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Peter Conway to Join the NYCR’s Hudson Valley Desk

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Please join me in welcoming Peter Conway as the newest member of the New York Cork Report’s correspondent team. Since 2005 he has written the wine and food pairing blog, Mano a Vino. I met Peter at the North American Wine Bloggers Conference in Charlottesville, VA several years ago. Peter recently moved to the Hudson Valley, in Garrison, NY with his wife Diana Polack, after raising their two children in Montclair, NJ over 27 the last years. Peter tells me that his passion for wine was ignited in 1979 when he happened upon a spectacular wine in a tiny Florida Gulf Coast wine store.…

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Argyle Brewing Company India Pale Ale (IPA)

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Argyle Brewing Company is the first farm brewery to open in Washington County, NY. Ironically, Argyle takes its name from the “dry” town that one of the owners hails from. Their beer is brewed down the road in neighboring Greenwich, NY since “a successful brewery needs to sell its product.” The founders chose the name in order to pay homage to the hard working farmers and factory workers of Argyle. Their concept of sourcing hops and barley locally will help to bolster the surrounding farms and economy, befitting for a company that was born of local pride. I was unaware…

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Corin Hirsch to Cover the Hudson River Valley for NYCR

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Today I’m happy to announce that Corin Hirsch, a writer and beverage lover I met a few years ago at TasteCamp, has joined the NYCR team. Corin is an enthusiastic drinker, a history geek, and a freshly minted resident of the Hudson Valley, though she grew up in a cul-de-sac on Long Island. Before she joined the white-collar ranks, she worked as a used book buyer, hot-dog-hawker, sandwich maker, and barmaid, the last at a 16th-century pub in rural England. She’s spent almost her entire professional life in publishing — as a reporter, editor, designer, and art director. For the…

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Keegan Ales Mothers Milk Stout

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Keegan Ales began brewing in an abandoned brewery in Kingston, NY around 2003. Since then, their beer lineup (especially the Mother’s Milk) has been a major staple in the Hudson Valley and New York beer scene. They now contract brew some of their beer in Stratford, CT. I like pouring this milk stout from the bottle with some vigor, which creates a nice frothy head and gets all the Oedipus complex out. The stout is mostly black, with a rich brown layer of foam. The nose is more grassy and dusty at first but leads to some sweeter aromas like chocolate…

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Terroir in Whiskey? Inside the Quest for Individuality at the Hudson Valley’s Hillrock Estate Distillery

Hillrock Estate Distillery owner Jeff Baker

It wasn’t yet midnight, but it was long past sunset in the peat marsh. Two men who looked like deep-sea divers were prepared to use their wetsuits for a new purpose: they would be diving for peat. The decayed vegetation is an attractive part of the process of making single-malt whiskey — it’s smoked, adding a classic aromatic texture the likes of which can be found in Lagavulin and Laphroaig — but there’s one problem. The New York State Department of Environmental Conversation protects the marshlands, so the peat can’t be extracted legally. That’s why the men were prepared to…

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TasteCamp 2014: Hudson Valley Kicks of Drink Local Wine Week 2014

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Tomorrow morning, I head up to the Hudson River Region of New York’s wine country to take care of some final preparations for this year’s TasetCamp event, presented by Drink Local Wine (DLW). This weekend, nearly two dozen writers will join me as we immerse ourselves in the Hudson Valley’s wine, spirits, cider and beer communities through a series of tastings, visits and discussions. I look forward to tasting some of my favorite local libations again, but also to making new discoveries. That’s the fun part. But TasteCamp is really just the beginning — the beginning of “Drink Local Wine Week…

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Hudson-Chatham Winery 2012 River’s Edge Casscles Vineyard Reserve

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Many wine lovers turn their collective noses up at wines made with hybrid grapes. While obscure varieties from dark corners of European countries are sought out and embraced, grapes like Corton Noir, De Chaunac, Frontenac, Marechal Foch, Traminette and La Crosse are shunned. I’d be lying if I told you I was, generally, a fan of hybrid wines, but I do have one thing that many wine lovers don’t have — an open mind. I’ll try any wine made with any grape (or fruit really) once. Okay, maybe even twice. There are hybrids that I don’t care for very much (I’m…

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5 Questions with… Bryan Van Deusen, Hudson-Chatham Winery

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Some might say Bryan Van Deusen of Hudson-Chatham Winery was born and bred for his current role. Not in the way that perhaps a family winery passes through the generations and how their children are often groomed to one day take the helm, but rather in the way that while many of us were on family vacations to the beach or amusement parks the Van Deusen clan would head to wine country. His parents love of wine (are you reading Lenn and Evan?) clearly influenced his youth and as you’ll see from this week’s edition of our “5 Questions with…” feature has also…

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5 Questions with… Tiffany Robibero Selby, Robibero Winery

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What would you do if the winery tenant on your parents recently acquired Hudson Valley property gave notice that they would be moving to a new location? If you’re Tiffany Robibero Selby, then a soon-to-graduate child psychology major at Fordham University, you abandon the professional career path you had been working towards for the last four years and jump head-first into starting your own family winery. With a few years of a Masters program ahead of her and an uncertain job market, a difficult decision to start a new family business was made just a little easier. That was back in 2007 and marked the…

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StillTheOne Distillery 287 Single Malt Whiskey

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Recently on a trip to Empire State Cellars, where I always check out the New York spirits, I picked up the recently released 287 Single Malt Whiskey. The whiskey is a collaboration between StillTheOne Distillery in Port Chester, NY and Captain Lawrence Brewing Company just about 11 miles down highway 287. The spirit was distilled from Captain Lawrence’s “Freshchester Pale Ale,” aged for about one year in new American Oak, and was bottled last month. According to the distillery’s website, this is a limited quantity “First Taste” edition with Master Distiller, Ed Tiedge’s signature on each bottle. I hope the limited…

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