Posts Tagged“long island wine”

Author of Long Island’s AVAs @ Appellation America

This week at Appellation America, you’ll find my Q&A with Richard Olsen-Harbich, winemaker and managing director for Raphael. Rich has been working in the local wine industry for almost 30 years. The interview focuses on three main topics: Long Island’s three AVAs (he authored them), the differences between the two forks, and the varieties (and styles) he thinks do best on Long Island. You may recognize Rich from his contributions here at LENNDEVOURS as well, including: Human Terroir and Parenting Wines The Urban Legend of Sulfites The War on Terroir and Wines of Mass Vinification Read my Q&A over at…

Continue Reading

Wine Blogging Wednesday #27 Announced: Ice Ice Baby

Photo taken by Dominic Rivard. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2.  I’ve long loved ice wines and ice-style wines (those that are made by frozing grapes in a commercial freezer rather than leaving them to freeze on the vine). The best versions are rich, succulent and sweet…but always have a burst of fresh acidity that brings balance and life on the palate. So, it is with much pleasure that I announce Wine Blogging Wednesday #27, hosted by the Kitchen Chick. The theme is Icy Desserts — ice wines that is. Luckily, she’s not being a stickler, so…

Continue Reading

This Week On Appellation America (10/19/06)

This week on Appellation America, you can read my recommendations for two chardonnays made by Roman Roth at Wolffer Estate — a 2003 Reserve Chardonnay ($20) that shows nice balance and a stellar 2005 Late Harvest Chardonnay ($37) that should be good for another decade or five. Soon, they will also be publishing a Q&A I did with Raphael’s Richard Olsen-Harbich, who is also a LENNDEVOURS contributor. Rich has been working in the local wine industry for nearly three decades and actually authored the three local AVAs: Long Island, North Fork of Long Island, and Hamptons, Long Island. Appellation America…

Continue Reading

Tasting Vintage Variation — A Flight of “Flight”

You can buy bottle after bottle of mass-produced, ubiquitous wines like Yellowtail Shiraz or Cavit Pinot Grigio without even looking at the year on the label. That’s because year-to-year variation is barely perceptible in those wines. Huge vineyards, huge production and blending options that lead to a “house style” all result in fairly consistent flavors year in and year out. That’s boring and lame if you ask me. That sort of cookie-cutter consistency is not the case here on Long Island, where even the largest vineyards are miniscule by world standards. And, with generally cool weather that changes considerably from…

Continue Reading

Long Island Mid-Harvest Report

Last year’s grape harvest was remarkable both for the hot, dry conditions that lasted all summer long and the almost twenty inches of rain that was dumped on the East End over eight days right in the middle of harvest. White grapes were largely unaffected because they had already been picked, but many of the Island’s red grapes weren’t so lucky. That rain completely decimated some producers to the point where they didn’t make red wines last year at all. Others escaped mostly unscathed and have made some tremendous wines. There will be less 2005 red wine on shelves once…

Continue Reading

A Shower and a Snap

After a week or so of gorgeous weather (sunny, warm, dry), a storm dumped a lot of rain on Long Island last night. I’m still trying to find out exactly how much and how much of an impact it is going to have. It was a relatively short storm.  Potentially more worrisome is the cold snap predicted for this weekend. I’ll see what I can find out today, tomorrow and through the weekend. But it’s my guess that all of my winery contacts are a bit preoccupied right now. Stay tuned. UPDATE: Alice Wise at the Cornell Cooperative Extension reports…

Continue Reading

Ternhaven Cellars Releases Rustic Reds

Earlier this year, when Harold Watts sold his five-acre vineyard, fans of his Ternhaven Cellars wines worried that he’d close the doors to his Greenport tasting room too. Luckily for those fans — myself among them— reports of the North Fork’s easternmost tasting room’s demise were overstated. Watts, 73, has just released his 2001 wines and has vintages up to and including 2005 aging for future release in his tasting room. His wines are also available at The Tasting Room on Peconic Lane, Long Island’s only co-op tasting room for small, artisanal producers. On many occasions, I’ve described Watts, a…

Continue Reading

New York Wine & Culinary Center Announces Gold Medal Month

For the month of October, The Tasting Room at the New York Wine & Culinary Center will be pouring wines that won gold, double gold or best-in-class at the New York Wine & Food Classic earlier this year. This is a great opportunity to taste some of New York’s best wines. Tasters will be able to choose among seven different tasting flights (listed below) and beginning Saturday, October 7, a special tasting of the Governor’s Cup winner, Hermann J. Wiemer Dry Riesling 2005 will be available. Flight 1: Empire Tasting ($6) Peconic Bay Merlot 2001, Long Island Mazza Chautauqua Riesling…

Continue Reading

WTN: Raphael 2004 Malbec (North Fork of Long Island)

Don’t cry for me Argentina Long Island? Yes, there is malbec growing on Long Island — and probably more than you realize. Once a major component in the wines of Bordeaux, this large, fairly easy-to-ripen black grape is now best known in Argentina, where it is most often bottled alone, and as a bit player (along with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and petit verdot) in in Meritage and other blended red wines in U.S., Australia and South Africa. So it only makes sense many of Long Island’s meritage-style reds feature small amounts of malbec — typicaly from 1 -…

Continue Reading

No More Blind Tasting of One Long Island Winery

I got an interesting email yesterday from my contact for one prominent Long Island winery. The winery’s owner has decided that it will no longer be sending samples to me, or any member of the press, for review. From now on, he’d wants all wine tastings/reviews to be conducted at the winery, with him present. This winery isn’t the only one that doesn’t do samples…but the others are small, low-production wineries that sell out of their wines to their wine clubs regardless of any press coverage. This new member of the "no samples" club isn’t one of these artisanal producers…

Continue Reading