By the Glass - Rosé Edition

Is there a simpler pleasure than a glass of good rosé in spring? Rosé is a wine of pure happiness - abundantly fragrant and ripe fruit is what it's all about. And when it's good, there is zippy acidity to balance the fruit, and perhaps even some mineral or other flavors too. If you're willing to spend $25 or more, the rosés of Bandol in Provence are among the world's finest, and I think they're worth every penny. I love drinking Bandol rosé, but I prefer to spend about $15 on everyday wine, and from what I've found so far this spring, there are some excellent rosés available at that price point. Here are the rosés I've had at home so far this spring, some great, some not as great:

2008 Commanderie de Peyrassol Côtes de Provence Rosé, $14, Rosenthal Imports. Fragrant with ripe berries and a hint of orange zest. The palate is crisp and balanced, and there is a lovely mineral component, something like wet steel. Delicious food friendly wine, at a great price. If I had to pick only one rosé for the rest of the summer, so far this would be my pick.

2008 Domaine de la Sauveuse Cuvée Carolle Côtes de Provence Rosé, $14, Imported by Vintage Trading Inc. 40% Syrah, 30% each Grenache and Cinsault. Sauveuse is quietly making excellent and inexpensive wines in the Côtes de Provence, and farming organically too. They are intense wines, packed with fruit, and somewhat oxidative in character. This lovely rosé is the essence of fresh strawberries, and with a bit of air it has enough glycerin to feel a bit viscous in texture. There is a slightly peppery, salt pork nuance that I assume comes from the Syrah. There is good acidity and that metallic tang I mentioned above.

2008 Shinn Estate Vineyards Rosé, $13.50. My favorite North Fork of Long Island producer and this is my favorite Shinn wine. This compares very favorably to the above wines in both quality and price. Made mostly of Merlot, although I do not know the exact blend. This wine shows beautiful clean fruit, great acidity, and an energetic lean texture. David Page and Barbara Shinn practice organic and in some plots biodynamic farming, and treat their vineyards as the living ecosystems that they are. My notes from a few years ago say that this wine is fermented entirely using indigenous yeasts. Really a lovely wine.

2006 Château Font du Broc Côtes de Provence Rosé, about $23, Imported by Meilleurs Vins de Provence. Disclaimer - I received this wine as a sample from the importer. 60% Mourvèdre, 20% Carignan, 15% Syrah, and 5% Grenache. Lovely strawberry fruit and I love the hint of animale on the nose - the influence of the Mourvèdre, no doubt. This is delicious wine, but it doesn't feel as fresh as it should, and that's probably because the acidity is not all that strong.

2008 Domaine des Deux Anes Vin de Table Le Rosé, $14, Jenny & François Selections. Mostly Carignan, although I do not know the blend. This is a strange wine, and in the end, I liked it. But BrooklynLady did not, and I suppose that it might provoke that kind of reaction at many dinner tables. This is not a passive wine that will go unnoticed as people talk and eat. At first it seemed too earthy, a little dirty almost, but it just needed time to flesh out. This is serious rosé, with blood orange and grapefruit, nice acidity and good texture. But the palate is a bit unusual (perhaps explaining the VdT status), with something like a Chinato flavor profile. Not for sipping - have this with lamb kabobs or grilled fish with a mess of herbs.

2007 Domaine du Deffends Côteaux Varois Rosé d'une Nuit, $20, Robert Chadderdon Selections. A blend of Grenache and Cinsault, don't know the exact proportions. Ripe fruit with a definite herbal undertone, a lovely nose. Good fruit on the palate, but without any real definition or snap, and in the end, not all that satisfying. Which is too bad, because this is supposed to be a great wine.

2008 Macari Rosé, $15. Disclaimer - I received this wine as a sample from the producer. Another wine from the north Fork of Long Island, another Merlot blend, but this one is not in the same class as the Shinn wine. This one smells like a chemistry set - the fruit seems artificial, it made us think of pop rocks. Same on the palate - too sweet in an artificial way.

NY Producers and Wine in Grocery Stores

In my last post about the Governor's proposal to allow grocery stores to sell wine, I didn't discuss New York wine producers. How will they fare if this legislation is enacted?

