Posts Tagged“2014”

Keuka Spring Vineyards 2014 Cabernet Franc

On my last visit to the Finger Lakes, I got to spend some time with the Keuka Spring Vineyards winemaking team. As I tasted with head winemaker August Deimel and assistant winemaker Rachel Hadley, I realized something pretty unique: though they are using oak barrels of various age and in varying percentages in their rose and Gewurztraminer programs, oak barrels have been completely eliminated from the red wine program for the 2015 vintage — and for the foreseeable future. Now, this is primarily a white wine house anyway, but it’s a bold shift to remove oak from the reds program…

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Lieb Cellars 2014 Bridge Lane Chardonnay

It’s easy to forget sometimes, but not every wine we drink needs to be esoteric or complicated. Wine needn’t always be something you spend time dissecting or pondering. Some might argue that wine is never that. At the end of the day, wine need only be delicious and satisfying. Lieb Cellars 2014 Bridge Lane Chardonnay ($16) is both of those things. Made entirely in stainless steel, it’s not complex or layered, but it offers bright, fresh lemon-lime fruitiness, juicy acidity and a subtle saline edge on the finish. This is the kind of wine that you want to have around as the…

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Boundary Breaks Vineyard 2014 No. 239 Dry Riesling

I’ve become a bit jaded about Finger Lakes riesling — but I don’t mean that to sound as bad as I know it does. But after so many years tasting so many good-to-great rieslings, I’ve come to expect it in a sense. I don’t want to say that I take it for granted because I don’t. There is still a lot of mediocre (or worse) riesling in the Finger Lakes. But, for a wine to really stand out during a tasting, it has to be something special. When such a wine retails for less than $20, even better — if increasingly rare…

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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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Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars 2014 “Eugenia” Dry Riesling

You can’t throw a lime-soaked river rock in the Finger Lakes nowadays without hitting a bottle of single-vineyard riesling. Most of the top producers bottle them these days. Some of the lesser ones do too, where it’s perhaps more marketing gimmick than actual exploration of site-by-site terroir. Back in December, Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars announced its own series of single-vineyard rieslings, each meant to honor one woman in the Frank family. The first wine of the series is named “Eugenia” for Dr. Konstantin Fran’s wife. Dr. Konstantin Frank 2014 “Eugenia” Dry Riesling ($30) is made with grapes grown in…

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Macari Vineyards 2014 “Life Force” Sauvignon Blanc

(Photo via northforker.com) You can see a story I’ve written about Macari Vineyards’ use of concrete egg-shaped fermentation vessels later this month in the winter Long Island Wine Press — but in the meantime, I can tell you about a wine made using one of the two eggs found in the cellar right behind the tasting room bar: Macari Vineyards 2014 “Lifeforce” Sauvignon Blanc ($27). Of what is planted today, sauvignon blanc is clearly the white wine grape most important to Long Island’s future as a wine region. There’s more chardonnay in the ground, but more doesn’t mean better. Sauvignon blanc take well to our…

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Southold Farm + Cellar 2014 “Counting Stars” Sparkling Petit Verdot

With Southold Farm + Cellars 2014 “Counting Stars” ($28) — a sparkling red wine made from 100% petit verdot grapes — co-owner and winemaker Regan Meador has created what might be the most food-versatile wine available on Long Island today. That’s not a declaration that I take lightly, either. A lot of people thought he was a little crazy (maybe he is) for making sparkling wine from petit verdot — a late-ripening variety most often used to add color, tannin and acid to red wine blends — but ultimately, it’s petit verdot’s character that makes this wine such a great complement to so…

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Pellegrini Vineyards 2014 Sauvignon Blanc

Pellegrini Vineyards 2014 Sauvignon Blanc ($25), one of Zander Hargrave’s first releases as winemaker at Pellegrini Vineyards — a job he took over just before the 2014 harvest — offer a bit of Long Island wine’s past, its present and it’s future. The Hargrave name goes back as far as Long Island wine history can go. Zander’s parents, Louisa and Alex Hargrave, founded Hargrave Vineyard, Long Island’s first commercial winery, in 1973, and Zander’s uncle, Charlie Hargrave, has been a vineyard manager on the North Fork for more than a decade. In 2011 Zander was hired as assistant winemaker at the now-closed…

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Shinn Estate Vineyards 2014 “Mojo” Cabernet Franc

I don’t want to jinx it, but it seems like Long Island winemakers have largely moved beyond the days of treating cabernet franc like cabernet sauvignon. Most winemakers really scaled back the amount of new oak they are using and are allowing cabernet franc be cabernet franc. They aren’t trying to beat all of the “green” out of the variety as often and as a result very few wood-and-chocolate-and-vanilla-dominated cabernet francs have crossed my tasting table over the past year. A handful of wineries put out unoaked versions now, and Shinn Estate Vineyards — long growers and makers of some of the best local…

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Roanoke Vineyards 2014 “NoFi” Rose

  There have been a lot of rosé reviews on the site this week. That may seem odd if you treat rosé simply as a summer sipper. At NYCR global headquarters, rosé is a year-round libation. We just drink different examples this time of year. Now that the weather has cooled, I find myself using my oven more, and whether I’m roasting a chicken, roasting some winter squash or cooking a pork shoulder for 10 hours like I did last weekend, richer, fuller-bodied rosés really fit the bill. They have enough weight to stand up flavor-wise, but are still fresh, with that lively…

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