Posts Tagged“kemmeter wines”

Uncork the Forks: 6 reasons for North Forkers to visit the Finger Lakes

I’m working on several stories after my recent trip to the Finger Lakes — but in the meantime, I wanted to share my latest column for the Suffolk Times, which can be found online on northforker.com Over the past several years, my family has fallen head-over-heels in love with the Finger Lakes region of central New York. It’s a stunningly beautiful part of the country that offers spectacular sunrises and sunsets, fishing, boating, wine tasting, great food and farmer’s markets, a relaxed pace and plenty of relaxation. In some ways, it’s a lot like the North Fork — except it’s…

Continue Reading

New York #Tastemaker: Peter Becraft | Anthony Road Wine Company

“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. Over the course of my nearly 12 years writing about wine, I’ve only had a few hands-on grape harvest experiences. One of the most memorable (and immersive) was with Johannes Reindhardt and Peter Becraft at Anthony Road Wine Company several years…

Continue Reading

Kemmeter Wines 2014 Sonero

“Balance” is a term that gets bandied about in the wine world. Collectively, “balance” has a meaning that most agree on — a wine is balanced when all the different components (fruit, residual sugar, acidity, tannin, etc.) come together in a harmonious way. A balanced wine doesn’t have protrusions or awkward components. But even if we can agree conceptually on this definition, there is a lot of room for interpretation. A wine that you find perfectly balanced, I may find too oaky. Similarly, what I consider balanced might have too much acidity for you. Context matters too — and that gets us…

Continue Reading

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 —…

Continue Reading

Kemmeter Wines 2012 Sheldrake Point Vineyard Riesling

Kemmeter Wines 2012 “Sheldrake Point Vineyard” Riesling ($24) is a classy, expertly balanced riesling from what will likely go down as a classic riesling vintage in the Finger Lakes — one that shows ripeness and intensity without the flabby softness of some other warmer seasons. Mixed citrus — tangering, lemon and lime — aromas are layered with notes of pear, green apple, papaya and wet river stones on an expressive-but-restrained nose. Medium bodied with subtle sweetness that is balanced by juicy acidity, the palate shows intricate citrus and pomme fruit flavors that match the nose. There is a precision and…

Continue Reading

Finding Inspiration in the Finger Lakes, by Regan Meador, Southold Farm + Cellar

Getting past New York City with a trailer overloaded with 350 gallons of wine had been a major milestone. As the truck lurched and faded, lurched and faded, every bang of a pothole had me questioning my decision on this endeavor, but I still had four hours to go until the Finger Lakes. I was taking perfectly good still red wine to Bellwether Wine Cellars in Trumansburg so I could turn it into an ode to dry lambrusco (an endeavor that had given more than a few colleagues on Long Island a good laugh). I needed to use their pressurization…

Continue Reading

Kemmeter Wines 2012 Sonero

The entry-level offering from winemaker Johannes Reindhardt’s recently launched Kemmeter Wines label, the Kemmeter Wines 2012 Sonero ($14) is a friendly, fruity expression of riesling with intense aromas of juicy pear, hard lemon candies and something vaguely soapy. Medium-light bodied with subtle mid-palate richness, the palate shows similar flavors -candied citrus and pear — with a faint gravelly mineral note. Though not flabby or cloying, there isn’t enough acidity to balance the residual sugar here, leaving the palate a bit flat and lacking verve. Producer: Kemmeter Wines AVA: New York Price: $14 | Buy now from Empire State Cellars (2.5 out of 5, Average-to-Very…

Continue Reading

A Dream Realized: Kemmeter Wines Opens on Seneca Lake

The west side of Seneca Lake is home to a regular rush of winery traffic, no small part of which is limos, or buses, or limo buses if you prefer. They can be loud and pleasant, or loud and unpleasant, but there is near-constant motion. And then there is the newest and the smallest tasting room on Seneca Lake, and it feels like a church. A chapel, rather — a place to reflect and to pause and to think and maybe even to listen. This is, at long last, the home of Kemmeter Wines, and the new home for winemaker…

Continue Reading