On the whole, NY wineries seem to support the proposal. There are about 21,500 grocery stores in New York State and about 2,500 liquor stores, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. That means an additional 19,000 potential customers. That's an exponential increase and could mean an explosion in revenues.

I don't know though...if I were a NY wine producer, of good wine anyway, I would not be so excited. I might even be a bit worried.

There is nothing in the legislation to ensure that grocery stores stock New York wine. In other words, the decision whether or not to purchase New York wine would be at the discretion of the grocery store, as it is at wine and liquor stores.

The model of sales at a grocery store is quite different from that at a wine and liquor store. Grocery stores do not use sales staff to advise customers. In a grocery store, the product must speak for itself and brand name and price (and location in the store, but that's another story) are of paramount importance. Customers faced with a wall of laundry detergent must make their own decisions about what to purchase. No one says to a clerk "I'm thinking about a detergent and I want it to be a good stain remover, but I don't have a lot to spend. What can you recommend to me?"

But that is precisely what happens in wine and liquor stores everywhere. Perhaps not so much for sales of Gallo, Yellow Tail, or other mass market wines with good brand recognition. But for wines that cost more than $15 or $20 a bottle, and for small production wines, many customers like to speak with sales staff before making buying decisions. This will not be possible in grocery stores unless the store hires an employee for this purpose. And by the way, the wine stores that can't do this kind of thing well are among the stores that are more likely to go out of business if the legislation is enacted.

Without such an employee (and even with one), New York wines are likely to get lost in the supermarket wall of wine. Why? Because New York wine does not yet have the brand recognition to sell itself. And because wines from California and the rest of the world have an established reputation for quality that New York wines do not yet have, but New York wine often costs the same amount or more than their counterparts from elsewhere.

The New York wine that sells for under $10 might compete with similarly priced wine at a grocery store. But I would guess that the higher end wine would not sell at a grocery store. Imagine a customer with no prior knowledge of New York wines - what must happen for that customer to decide to purchase an $18 or $26 bottle of Long Island Cabernet Franc? Sales staff would have to recommend the wine. Retail sales of high end New York wine might actually decline under the new legislation if the people who buy a $25 bottle of wine every now and then stop shopping and wine and liquor stores and start doing their wine shopping at grocery stores.

I received an email today from the marketers who represent the National Federation for Independent Business (NFIB). In their email they included a link to the wine list at a Wegmans (a large Rochester-based grocery chain) restaurant called Tastings. There are 110 wines on the list, four of them are New York wines. The NFIB claims that this is representative of what will happen at all of the large grocery stores under the new legislation.

But hey, that's just the way I see it, and what do I know. Wine producers seem thrilled about the proposal and wine and liquor stores are terrified. In fact, I heard from New York wine blogger Lenn Thompson that some retailers are exerting pressure of their own. Lenn told me that he has reliable sources who say that "In upstate New York, any wineries that show public support (for the proposal) are being unofficially boycotted by wine shop owners (meaning that wines are being pulled from shelves). It's getting ugly up there...but no one is talking on the record...which you'd expect."

Care to share your opinion? How do you think New York wine producers would fare if this proposal passes?

Should NY Grocery Stores Sell Wine?

New York, like most every state, is faced with a massive budget gap for fiscal year 2009/10. State spending will be cut, existing taxes will rise in some cases, and there will be new programs for raising revenue. According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, one of the revenue raising proposals put forth by New York Governor David Paterson is legislation that would allow supermarkets and grocery stores to sell wine.

The Governor claims this move will raise revenue because grocery stores that choose to sell wine will first be required to pay a "Franchise Fee," a fancy name for a license. It is estimated that under the new law, Franchise Fees would net $100 million for New York State in the next fiscal year. Paterson's office also claims that this move would lead to an increase in wine sales, generating further tax revenue.

Should New York State allow wine sales in grocery stores? This is a complicated issue, even without all of the various lobbying nonsense cluttering up the thought process.

