Browsing CategoryLong Island

Long Island Wine Press: 5 Truths About Long Island Chardonnay

You may have noticed a lot of chardonnay-related activity here and on the site’s Facebook page of late. That was because of this story, which is in the spring issue of Long Island Wine Press. Check out the excerpt and then click the link below to read the full story. For the last five years of the decade I’ve spent writing about wine, I’ve largely ignored most Long Island chardonnay. Rarely tasted it, let alone drank it. Particularly if it was raised in an oak barrel. Sure, some unoaked Long island chardonnay made it into my glass — it’s bound…

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Coffee Pot Cellars 2013 Chardonnay

Regardless of grape variety, I don’t look for or particularly enjoy a heavy oak footprint — flavors of raw wood, vanilla, etc. That’s particularly true of chardonnay. Oaky chardonnay tends to not play well with the foods I like to eat. The middle ground between buttery oak bombs and steely unoakaed chardonnay can be hard to navigate. It’s sometimes hard to tell, just by looking at a label, just how oaky or not a chardonnay will be. I tend to prefer wines that reside in that middle groud — wines made using older, neutral oak barrels that allow for air…

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New York #Tastemaker: Rich Olsen-Harbich | Bedell Cellars

“Tastemaker” is a term typically used to describe a person — either a sommelier or writer in the wine world — who decides what is good, cool or otherwise interesting. With our new #NYTastemaker profiles, I’ve decided to usurp the term to mean someone who actually makes the wines, ciders, spirits, etc. that we love. A “tastemaker” should make something, after all. I’m not sure that Rich Olsen-Harbich, winemaker at Bedell Cellars will ever let me live down the fact that I once wrote that while he’s not the founding father of Long Island wine, he’s the region’s “eldest uncle.” It’s perhaps…

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Weekly New York Wine News — March 21, 2016

NEWS Drinks Business – 3/4/2016 Bibendum adds Finger Lakes producer Forge Cellars to it’s U.S. portfolio, as British interest in American wine and dining increases. ABC News – 3/16/2016 In a new development to the story of last year’s Long Island wine country crash that resulted in four fatalities, the truck driver met with DUI charges, limousine driver has been indicted on counts of criminally negligent homicide and other charges. Suffolk Times – 3/17/2016 Southold Farm and Cellars is denied the zoning variance they would need to bring them into compliance and keep them in operation. Westchester Magazine – 3/18/2016…

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Martha Clara Vineyards 2013 Estate Reserve Merlot

It can be easy to dismiss Martha Clara Vineyards as a producer of fine wine. I mean, it’s the winery with the animals, the weddings and the concerts, right? Yes. It has all of those. Wine isn’t necessarily at the center of everything at Martha Clara. There is a wide swath of people that visits the winery every year and winemaker Juan Eduardo Micieli-Martinez has built a portfolio clearly meant to appeal to that diverse audience. But let’s not forget, there are plenty of fine wine lovers who visit Martha Clara too and to those folks, I would recommend Martha Clara Vineyards’…

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Corks of the Forks: A Look at the “Other” Local Grapes

A couple months ago, I devoted my column space to what has become the de facto “signature variety” for Long Island wine country: merlot. There are approximately 700 acres of merlot planted on Long Island — roughly 30 percent of the total vineyard acreage — and there are reasons for that. It grows and ripens dependably and consistently, even in all but the most horrid of vintages. That’s important here and why it’s the backbone of the industry.  But the East End isn’t like many parts of Europe where regulations dictate what grapes can be grown where. Long Island growers…

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Wolffer Estate Vineyard 2013 Chardonnay

Roman Roth has a way with chardonnay. Always has and probably always will. I don’t drink a lot of chardonnay, mind you, but I can recognize and appreciate well-made chardonnay of any style. For Wolffer Estate Vineyard 2013 Chardonnay ($19) Roth started with seven separate lots — all hand-harvested and fermented separately in 70% stainless steel and 30% French oak (his portion also completed malolactic fermentation). After six months of sur lie aging, those seven lots became one 1,117-case production. As I look back over my notes, I see that I wrote “fruity” three times, but it’s not just fruity.…

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New York Cork Club: March 2016 Selections

  “Does he pick these wines because we like them?” One of our friends — who also happens to be a member of this club — asked my wife that recently, and while the short answer is probably “no” it’s a bit more complicated than that, I think. I want each and every one of you to love each and every wine that I pick each and every month, the reality is that I have to like it first. As much as I want to keep you happy, I’d never put a wine into a shipment that I didn’t like,…

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From the Archives: “Celebrating 40 Years of Long Island Wine: A Look Into the Future”

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 don’t go back as far as I usually do — only 3 years. But, looking back on this post, where I make some predictions about Long Island wine as it celebrated it’s 40th anniversary, I’m happy to see that I wasn’t far off on at least some of these.  I’ve got some ground to make up if I’m going to write 40 posts about Long Island wine’s first 40 years.…

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Corks of the Forks: The Do’s and Dont’s of a Good Wine Dinner

Winery events abound on the East End, but not all wine events are created equal. They range from the very wine-focused — things like barrel or vertical tastings — to the not-at-all-wine-related. I’m looking at you, vineyard yoga. Among all winery events, the wine dinner reigns supreme. Just about every winery in America hosts them at restaurants or right on their own property. It’s a simple equation: winery plus restaurant equals fun to be had. They are a great way for a wine producer to reach new audiences and build relationships with restaurants. Restaurants benefit, too, often selling these dinners…

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