WTN: Brotherhood Winery 2004 Chardonnay (New York)
I’ve written a few times about Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, NY up in the Hudson River Valley. It is one of the region’s larger producers and makes a wide array of wines-from honey wine to spiced holiday wine to riesling to a ruby ‘port’.
They don’t have any vineyard holdings of their own, so they source grapes from throughout New York State-primarily the Finger Lakes and Long Island.
The grapes that went into this 2004 chardonnay were grown on Long Island’s East End, but no further details are available. There’s a lot of chardonnay grown here, so it certainly isn’t a surprise that some of it is leaving the island.
Of winemaker Baeza’s current releases, this $13 chardonnay is the best. It’s nicely balanced with vanilla, honey, pineapple and butter-roasted apple on the nose. Unfortunately, those many layers don’t carry over to the palate, which is fairly one dimensional.
The balance is nice though and this is be a serviceable, gulpable chardonnay if you like oak-derived flavors but don’t like flabby.
Dear Lenn,
Appreciate your review of our 2004 Chardonnay. Just want to update you on the fact that last year we leased a vineyard, overlooking the Hudson River, in the town of Hudson, New York in Colombia County where we had been getting our Chardonnay grapes for our Blanc de Blancs Champagne. You can see some pictures of the 2006 harvest on our website - http://www.brotherhoodwinery.net. There are currently 20 acres of Chardonnay, and last year we planted 8 acres of Pinot Noir and this year we planted 8 acres of Riesling. We are very excited about the vineyard and view it as a tremendous asset to Brotherhood. It is all part of a transformation the winery is undergoing - a newly remodeled salesroom, upgraded storage facilities and 140 new barrels in the underground cellars. We are definitely pumping new life into America’s oldest winery! Hope you’ll come and visit soon.
Yours truly,
Cesar Baeza, Winemaster
Brotherhood, America’s Oldest Winery
Washingtonville, New York