Grocery stores and their representatives like to frame this as a customer service issue. As if it's concern for the customer, and not the significant new revenue stream that motivates the grocers. Just look at this quote from Jeanne Colleluori, a spokeswoman for Wegmans, a huge chain of grocery stores based in Rochester, NY:

We don't know the details of what he is proposing, but we love the idea. This is something we have been encouraging for decades now because we feel it would be a great service to the consumer.

Local wine shops and their lobbyists also seem to be willing to say anything to advance their argument. They like to threaten moral chaos, claiming that grocery stores could not reliably prevent minors from purchasing wine. Grocery stores already sell beer, and I assume that the typical minor would opt for beer over wine as the illegal alcoholic beverage of choice. And these are the same local wine and liquor stores that "unknowingly" sell booze to minors and knowingly sell booze to people whose rampant alcoholism forces their entire body to shake as they fork over $2.69 for a half-pint of Rotgut Vodka. Now, though, they are concerned about morals.

Maybe the best bit of nonsense is the actual revenue predictions themselves. Why would wine sales go up 20% if wine were sold in grocery stores? That argument assumes that demand for wine will be created as a result of this legislation, and the market already seems to show that wine sales are down. Perhaps grocery stores would see an increase in wine sales (where they currently have zero sales), but that surely would be balanced by a decrease in sales at local wine and liquor shops. Perhaps the Governor means that grocery stores would lower wine prices, thereby stimulating demand for wine, and resulting in a net increase in wine sales. Unless grocers can get discounts by buying in bulk from distributors, lower prices are unlikely. And even if they do get discounts, the Governor has quietly proposed an increase in the excise tax on wine from .18 cents to .51 cents per gallon. So before you get excited about paying $9 instead of $10 for Gallo Chardonnay, understand that you'll pay $9.33.

Let's cut through all the nonsense and take a real look at the issue. Maybe we can begin by listing a few things that I think of as basic truths:

1. The Governor needs to create revenue, and this is one way of doing so.

2. Wine and liquor store owners feel threatened by this proposal, as they fear it would take wine sales away, ultimately forcing them out of business.

3. Grocery stores love the proposal because it would allow them to open up a new and profitable business.

I think that the local wine and liquor shop owners have a legitimate argument. Local shops would lose sales to grocery stores, mostly in the low price, high volume, low profit margin wine category. There are people who entered the market as a wine shop owner with the understanding that they would not have to compete with large grocery stores. It's not fair to pull the rug out from under them now.

But I also think that separating the sale of food and wine is an artificial conceit. Why should a grocery store be allowed to sell chips, dip, and beer, but not wine or Gin? Why should a wine and liquor store be allowed to sell wine and Scotch, but not beer, cheese, or cured meats? Why should government ever enact laws that protect one type of business from healthy competition with other businesses? Well, there are times when protectionism might make sense, but American consumers are happier when those protections come in the form of tariffs against foreign producers of, say, steel, so that our own steel industry is advantaged. It's easy to understand why our government would try to protect American industries. Why would we favor one set of our businesses over another?

If New York decides to change the rules regarding wine sales, they should do so in a manner that removes all of the artificial barriers that currently govern grocery stores and small wine shops. Allow grocery stores to sell beer, wine, food, and spirits. Allow wine and liquor shops to sell beer, wine, food, beer, and spirits. If we're going to open the market, then let's really open it.

Local wine and liquor shops might have trouble competing with grocery stores under a truly open system, the way mom and pop coffee shops have trouble competing with Starbucks. But maybe that's not a bad thing. In fact, I think it is this competition that will in the end benefit consumers.

The only good thing in my mind about Starbucks is that it forces independent shops to compete, to provide better coffee, better bathrooms, innovative programs such as music recitals or other entertainment. Mom and pop coffee shops cannot compete with Starbucks on the cup of coffee alone. In the end, consumers have higher quality coffee shops to choose from.

Perhaps if Governor Paterson's legislation passes, the same thing would happen with wine shops in New York. There certainly are a lot of terrible wine shops offering crumby and poorly stored products sold by ignorant and/or indifferent sales staff. Under a truly open system, some of these stores would improve their products and service, others would not and would eventually close.

