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Get the Best New York Wine Delivered to Your Door — The New York Cork Club

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If you read this blog, you’re obviously interested in New York wine. But, depending on where you live, you may not have ready access to very much of it. If that’s you, we’ve got the solution. We’ve partnered with The Cellar d’Or — a great wine and cider shop in Ithaca, NY — for the New York Cork Club. Every month, I pick two great New York wines and they are delivered to your door. The wine itself never exceeds $50 for those two bottles (shipping costs vary) and by joining, you’ll get everything from classic wines from the top wineries in…

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21 Brix: A Rising Star on Lake Erie

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Grape growing is big business in Chautauqua County and has been fore more than 100 years. The region gained prominence for grape growing when the concord grape was brought there in the 1870s. Called “America’s Grape Country,” the region is the oldest and largest concord grape-growing region in the world. The success of that grape has long been the dominant theme in the area, eclipsing the limited success vinifera grapes have enjoyed. There are more than a dozen wineries in Chautauqua County today, nearly all producing some vinifera wines. All of these wineries have had varying levels of success, but one…

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New York Wine & Culinary Center Unveils New Awards While Keeping Focus on NY Wines

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It probably shouldn’t be a news headline when a state’s culinary center carries a state’s wines exclusively, but it is when it’s the New York Wine & Culinary Center’ After a brief lapse in spring of 2012, the center has made a number of significant changes, with a clearer focus on New York products. That’s true of the restaurant, wine list, and in the news annual awards program that makes its debut Saturday night. In full disclosure, I’m helping emcee the Saturday night event. Yes, there are still tickets available. No, that’s not why I’m writing this piece. I’m writing about…

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Chelus to Join NYCR Team Covering Niagara and Lake Erie Regions

Michael Chelus is a life-long Western New Yorker. His passion and knowledge of wine derive from growing-up in an Italian-American family and his studies in Italy. His love of fine wine has led him to discover and become enamored with the wonders offered by the Lake Erie/Chautauqua Lake and Niagara wine making regions of New York State. In addition to writing for NYCR, he shares his passion for fine wine, exceptional food and great craft beer on his blog, The Nittany Epicurean. I’ll bet you can guess where he went to college. By day, Michael is an attorney and family…

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New York Wines in China: Opportunities, Challenges and a Unique Education

Editor’s Note: Tomorrow, Jim Silver, general manager of Peconic Bay Winery and Empire State Cellars, will fly to China as part of a delegation set to represent and eventually sell New York wines there. While he’s there, he will be publishing a travel diary here on the New York Cork Report. I asked him to introduce that diary before he left. Bloomberg reports that the Chinese Gross Domestic Product grew 7.6% in the third quarter of this year over last year. The same report considers that a “drag from inventory restocking…” One has to wonder what they would consider robust growth. Sparing…

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New York Wine, Beer, and Spirits Summit: Focus on Marketing, Not Fracking or WIGS

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When two dozen invited wine industry professionals take their seats at the head table at the New York Wine, Beer and Spirits Summit later this month, they’ll have specific goals in mind. So will Governor Andrew Cuomo, and that includes his desire to make sure the summit is not bogged down by two recurring debates: wine in grocery stores, and hydrofracking. Several sources confirm that the summit will be geared toward other issues, leaving the volatile hot buttons for another day. Indeed, Governor Cuomo has repeatedly stated his opposition to wine in grocery stores, and his administration continues to review…

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A Real Winery’s Tasting Room is Not a Bar… And Other Advice to Get the Most From a Visit to Wine Country

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This isn’t the first time I’ve written about this topic. 99% of you know everything I’m about to write. And agree. And act this way. But I still feel compelled to write about it. Why? Maybe it’s because pumpkin-picking season is upon us on Long Island and wine country roads are clogged with local agritourists. Maybe it’s all of the bar-masquerading-as-a-tasting-room stuff I’ve been reading. Or maybe it’s that I’m becoming more and more like my father every day in that I simply expect people to act the right way in every situation — including visiting wine country. Most of the time,…

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Foodie-to-Farm Tour 2012: An Adventure in Chautauqua County

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A farm tour of Chautauqua county this weekend, organized and led by Feed Your Soul founder and Buffalo Spree Food Editor Christa Glennie Seychew, brought the region’s incredible farm scene to life for forty-five Buffalonians with a visit to a cider mill, two family farms, and a winery, as well as two farm-to-table dinners by Western New York’s most renowned chefs. “This is the 5th anniversary of this tour, and it’s absolutely my favorite event of the year,” said Seychew at the start of the tour. Seychew’s company advancing the local food movement, called Feed Your Soul, hosted the all-day…

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Lake Erie Wine Country: First Impressions

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The importance of a first impression; as a new contributor, I understand it all too well… Will I be interesting, will I be informative, amusing, witty and knowledgeable…will I run out of adjectives? The first impression of the Lake Erie Wine Country is, brace yourself, grapes! (So much for interesting, witty and amusing.) A rather obvious statement I know, but this area is often referred to as the “Grape Belt.” The most common grape grown is Concord, a native variety that is most typically found sweetened and preserved and laying on top of your peanut butter in a peanut butter and jelly…

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Southern Tier 2XIPA

By Julia Burke, Beer Editor When beer enthusiasts rate a beer, they often talk about balance. Technical correctness. Drinkability. Good integration of flavors. Nothing out of place or over-the top. When hopheads rate a beer, they want one thing. Dank, sticky, resiny, more-bitter-than-a-tongue-scraper hops. Lupulin junkies don't necessarily want a "balanced" or "sessionable" brew. When the Brits learned that they could use hops as a preservative when shipping beer to the troops in India, the India Pale Ale was born. When the San Diegoans learned that they could take that idea and crank up the hop bill and alcohol past…

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