Posts Tagged“roanoke vineyards”

What We Drank (March 12, 2013)

Here’s a sampling of what our editors and contributors are drinking… Lenn Thompson: Roanoke Vineyards 2000 Merlot I could have gone in any number of directions with this week’s WWD submission. A gathering of like-minded friends and their families brought many delicious libations to my lips over the weekend. I drank two of the best chardonnays of my life — Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey 2011 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly and Dauvissat 2011 “La Forest” Chablis. I sipped some great beers from Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City. But, as the local wine guy, I just had to write about this bottle of…

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Empire State Cellars Wine Club: November 2012 Selections

The November shipment of the Empire State Cellars Wine Club will ship in a couple weeks, but — as always — I’m excited to share the selections with you. If you’re not familiar with the club, you can learn more here. “Hello New York” Wines Lamoreaux Landing 2011 Gruner Veltliner: It’s exciting to include this relatively new grape to New York, and Lamoreaux Landing’s first commercial release of it. Dry and refreshing, it shows aloe, white pepper, lemon-lime citrus, and green herbs — with just a hint of salinity. Roanoke Vineyards 2010 BOND: Some complain about the lack of quality “table wines”…

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Empire State Cellars Wine Club: July 2012 Selections

The July shipment of the Empire State Cellars Wine Club, won’t ship for another 3 or 4 weeks, but I want to tell you about them today so, if you’re not already a member but want the wines, you’ll have time to join. If you’re not familiar with the club, you can learn more here. “Hello New York” Wines Ravines Wine Cellars 2011 Dry Riesling: Winemaker Morten Hallgren favors dry wines as the best way to express Finger Lakes terroir. This riesling is precise and pure, with crunchy acidity and pretty floral, pear and lime peel flavors and a minerally vein throughout. Suhru…

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Roanoke Vineyards 2009 Marco Tulio

I’ve said it before, but it is worthy of a reminder — in your excitement to taste Long Island’s 2010 reds, don’t skip over or dismiss the 2009s. A dry, warm autumn rewarded those growers patient enough to let their fruit hang and soak up those last bits of sun. Roanoke Vineyards 2009 Marco Tulio ($24) is a blend of 66% cabernet franc and 34% cabernet sauvignon. Anyone who knows Long Island wine knows that Roanoke Vineyards makes some of the best cabernet franc in these parts, and that this wine is two-thirds franc is obvious from the first sniff.…

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Roanoke Vineyards 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Merlot dominates the Long Island wine landscape. It is the most-planted grape and the one that many wineries have built their red wine programs around — and with good reason. It ripens dependably and leads to some of the North Fork's best wines. Roanoke Vineyards makes merlot too of course — often very good merlot — but over time they've built a reputation for the consistent dependability and quality of their cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, as well as blends based on those two grapes. There aren't many local cabernet sauvignon bottlings that I can…

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NYCR Q&A: George Romero, Roanoke Vineyards

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor If you've visited Roanoke Vineyards over the past several years, you've probably met George Romero. He's hard to avoid. He's a fixture behind the tasting bar and outside on the patio, often seen pouring wines for and chatting up customers. More often than not, I get to Roanoke when they first open on Saturday morning and — almost without fail — George is there cleaning the floors and preparing the tasting room for the throngs of red wine lovers to follow. Yes, he's a man of many talents. He's also an interesting and gregarious guy…

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Roanoke Vineyards 2008 Barrel Tasting: Hard-Fought Mature Fruit Lead to Pretty, Elegant Wines

Members of the Roanoke Vineyards wine club tasting 2008 reds in the Wolffer Estate cellar. By Lenn Thompson, Editor-in-Chief Friday night, on a cold, windy East End night, I joined 20 or so members of Roanoke Vineyards' wine club at Wolffer Estate Vineyards (where Roanoke's wines are made) to taste Roanoke Vineyards' 2008 reds from barrel. It was part wine club event, part futures tasting — the winery's first — and offered an excellent opportunity to taste these wines for the first time. Plus, it's always a pleasure to taste and talk with winemaker Roman Roth and Roanoke Vineyards co-owner,…

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2009 Harvest Update: Letting it All Hang Out at Roanoke Vineyards

Roanoke Vineyards' Rich Pisacano looking out over the vineyard he manages at Wolffer Estate By Lenn Thompson, Editor-in-Chief Frost hit Long Island wine country again late last week, this time impacting just about every grower. I've heard numbers as low as 24 degrees in some vineyards, and it almost goes without saying that temperatures that low fry canopies and bring photosynthesis to a halt. Sugar levels can rise a bit due to dehydration, but without photosynthesis, ripening can't continue. As such, most local wineries picked all weekend and are finishing up by the end of the week — including Wolffer…

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Roanoke Vineyards 2005 Merlot

By Lenn Thompson, Editor-in-Chief Rich Pisacano, co-owner of Roanoke Vineyards, is a cabernet sauvignon guy, and he and consulting winemaker Roman Roth make some of Long Island's most consistently good cabernet-based wines — no small feat in a cool climate region. But as good as those cabernets can be, this is still Long Island, where merlot still rules. Not surprisingly, the Roanoke Vineyards merlots can be standouts as well. Even in its youth, this Roanoke Vineyards 2005 Merlot ($45/sold out) shows depth and complexity on a nose where black plum, blackberry and blueberry fruit aromas mingle with those of licorice,…

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Roanoke Vineyards 2006 Cabernet Franc

Lenn Thompson, Editor and Publisher There's been a lot of TasteCamp content this week (for obvious reasons) so let's get back to some of the actual wines being made in New York. Not that this wine doesn't have a TasteCamp connection — we tasted this Roanoke Vineyards 2006 Cabernet Franc ($32) on our visit to Roanoke Vineyards Saturday morning. As you've probably read elsewhere, 2006 wasn't a great vintage for reds on Long Island. It was cooler growing season and was marked by a lot of overcast days and higher-than-average rainfall. Still, even in down years, the best producers put…

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