I think it's time to stop asking for artificial protections, time for everyone to step up their game. What do you think?

NY Wine Tasting: Some Thoughts

Brooklyn Uncorked is the annual showcase of Long Island wine and food that you should make a point of attending if you live in or near New York City. For about $50 you can sample almost every important wine that Long Island has to offer, meet and talk to the folks who make the wine, taste loads of interesting food, and mingle with the stars. Okay, no stars, unless you count Lenn or the location itself, BAM.

I am not on anyone's bandwagon, nor am I trying to get you to like what I like. So please don't misconceive what I'm about to say as part of the natural wine dogma. These are just my personal thoughts, that's it.

I had a problem with most of the reds I tasted. They were very polished, and dare I say - bland. When tasting Cabernet Franc (and Merlot, but I don't have enough context on that grape so I'm limiting this thought to Cab Franc), I found wines that smacked of vanilla and some sort of blackberry jam. Wines that if you removed the label, may not have been all that distinguishable from one another. Where is the soil? Where are the tannins, the grip? These are not high alcohol wines - most everything comes in at 13% or below. They are not overly sweet either. But it seemed to me that they had their soul, their uniqueness polished out of them, replaced with generically pleasing vanilla flavors.

Is this due to the industrial yeasts wine makers are using? Are these wines being manufactured to suit the broader tastes in the market? I would guess that they are, which is disappointing to me in that there is obvious potential out there to make delicious "real" wine that expresses Long Island terroir. Just look at Shinn or Wolffer, for example (although I have no idea whether or not Wolffer uses natural yeasts for their Cab Franc).

Again, this is not dogma, it's just my take on what I tasted. I think there are excellent red wines coming out of Long Island, but they are vastly outnumbered by wines whose real personalities have been veiled in vanilla and jammy blackberry. Just my .02 cents.

My favorites: Channing Daughters for whites. Located on the South Fork (where the Hamptons are, for those of you who are uncool enough to know), James Christopher Tracey is making interesting wines. The Chardonnays are quite good, but the wines that stopped me in my tracks were the blends. The 2007 Mosaico, for example, is a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Muscat, Gewurtztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc, and Friulano...but all from one specific vineyard site - the Sylvanus Vineyard on their estate in Bridgehampton. Everything is harvested together, pressed together, and fermented together. The wine is completely alive and delicious, and worth the $29 price. I also loved the 2006 Envelope, a fascinating wine with a rich nose of flowers and ripe stone fruit, like an Alsace wine. But on the palate the wine is bone dry and very mineral. James uses techniques that are common in Northern Italy, fermenting on skins in open top fermenters, and Slovenian Oak. It was my favorite wine of the tasting, but at $40, it doesn't come cheap. And I went back to the table later on and learned that they are fermenting with natural yeasts for many wines. Maybe just a coincidence...

Shinn Estate Vineyards and Wolffer Estate are the other producers whose wines I enjoyed pretty much the whole way through. Shinn's 2005 Estate Merlot is balanced and spicy, and just delicious. Enough to make you rethink Merlot. Shinn's 2007 Rosé is excellent, snappy and dry with good fruit and acidity. Didn't surprise me to learn that it was fermented using only natural yeasts. Wolffer's 2004 Cabernet Franc was, to my tastes, head and shoulders above the other Cab Francs. This one had real character, lots of mushroomy soil notes, hints of green vegetables, and plenty of ripe and perfumed fruit. But at $35, it's not a great bargain if your wine store also carries Loire Wines. I mean really - the utterly magnificent 2005 Filliatreau Saumur-Champigny Vieille Vignes costs $25. I have still not received a satisfactory explanation for the high prices on so many LI wines.

And here I will admit that I don't understand the fuss over Paumanok wines, even their famous Chenin Blanc. I went back several times to get another taste, and then again after an hour, and I just didn't get it. Everyone else loves it. See, this is one the most fun things about wine - we all have our own experiences, and they're all true.

