Posts Tagged“north country”

Weekly New York Wine News — August 3, 2015

Photo: Macari Vineyards Wine politics, continuing wine education, a sad unfolding story and a busy weekend festival schedule coming up. NEWS Watchdog.org - 7/30/2015 Actual Headline “Drunk of Corporate Welfare” are Hillary Clinton and New York wine involved in “pay-to-play”, or rather “wine-to-shine” politics? Ithaca Voice - 7/29/2015 After local education in hospitality profession, Cornell student goes on to become a “Master Sommelier”. North Fork Patch - 8/2/2015 The first of what will likely be numerous lawsuits filed in the wake of the terrible fatal limo crash on Long Island last week. EVENTS FLX Riesling & Craft Beer Fest - August 8-9, 2015…

Continue Reading

Playing Some La Crosse

La Crosse is a grape from the cold climate quiver that is a pet favorite of mine. Having worked with it in the Cornell trial vineyard and in and the home winery for a few vintages, I’m intrigued by what smells and tastes like potential. It’s yet another of the Elmer Swenson-propagated diaspora of hybrid vines which offer options and hope to winemakers who grow and press in places that are USDA Zone 5 and below. A complex hybrid offspring of Seyval Blanc, and named for the Wisconsin city on the Mississippi, it offers some improvements upon its parent, and…

Continue Reading

Cape Winery Sprouts in the Thousand Islands

The official opening of the Cape Winery in Cape Vincent, NY is not until Memorial Day, but a recent springtime Saturday “soft opening” saw over a hundred people in the tasting room, more than a dozen cases of wine leave the premises in the hands of happy consumers, and folks joining the infant “case club.” The current version of the New York State Wine Regions map shows expanded areas all around the state, and this latest opening already asks for those boundaries to be expanded even more. Situated on a spit of limestone-based land that has Lake Superior on one…

Continue Reading

“My” Vineyard on the Adirondack Coast

The Cornell Cooperative Extension cold-hardy cultivar trial vineyard in Willsboro, NY, on the western shore of Lake Champlain, sits in a place of true natural beauty, and is home to a number of grape varieties that have been bred for disease resistance, and tolerance of extreme cold to points well below -25F. Willsboro is also my own home stomping ground, which is where reporting on this place becomes admittedly a bit challenging. Objectivity is obscured by my associations with the place, which are as long and deep as the lake itself. I was dipped in Willsboro Bay for the first time…

Continue Reading

North Country Viticulture Education

Two educational events of interest to North Country viticulturists and winemakers, are being held this week, and come shortly after a series of dormant pruning workshops held in the Lake Champlain Region. A day-long vineyard and winery planning workshop will be held on Wednesday May 4 in Herkimer County. On Tuesday May 8, the next installment of the Northern Grapes Project webinar series will be accessible to anyone who registers. Details for both events can be found below. Over the past couple of weekends, volunteer pruning and informal training was completed at the Cornell Baker Farm Trial Vineyard in Willsboro,…

Continue Reading

Cornell to Fill North Country Trial Vineyard Tech Position

Just in from the Cornell Cooperative Extension Northeast NY Commercial Fruit program, is announcement of an open position at the cold hardy hybrid wine grape trial vineyard in Willsboro, NY. I’m well acquainted with the vineyard, having volunteered there for a few years, and I’m deeply connected to the area, due to family ties, and a lifetime of summers in the town. Were I in a different place in my life now, or if this was 15 years ago, I would not even be sharing this information. Rather I would be doing everything I could to assume the position myself,…

Continue Reading