By Contributing Columnist Richard Olsen-Harbich Much has been written and debated lately about the style and direction of Long Island wines — most notoriously, a recent Op-Ed piece in the Long Island section of the NY Times implied that L.I. wine producers needed to spend more energy on experimentation and crafting out our own identity. I would argue that this is exactly what L.I. winemakers have been doing for the past 30-plus years. Most people take it for granted now, but back in the early 70s, the general consensus from Cornell University and many other “experts” on the East Coast…
Posts Tagged“long island wine”
New York Cork Club: January Selections
Have you signed up for the New York Cork Club yet? If not, you should think about it — either for yourself or for a friend or family member. It’s a unique opportunity to taste the best wines of New York State (not just Long Island folks!) as selected by your favorite NY wine guru. That’s right…me! I don’t know about you, but I’ve been a member of a couple wine clubs in my day and there are two things that you just don’t see in wine clubs very often — sparkling wine and dessert wine. Well this month’s New…
A Letter to Lisa Granik (New York Times Op-Ed Contributor)
This letter is in response to Lisa Granik’s op-ed in the New York Times’ Sunday edition. Dear Ms. Granik, After reading your op-ed over the weekend, I have two words for you: Thank you. That’s right, I’m thanking you even though I’m sure that by now you’ve received plenty of emails and calls from those in the Long Island wine industry, telling you that you’re wrong, misguided and misinformed — and you are in much of what you say — but I still think it’s great that your words were printed in the New York Times. The best way for…
Long Island Wines in the Blogosphere
You have probably noticed already, but Long Island wines have made their way onto a few other blogs of late. Just before Xmas, Eric Asimov from the New York Times wrote about The Grapes of Roth 2001 Merlot on his blog, The Pour. Eric is clearly a fan of Long Island wines, making him one of the first prominent wine writers to wake up. The Wine Cask Blog, long one of my favorites, has also been reviewing the Lenz Winery portfolio of late, including: Lenz Winery 2000 Cuvee Sparkling Lenz Winery 2001 Old Vines Merlot Lenz Winery 2004 Old Vines…
Take THAT California?
"Yes, California does produce some good merlot, though I could make a case that better merlot is coming from Long Island than from California, albeit in very small amounts." So says New York Times wine writer and wine blogger Eric Asimov in this week’s column "Panned on Screen, Merlot Shrugs and Moves On" Of course, the rest of the column goes on to sing the praises of Washington State as America’s best source for merlot. I’m not as familiar with Washington merlots as I am Long Island ones (obviously) so I’m not going to comment on that. But, that doesn’t…
Donate and Win the “Big Reds of Long Island”
In case you missed it, I’m participating in A Menu for Hope again this year. We’ve already raised over $10,000, so thanks to each and every one of you who have donated already. For those of you that haven’t, I’m going to highlight some of the Long Island wine-related lots that are available as raffle prizes. Today, I want to talk about the "Big Reds of Long Island" prize. If you win this three-pack of Long Island reds, you’ll get a bottle of Roanoke Vineyards 2003 Blend Two, which I’ve reviewed previously on this site, saying: "Cabernet franc (48%) dominates…
A Menu for Hope III — December 11-22
For the past two years, members of the food and wine blogging community have raised money for various charities through a tremendous project called A Menu for Hope. The original event was conceived shortly after the Asian tsunami a couple years by my friend Pim (of the Chez Pim blog) to raise aid money for the victims. That initial project was a great success and last year, the culinary blogging community raised an amazing $17,000 for UNICEF by doing an online raffle of various culinary/food/wine items. It’s time for A Menu for Hope III and this year’s beneficiary is the…
Are There Really “Old Vines” on Long Island?
Tom over at Fermentation has resurrected an interesting discussion that has gone around and around in the wine blogosphere (and media at large) that I thought I’d bring over there to this here blog as well — Old Vines. What does it mean? Should it be a regulated term? Does it matter to you when you see it on a bottle? As far as I know, the only Long Island winery using "old vines" on their labels is Lenz Winery, which uses it on a merlot, chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. I think that the oldest vines at Lenz are around…
New North Fork Winery: Clovis Point (Jamesport, NY)
It looks like the North Fork is home to yet another winery — Clovis Point. I had heard something about this a while back, but didn’t know they were finally open (meaning they just got their license) and selling wine. (Thanks, Sean, for the tip.) Clovis Point is named for sculpted tools found near their vineyard that were used by the earliest inhabitants of Long Island’s North Fork over 10,000 years ago. Clovis Point was founded in 2001 when proprietors Hal Ginsburg, Mary Bayno, Nasrallah Misk, Jonathan and Renae Pine, and Richard Frey bought ten acres of farm land on…
2003 Releases from Sherwood House Vineyards
2003 wasn’t a great vintage for Long Island wines — and many of the wines I’ve tasted from the vintage support that statement. Many, particularly the reds, tend to be under ripe and lacking flavor. The whole growing season wasn’t sub-par, but one of the most important parts was. After a perfectly fine spring and summer, untimely rain and then two October frosts did the vintage in. Basically, frost kills the vines’ canopy, stopping photosynthesis and keeping the grapes from getting fully ripe. You can talk about “hang time” (on the vine) all you want, but without the sugar factory,…