Deetrane Invades Long Island's North Fork

My good friends Deetrane and his wife P-trane just celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary with a weekend in the North Fork of Long Island. Dee and P were happily surprised at how much they liked the wines. Deetrane still says to me each time I see him now "Do you realize that this is our own BACKYARD?!?" I'm pretty sure that he wants to go back. I know that he came home with at least two cases of wine. Anyway, the following is a bit about the weekend from Deetrane himself. He's a vastly entertaining fellow - don't hesitate to check out his older guest posts.

It's been a while since my last post, and the Brooklynguy has been hounding me to pound one out, so here I am. No, I'm sorry, I don't have any tales to tell about Russian wine-gangsters or the Schlitz-shchlurping NYPD vice squad. Rather, I have a lovely story to tell about an eye-opening visit to… The North Fork of Long Island.

For our 5th anniversary weekend, P-trane and I arrived by car from NYC and following Lenn's suggestion, checked into the Harvest Inn B&B in Peconic. It's a sprawling, 5 year-old replica of a big old farmhouse with wide plank pine floors, super high ceilings and lots of fireplaces. The owners, Darolyn and Chris, welcomed us with gusto and a chilled bottle of chardonnay.

Overall, I was astounded at the consistency and quality of the wines we tasted, which were those of The Lenz, Paumanok, Pellegrini, Peconic Bay and Borghese. These wines have a determinedly old-world feel, in which fruit plays heavily but not excessively, alcohol levels are on the low side (12-13%), and words like integration, balance and harmony come to mind. Given my partiality for Northern Italian, Spanish and Burgundy wines, I felt like I was being reunited with a long-lost relative. There was a certain familiarity combined with fascination of the new.

The high point of the weekend was a vigorous personal tour of the vineyards and winery at Peconic Bay by wine maker Greg Gove. Never has anyone – except maybe Maria de López de Heredia – been so generous and enthusiastic about delving so deeply into their craft with a complete stranger. The low point, such as it was, was probably the wine tasting on Saturday evening at the Harvest Inn. Owner and chef Chris, who just that morning had been a total teddy bear serving his delicious apple-cinnamon pancakes, became an utter tyrant while pouring a fabulous 2002 Peconic Bay Cabernet Sauvignon and an equally impressive 2005 Reisling. Imagine you are back in 4th grade gym class, and the teacher is warning you that you will be ejected from the class if you dribble that basketball before he is done lecturing on the physics of a jump shot. And you're thinking, "geez, I just wanna play ball." We were instructed not only when to drink, but how to swirl, how to hold the class, and what to think about while swallowing. Notwithstanding, the wine was superb and made us that much more excited for our private tour the following day.

We made culinary stops at The North Fork Table and Inn, and Jedediah Hawkins' Inn , which seem to occupy the top two restaurant slots by reputation. Both were memorable for their fresh, local ingredients, but despite raves from the press, locals, and our fellow guests at the inn, the only truly distinctive aspect of meals at those places was the honey-tasting we had for dessert at Jed's, consisting of four markedly different local honeys.

In fact, the best meal I had was at The Vine, a wine bar in Greenport run by investment banker turned sommelier Joe Watson. Either he was a really terrible banker or a really great one, both of which could explain his apparent retirement at the age of 32. I suspect it was the latter. The first thing I saw on the ample wines-by-the-glass list was a 1988 López de Heredia Vina Tondonia, which I instantly ordered for $20 because of the nostalgic pull from my honeymoon trip, previously described here in my last guest post. Imagine my shock and embarrassment when Joe revealed that he, too, had also gotten the tapas treatment by Maria when he was in Rioja! At least Joe didn't get to raid the library with the gnarly moldy vine-rope.

Bridge Urban Winery & Tasting Room

There is a winery located in Brooklyn. No kidding, there really is. They don't grow the grapes here, which I have to think is a good thing. They don't actually make the wine here either - they do that at a contract wine making facility in Mattituck, Long Island. But Bridge Urban Winery does have barrels and a steel tank and plans to make small lots of wine at their Brooklyn facility beginning in 2008.

Right now Bridge Winery is more of a wine bar, and it's a very good one. Owners Greg Sandor and Paul Wegimont have been in the Long Island wine world for some time now, and they've selected their favorites from the various New York wine regions to feature at the bar. In fact, it's only New York wine at this place. And since they're licensed as a winery, they can both serve wine and sell it retail. So you can pick up a bottle to bring home if you like what you taste.

