Browsing CategoryLong Island

Bedell Cellars 2014 Chardonnay

Chardonnay with little or no oak footprint have gained popularity in recent years, but for Bedell Cellars’ winemaker Rich Olsen-Harbich, it’s not a new style. He’s been making unoaked chardonnay for his entire winemaking career, dating back to 1982. He still makes steel-fermented chardonnay, but it’s not bottled alone. Instead, most of it goes to the winery’s First Crush White, where it’s blended with sauvignon blanc and riesling. “I want a bit more complexity in our varietal chardonnay,” he told me in an email. As with all of his wines, fermentation was done with ambient yeasts and while about 50% of…

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New York #Tastemaker: Roman Roth | Wolffer Estate

“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. This week’s tastemaker is none other than Roman Roth, winemaker and partner at Wolffer Estate. Roman has been making wine on Long Island for a long time, was instrumental in the creation of the Long Island Merlot Alliance and is…

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From the Archives: Op-Ed: Towns, Don’t Crush the Grape Growers

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’s pick is a piece written by Steve Bate, executive director of the Long Island Wine Council and then-president of the council, Ron Goerler Jr. of Jamesport Vineyards back in the summer of 2010.  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” The famous opening line from Charles Dickens’ classic “A Tale of Two Cities,” set in 18th-century Europe, would appear to be an appropriate description of the opportunities…

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Corks of the Forks: Good wines for under $25

Last week I read an interview on Food & Wine magazine’s website written by executive wine editor Ray Isle, with Doug Bell, who oversees all of the wine, beer and spirits buying for Whole Foods Market nationwide. Bell is responsible for selling 42 million bottles of adult beverages per year. Over the course of the interview, he makes some predictions for wine and beer in 2016.  Among the expected, often-discussed trends (dry rosé, prosecco and even more local craft beer), Bell feels that wines in the $15 to $25 price range are going to be big. “Look, when you spend…

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Paumanok Vineyards 2013 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay

Warning: The chardonnay reviews are coming.  I recently tasted three-plus cases of Long Island chardonnay — all 2013 and 2014 vintages — for a story I’m working on for Long Island Wine Press. I survived and learned quite a bit, but you’ll have to wait for that story to come out to learn more. I won’t publish reviews for all of them, or even most, but some will be coming. Starting today. I won’t publish reviews for all of them, or even most, but some will be coming. Starting today. He’s perhaps known for other things, but Paumanok Vineyards winemaker…

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From the Archives: Local with Local: Raphael 2002 First Label Merlot and David Page’s Ducq au Vin

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’s pull from the archives is one of my favorite “Local with Local” posts we published — a series where local chefs and wine folks created a wine pairing. This pairing and recipe were offered by David Page, co-owner of Shinn Estate Vineyards and a former chef.  Reading through this post again, has me thinking about bringing this series back.    My wife Barbara and I first met Richard Olsen-Harbich, currently the…

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Corks of the Forks: The truth about winter in Wine Country

Other than that recent big snowstorm, we’ve had a relatively mild winter thus far. It’s been my kind of winter, with limited time spent shoveling. Let’s hope I didn’t just jinx us. Despite the relatively mild weather, you just don’t see big crowds in Wine Country this time of year. Once the last pumpkins are picked, the tide of humanity recedes a bit through Thanksgiving and then fades even more as winter settles in. On one hand, I understand it. There are few things more enjoyable than sharing a bottle of wine, overlooking a vineyard on a warm, summer day.…

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From the Archives: Waters Crest Winery — Inspired Winemaking

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’ve chosen a story I published exactly 11 years ago, on January 28, 2005, about Waters Crest Winery. It seemed appropriate given the fact that Jim Waters will open his new tasting room on Main Road in Cutchogue (picture above) sometime in the next couple of weeks. Jim Waters of Waters Crest Winery in Cutchogue has a great story to tell, one that will touch your heart as well as…

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Long Island Wine Press: At Macari Vineyards, fermentation in an egg

Step into most any Long Island winery — where the wine is actually made, not the tasting room — and you’re mostly going to see two types of vessels: stainless steel tanks and oak barrels. These containers are used for fermenting and aging wine. You’ll find some open-top bins that are used for fermentation too, but barrels and tanks are the cornerstone of any winery’s production facility. Macari Vineyards has a lot of these tanks and oak barrels of different sizes and ages, but they also have something unique to Long Island wine — concrete eggs. Yes. Really. The use…

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New York #Tastemaker: Kareem Massoud | Paumanok Vineyards

“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’ve long respected and appreciated Kareem Massoud, winemaker at Paumanok Vineyards — and not just because his wines are consistently some of the best on the North Fork. It goes well beyond that, actually, no matter how true that statement…

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