Long Island Visit

I spent the day yesterday driving down to Long Island with a local winemaker to pick up some Merlot grapes. Sometimes wineries in various parts of New York do purchase grapes from other areas of the state. The labels of course will read "New York Wine" rather than "Hudson Valley Wine" or "Finger Lakes Wine." That is topic for another blog.

One thing I couldn't get over was the price of a tasting. I know in the Hudson Valley the tasting fees range from $5 - $10 for a tasting flight of around 5 or 6 wines. However, I got sticker shock at the cost of a tasting in Long Island. I like red and whites. The two wineries we stopped in the tasting fees were $7 for a flight of 3 whites and $9 for a flight of 3 reds.

Our first stop was at Palmer Vineyards. I never visited this winery as I usually tend to stop at smaller, off the beaten path tasting rooms. I tasted the 07 Sauvignon Blanc. There was passion fruit on the nose. This is due to an open canopy on the vines. This brings out the passion fruit flavor of the grape. It was light and refreshing with grapefruit on the aftertaste. The 07 Gewurztraminer was nice with a Lychee aroma and the 07 Riesling had nice peach on the nose. I wasn't impressed with the reds.

We then stopped and picked up the grapes and went to Greenport for lunch. I had a great Chardonnay at lunch from Martha Clara, so I asked that we stop there on the way home.


After lunch we stopped at Raphael Winery. Three years ago they had a fantastic Sauvignon Blanc and I had high expectations. I wasn't totally disappointed, it was good, but I was looking for the past.

We did stop at Marth Clara Vineyards . We walked in and there was one other person in the tasting room being assisted by the staff. We waited, but we weren't even acknowledged. We stood there and then decided to just leave. It was at that point someone else showed up and asked us if we wanted to taste. We just purchased the bottle wine we enjoyed at lunch and called it a day.

Frost

Well the frost (freeze where I live) this week did us in. Harvest is now over. Frost kills the leaves, which halted any further ripening. When the leaves are shut down by a killing frost, so is the ripening process.

Whatever grapes were left hanging on the vines now have to be picked and processed. The vines now go into hibernation for the winter and await the spring bud.

Ghost Man @ Hudson Chatham Winery

Speaking about Hudson Chatham Wines they are hosting a Ghostly event on Monday. Attend if you dare....seating is limited so you MUST RSVP.

The Hudson-Chatham Winery is pleased to present:

An Evening With Stephen Wagner, the "Ghost Man" of New York

To get you in the mood for Halloween, we have invited Stephen to come to the winery to give a talk about the world of ghosts, anomalies, strange creatures, ESP, EVP and much more!! Forget the traditional scary movies - come hear for yourself what may be haunting your very neighborhood Stephen is a writer, editor, and a researcher of paranormal phenomena, as well as a member of the Central New York Ghost Hunters.

Where: The Hudson-Chatham Winery, 1900 Route 66, Ghent

When: Monday, October 27, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Cost: $20 (includes two glasses of wine, cheese and crackers, and the lecture)

RSVP: A MUST. Space is limited to the first 25 respondents.

Hudson Chatham Winery

Last night Paul and I opened a bottle of Hudson Chatham Winery's Merlot. What a great wine!! Every time we pop the cork on on of these bottles it's better than the time before. Keep in mind we tasted this wine back in April when it had a lot of tannins. A few months down the line the fruit in the wine really became forward.

Regardless where Carlo got his grapes from, it's all in the final product. (if you followed me and Len on twitter) .

Between a group of people, you can all harvest grapes from the same vineyard yet make entirely different wine. I say this to you, as not to judge a book by it's cover and always keep an open mind.

Leek Tart paired with an Oaked Chard

Today was a busy day...I walked in the Breast Cancer Walk at Woodbury Commons. I was walking for a good friend of over 25 years who is suffering from stage 4 metastasis breast cancer.

Always the dilemma when you leave the house at 7am and return at 3p...what to have for dinner when I haven't defrosted anything.

I made a trip to my garden to see what still needed to be harvested. I came across some leeks, and chives and decided on a leek tart. The recipe called for goat cheese, but I didn't have any in the fridge so I used Jarlsberg.

This leek tart paired with a butter Chardonnay was fantastic. I had a 2006 Gooscross Chardonnay, but locally, Whitcliff's 2007 Chardonnay would have paired quite well with it.

Here's the recipe..and yes I cheated using premade pie cruse I purchased at the grocery store.

Leek Confit

1/4 cup unsalted butter
5 cups sliced leeks..white and green parts only
2 tbs water
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs chopped chives

Filling
1 cup lite cream
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup shredded jarlsberg

Melt butter in large pot over medium low heat. Add leeks, stir in water and salt. Cook about 25 minutes until leeks are tender, stirring until excess water is evaporated.