Is it a stretch to serve only New York State wines at a wine bar? Definitely not. No one would say that these wines are all better than their counterparts from other places in the world. But they are interesting and well selected wines, and they're local. And a few of them are excellent by any standard. The wine geek will enjoy a visit to Bridge, and so will a couple on a date, or a group of friends out for the evening, whether or not they are wine people. It's just a nice place - plain and simple. I would happily take the BrooklynLady there on a date.

You can choose from at least 15 wines by the glass, and the most expensive will run you about $6. That's right - $6 gets you a glass of sparkling wine by The Lenz or Wolffer or Wiemer, amongst the finest examples of New York sparkling wine. Or a glass of 2001 Old Vines Cabernet or Merlot, also by The Lenz. And those are the most expensive glasses. More fun, I think, is to get a flight of wines, three tastes for about $12. Not tiny little tastes either, but generous pours (4 oz, I think). There are many things to order if you feel like grazing while drinking your wine, from cheese plates (local) to charcuterie (imported from Italy) to panini.

I stopped by early on a Thursday afternoon and Greg and Paul were almost done tasting a lineup of Peconic Bay wines with wine maker Greg Gove. I horned in on that action, and I have to tell you - the 2001 Merlot (a blend really, including 25% Cabernet Sauvignon) was just delicious and interesting and completely graceful. Not sure which wines Greg and Paul eventually decided were right for Bridge's tasting room, but I hope that's one of them.

After that I was treated to a tasting of Bridge Vineyards wines. My favorite was the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon, $19, with a great nose of slightly pruney cassis and loads of bright red currents. And since we're talking about Long Island, not California - this is 13% alcohol.

I really like this place - it's modern and it's got a great vibe, in a completely romantic setting a block away from the river in the shadows of the Williamsburg Bridge. And I like the owners Greg and Paul. They are passionate about local wine and food, but they're not dogmatic or preachy. They want you to enjoy yourself, and if you're interested, to learn something. If you live in NYC or if you're visiting and you're into wine, go hang out at Bridge for an evening - it's a sure thing, people.

Bridge Urban Winery & Tasting Room
20 Broadway
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718-384-2800

Local Lamb with Local Wine

One of my favorite cuts of lamb is the shank, the lower portion of a foreleg. Shanks are almost always braised, and I think represent one of the easiest, yet most impressive dishes you can cook at home. You can get all Middle Eastern if you want with cinnamon sticks, preserved lemons, and olives. But even simply prepared, with no spices other than salt and pepper, maybe a sprig of fresh rosemary, this is delicious comfort food that actually is not at all bad for you (shanks are mostly tough muscle and collagen after you trim the outer fat).

To cook lamb shanks you brown them, remove them from the pot, cook chopped onions and garlic, add an acid (wine or tomatoes work well), stock, the shanks back to the pot, and then cook slowly. That's the basics, the particulars are fun to play with on your own. One thing that I strongly recommend - buy local lamb if at all possible. It tastes fresher and better, more like lamb. And if the lamb is raised without antibiotics or hormones, using sustainable and humane practices...well you get to feel really good about what you eat too. I buy lamb from my farmers market, but when the market is out of season from January - March, my food coop carries lamb from Aberdeen Hill Farms in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. Completely affordable and rosy fleshed tender deliciousness.

Here is the lamb shank technique I recently tried, and it's the one best so far:

1. Trim 4 lamb shanks, leaving a thin outer layer of fat. Rub coarse salt all over the shanks 2 days before cooking. This helps to tenderize the meat. Using a pot you can put in the oven, heat canola or safflower oil to medium/high heat and brown the shanks all over, takes about 10 minutes. Remove them from the pot, pour out fat leaving about 2 tablespoons.

2. Lower the heat to medium and cook finely chopped onions until they're tender and kind of translucent, maybe another 10 minutes.

