Browsing CategoryNew York Cork Club

New York Cork Club: September 2015 Selections

The September 2015 wines for the New York Cork Club will ship soon — thank goodness that the hot weather has started to subside. It’s shipping season! (If you missed our announcement about the rebirth of New York Cork Club, check it out here.) As we head into harvest season this fall, a lot of us start to drink a bit more red wine — but not heavy, oak-laden ones. With that in mind, we’re doing two reds this month, but both are bright and decided not oaky. Just what we like as the last of the summer’s tomatoes move through our…

New York Cork Club: August 2015 Selections

The August 2015 wines for the New York Cork Club will ship once the weather cools a bit (the July wines will ship soon too I hope). In the meantime, I wanted to tell you a bit about them. (If you missed our announcement about the rebirth of New York Cork Club, check it out here.) For August, we’ll return to the “one red and one white” club shipment — with one classic grape from a well-known winery and one lesser-known grape from an under-appreciated winery included: Keuka Lake Vineyards 2014 Gently Dry Vignoles — Some look down on vignoles because it’s a hybrid grape…

New York Cork Club: July 2015 Selections

The July 2015 wines for the New York Cork Club will ship in a week or so, so I wanted to tell you a bit about them. (If you missed our announcement about the rebirth of New York Cork Club, check it out here.) For July, I’ve chosen two white wines that are as versatile as they are fresh and delicious: Palmer Vineyards 2014 Albarino ($23) — This is a wine that I’ve wanted to include for a couple years now — and now that winemaker Miguel Martin has bottled it in 750 ml bottles, we can! Citrusy and floral, I think this is Miguel’s…

New York Cork Club: June 2015 Selections

We’re getting ready to ship the June 2015 wines for the New York Cork Club, so I wanted to tell you a bit about them. (If you missed our announcement about the rebirth of New York Cork Club, check it out here.)In the next week or so, members will get:Element Winery 2011 Syrah ($36) — Wow. This wine pushes the boundaries of what we want to include price-wise, but it’s so limited (90 cases) and so delicious (think Northern Rhone meets Finger Lakes) that we just had to include it. Bellwether Wine Cellars 2014 Dry Rose ($16) — A blend of cabernet franc, gamay…

Want the May 2015 New York Cork Club Picks? Join Today!

The first New York Cork Club shipment will go out the first week of May — so if you want my first picks, you need to join as soon as possible! (If you missed our announcement about the rebirth of New York Cork Club, check it out here.) Join and you’ll get: Southold Farm + Cellar 2014 Weather to Fly — a fresh, lightly yeasty, un-filtered sparkling wine made from chardonnay using methode ancestral. Yes, that makes this a “pet nat,” which are quite trendy right now — but this is also a delicious, delicious wine. Dr. Konstantin Frank 2014…

It’s Back: The New York Cork Club — New York’s Best and Most Interesting Wines Delivered to Your Door

This is a happier Friday than usual at NYCR headquarters. Why? Because the New York Cork Club — our New York wine club — is back. We’re thrilled to be partnering with The Cellar d’Or in Ithaca, NY to bring the club back. For those of you who were members of the club when we were working with the now-closed New York wine superstore Empire State Cellars, we’ve simplified and scaled back the club significantly. Every month, I’ll pick two wines that will never exceed $60 plus shipping and we’ll send them to you. It’s really that simple. In the…

The Last Hurrah: Empire State Cellars Wine Club November 2014 Selections

As I sit down to write this month’s newsletter, it is with mixed emotions. Empire State Cellars will be closing at the end December, which makes this the final club shipment. One one hand, it’s obviously saddening to think that the largest New York-only retail shop is closing and that a club that I’ve curated for so many years (with three different shops handling logistics) is coming to an end. (Selfishly, I’m bummed about the store because it’s going to be that much harder for me to find Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley and Niagara wines locally.) On the other hand, this is…

Empire State Cellars Wine Club: September 2014 Selections

Harvest season is nearly upon us across New York wine country. In fact, I’ve heard reports of grapes destined for sparkling wine coming in this week. It’s a busy time of year at every winery — and it has been for me too as we worked to finalize this month’s picks. This is a pretty classic ESC club shipment — we focus on the grapes that regions do best as well as some of New York’s top producers. I hope you enjoy the picks as much as my friends and I have of late. “Hello New York” Wines Raphael 2013…

Empire State Cellars Wine Club: July 2014 Selections

Over the years that I’ve been curating this this wine club, it has been my distinct pleasure to share a great many classic wines from classic New York wineries. We have a bit of that this month, but as I was finalizing the selections, it quickly became apparent that we had a lot of new and not-yet-classic wines and wineries represented. We have New York’s only Trebbiano. We have sparkling wines — one red, one white — that are the first releases of two new labels. And we have two Finger Lakes wineries — Kemmeter Wines and Forge Cellars —…

Empire State Cellars May 2014 Wine Club Selections

Diversity. That’s my one-word summary for May’s Empire State Cellars Wine Club selections — which really are a celebration of New York’s wine diversity. It would be easy to pick four Finger Lakes rieslings every month, add a couple Long Island merlots, a cab franc and a pinot and call it a day. And there are enough good wines to do that, but that’s not nearly as fun as exploring the hidden corners of New York’s wine regions.  Look for some even more hard-to-get wines in upcoming shipments, but it starts this month. We did include a couple rieslings, but…