Preheat oven to 375, Put pie crust in deep dish pie plate, layer 1/2 of the jarlsberg on the bottom of pie crust. Spread leek confit over cheese then sprinkle with remaining cheese. Pour filling mixture over. Bake about 35 minutes until filling has puffed and is golden in spots. Serve with a tossed salad and a butter Chardonnay.

Busted!

I just returned from the "Best of the Hudson Valley." This event was sponsored by Hudson Valley Magazine.
Readers of the Magazine voted on the "Best of the Hudson Valley" in a variety of categories. Food, Wine, Beer to Dentists.

There were three Hudson Valley Wineries at the event. Millbrook Winery, Brotherhood Winery and Warwick Valley Winery and wonderful restaurants and bakeries. Warwick Valley Winery was in the perfect place, the bakery room serving their "American Fruits" collection. Those wines go great with dessert.

I got busted! I stopped at Keegan Ales and got a "Hurricane Kitty." It was hot and I wanted something different. (I won't mention the pear martini I tasted before the beer from Shadow's on the Hudson) I stopped by Millbrook Winery to say hi to Barbara and her words were "What the winegoddess drinking beer." At this point there were about 4 people around me and were looking at me. Just a little embarrassed. However, with beer in hand I came across Arlington Wines & Liquor serving Moet Champagne. Joe insisted we have a taste..so beer in one hand, Moet in the other. I did eventually lose the beer and got a bottle of water.

Food...there was lots...pasta, duck,soup, sushi, curry, My Brother Bobby's Salsa, and of course desserts galore. All were yummy!

All in all, it was a very nice event. It's held every year, and if you haven't gone, I suggest you mark your calendar for next year.

Apple Picking and Wine

Yesterday I got out and went apple picking with my daughter, cousin Joanne and her children. We decided to try a new orchard and went to Dubios Farms. It was nice, but the map they gave us took us a while to figure out. We needed an Apple GPS in the orchard.

The apples tasted great! We were a little disappointed in the cider donuts, but after an hour of apple picking we were happy to sink our teeth into them. We couldn't have asked for better weather either. We lucked out.

After apple picking we stopped at Whitecliff Vineyards as I wanted to taste their just release Merlot and Cabernet Franc. All I can say is WOW! The Merlot was very good and is a great wine to purchase and cellar for about a year. The Cab Franc was outstanding!!! The Cab Franc I would say is a drink now wine. It has a nice spice on the finish. Just the way I like my Cab Francs.

As we pulled up to the tasting room, there was some harvest activities going on. Here is a short video of what was fermentating in the bin. In case you are wondering, a bee flew up my cousin's arm, hence her running away at the end of the video. It had nothing to do with the wine.

Santa Cruz wine tasting

On Sunday I went wine tasting in Santa Cruz. On the way down we first stopped at Ridge Vineyards. It's funny, when wine tasting in New York, people tend to look for wine varietals they know and question the hybrids. I came across one in California at Ridge that I didn't know. Carignane...it's a french varietal similar to Petite Sirah. 18% of the Carignane was blended in their 2006 Geyserville. The wines we tasted here were all pretty good. I did purchase two bottles.

We then drove down to Santa Cruz and stopped at Bonny Doon. I was at Bonny Doon 6 years ago and personally I thought the wine was much better then than now. When we arrived at Bonny Doon we were looking for parking and drove to the back of the lot and came across a barn that had a different winery name. Beauregard Vineyards. Being curious, we stopped in. We happen to stop in to their case club pick-up party. We joined right in. They had some wonderful cheese spread. Goat cheese with carmelized onions on bread, some other nice selection of cheeses that went very will with their wines. I really liked their Chardonnay. It was nice with a buttery finish.

Here's the scoop...seems Bonny Doon had leased that area to Beauregard. They have now sold it to them. Bonny Doon will be moving their tasting room to the city of Santa Cruz by their corporate office and Beauregard Vineyards will be moving into the Bonny Doon tasting room.

California Trip

I sometimes wonder which way it's more difficult to travel. In the past when I went out west, I was shot at 10pm the day I arrived. I don't know if I should chalk it up to age, but I've learned to sleep on the flight which gives me renewed energy when I arrive.

I arrived in San Jose on Thursday evening. Diane picked me up and we went back to her place where we opened a Robert Sinsky 2oo1 Cab Franc. It was very good! If I remember correctly from when I visited the tasting room years back, it's an organic winery. The wine was fantastic!!

The next morning promptly at 10am we were off on our road trip to Reno. We were going to see our friend "Uncle Wally" who is the band manager for REO Speedwagon.

We had dinner in the hotel with a bottle of Herrera wine. Market value $120. It was fantastic!!!! Well worth the price.

More to follow on the rest of my trip. Yes I did get to a few wineries in CA. Hopefully Diane got to UPS today to mail me my wine.

California here I come

I am heading off to California in the morning. Going to visit some friends and take in some wine tasting. You can follow me on twitter to see what I'm up to. I'll be back on Tuesday to fill you all in.