3. Add 3/4 cup of white wine. Scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to get up all of the browned bits. And yes - white wine. Use red if you like, but I prefer white because the lamb is rich and I want the richness to come from lamb. That's also why I like vegetable stock in this dish. I should have used a finger lakes white, but didn't have one. I used an old friend from Southwest France instead. Add 2 cups of heated but not boiling vegetable stock. Add one entire head of garlic that you cut in half, or add one large clove finely chopped. I like the whole head cut in half, an idea I got from Alice Waters' book The Art of Simple Food. Add a sprig of fresh rosemary, Add a couple of canned San Marzano plum tomatoes - two or three, chopped up. Add a few black peppercorns and one whole dried red chili pepper. Add the shanks back to the pot. The liquid should not completely cover the shanks - maybe two thirds of the way up.

4. Bring to a boil, skim off any scum, cover the pot and put in a 325 degree stove for about 90 minutes. Remove the lid of the pot, add two carrots cut into big pieces, and cook for another hour and half. Remove the shanks and the carrots from the pot. Puree the liquid without the rosemary sprig, but with the chili, peppercorns and garlic. Add salt as you like. That's it - you can eat the lamb right now, or better yet, re-heat it the next day. Braised meat almost always tastes better the next day.

BrooklynLady and I re-heated two of the shanks (you'll notice that we did not puree our braising liquid - blenders wake up babies late on a Sunday night) and ate them with an umami-driven dish of Fregola (Sardinian pasta) cooked with mushrooms and broccoli rabe. We decided to have a New York wine with our local lamb.

2002 Castello di Borghese Cabernet Franc Reserve, $32 from the winery. Borghese's vineyards on the North Fork of Long Island used to be owned by Louisa Hargrave, one of the true pioneers of Long Island wine. I got this bottle during a visit to the winery in summer of 2006. This wine was still very young, and really needed a little over two hours to show well. At first it was disjointed with lots of oak barrel and vanilla, alcohol heat, and pronounced drying tannins. But later on there were nice herbal and raspberry aromas, still some vanilla. The palate is more candied than I would like, but they are red berries nonetheless. There is good acidity and a pleasantly coarse tannic structure. This is perfectly good, but not at all inspiring wine. And at $32, a pass without a doubt.

I'm glad we opted to go local on the wine, and I want to love local Cabernet Franc. But there are so many that I prefer from the Loire Valley, and they are literally half the price. Yes - that's my palate and you might feel differently. I'm going to try some more local vino too, this time in the $15-20 range. If you're in the tri-state area and feel like drinking local wine but aren't sure what to get, check it out Lenn's website. It's a great source for New York wine recommendations.

A Vine Grows in...Staten Island !!!

Pretty soon there will be a 2 acre grape vineyard, and I assume a functioning winery, right here in New York City. See, don't make the mistake of thinking that it's all concrete, skyscrapers, and guys flipping you the bird here. We have loads of park space, marshland, greenery, and now we'll have a winery. They know that the grapes will be Italian, but beyond that they are not yet sure what they will grow. It gets pretty wet and cold in Staten Island...

Fine, so Staten Island is more like New Jersey than it is like NYC, and it has tried on various occasions to break away from NYC and become its own city. I don't hold that against them, do you?

The Staten Island Botanical Garden is a gorgeous place - The Chinese Scholar's Garden in particular is one of a kind on the east coast. And I'm talking about a 15 minute walk from the ferry terminal. I, for one, will be among the early visitors to this vineyard. Read the article.

By the Glass

I used to call this kind of post "Recent Sips," but I think I like this better. Anyway, here are a few interesting wines from the past month or so that did not get their own post:

BrooklynLady and I learned our lesson, and went to dinner last weekend on our date (no more cooking classes for now). We went to Rosewater, a neighborhood favorite. They believe in using local and sustainably raised foods whenever possible, and the food is generally delicious. Great atmosphere too - small and intimate with flattering lighting, a knowledgeable and friendly owner/host, interesting and satisfying dishes - this place is a winner. Worth coming to from Manhattan, or when visiting NYC. Just take a look at their wine list! Someone cares about this list, you can tell.

