewares company. When her family however relocated to Rochester she decided it was time to pursue a passion and enrolled at Viticultre program at Finger Lakes Community…

Continue Reading

What We Drank ( July 23, 2014)

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor: The Commons Brewery, Flemish Kiss Among all of my beer-loving friends, I have two guys that I always absolutely geek-out with when we get together. We always try to pick up new beers that we haven’t had, explore styles that we know we like and occasionally try something that we don’t really expect to like. Over the weekend, I got together with one of these friend and we tasted a bunch of stuff but mostly farmhouse styles and Brett-influenced beers. Of the two Brett beers, the one was harsh, searingly dry and too much about the…

Continue Reading

What We Drank ( June 11, 2014 )

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor: Schloss Gobelsburg 2013 Gobelsburger Gruner Veltliner, Kamptal I’ll write more about this soon, but I’ve been lucky enough over the past month or so to become the wine buyer for a soon-to-open restaurant here on Long Island. It’s going to be a gastropub with a focus on beer, so the wine list isn’t front and center, but the chef and owners have tasked me with creating a fairly small wine list that will appeal to a wide audience but also push them out of their comfort zones a bit too. And of course my target is…

Continue Reading