BrooklynLady enjoyed her Goose Island Nut Brown Ale from Chicago and I was really impressed with my glass of 2006 Castello di Borghese Sauvignon Blanc (about $20, available at the winery or at Vintage NYC). A relaxed nose with citrus and grassy wisps, and a well balanced palate that followed through on the nose, with a round and smooth texture. This was a great sipper, and it paired very well with our cheese pumpkin risotto appetizer. I bet this would have done well in our recent blind tasting.

I ordered "Rabbit Three Ways" as a main (roasted rack, lardo wrapped loin, confit of leg) - what to drink with this dish? I went with a Gamay from the Loire Valley, a glass of 2006 O. Lemasson Touraine Le P'tit Rouquin ($14 or so, available at stores that carry Dressner wines). This is a challenging wine - I tasted it once before and thought it needed food. The nose is dominated by dried leaves and funk at first. Aeration brings about the cool minty red cherry fruit, but this is a foresty, potting soily wine, and it did go very well with the ever-so-slightly gamey rabbit.

Whites

2006 Jean-Claude Thevenet Mâcon-Villages Pierreclos ($15, readily available). A little Wine Blogging Wednesday research, if you will. This regional wine was dominated by minerals, Minerals on the nose, on the palate, all over the place. It had an almost quinine character to it. Maybe with clams on the half shell, but difficult on its own, not lots of flesh in this one.

2005 Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Tuffeaux (about $23, Dressner stuff again, might be sold out at this point but there are other Chidaine wines on the shelf - try one). I know that some people find this wine to be lacking in acidity. But I really like it. Yes, it's a fleshy and off-dry monster, but it has pretty quince and hazelnut aromas, herbal and woolly complexity, and a great mouth feel. I think this is a great aperitif, or maybe with young and creamy goat cheeses.

2006 Domaine des Cassagnoles Vins de Pays de Cotes de Gascognes Reserve Selection (about $12, should be easy to find - a Peter Weygandt wine). I loved the "regular" version of this Southwest France gem, so tasting the reserve was a no-brainer. This wine is 100% Gros Manseng and its much fleshier and richer than the "regular" blend, with a more floral perfume. Very lovely indeed, although I think the "regular" wine might be more distinctive. At $12 this is a great value too - a $15 beauty without question.

Reds

2006 Domaine du Vissoux Beaujolais Pierre-Marie Chermette ($15, readily available). My first 06 non-Cru (is that a word?) Beaujolais. More stemmy and rustic than the very ripe and easy 05, needs about an hour to show its stuff. When it does, it is lovely red fruit with foresty undertones. Very nice, but not in the same league as the 05.

2002 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses (about $17, readily available). I love it when good producers hold back some of their wine and release it when it's a bit more mature. That's exactly what Raffault has done here. This is the top wine from that estate and 2002 was a good vintage in Chinon. If you come across this it's definitely worth a try. This is light to medium bodied wine with a complex nose of forest and fruit, with plenty of iron minerality. The palate is earthy and broad, with dark fruit and more minerals, maybe a bit of tobacco at the finish. It is graceful in texture and firmly structured at the same time. This could keep aging for sure, but it's fun to taste a high quality somewhat mature Chinon now...

Twelve at 12 Years Old: A Tasting of Mature Long Island Reds

Imagine this: a gorgeous late September Sunday afternoon in the bucolic North Fork of Long Island, verdant fields of fresh sod, roadside patches teeming with young families picking bright orange pumpkins, the weary afternoon sun's rays coming in at an oblique angle casting a warm golden glow on everything. One of those stunning afternoons that reminds you how good it is just to be alive.

The back roads of Pernand-Vergelesses? Cruising the hilly outback in the Willamette Valley, Oregon? Nope. This was the scene last Sunday when I went to the North Fork to meet Lenn and five other good people to taste a case of mature Long Island reds.

You probably know already that Lenn is a true believer in Long Island wine. He has encouraged many a wine lover to explore the wines, understanding that Long Island has its own style - this is cool climate wine, not jammy-ripe and big, not typical new world wine at all, in fact. Lenn can tell you about the producers who make wine that truly reflects climate and terroir, he can tell you about experiments planting Chenin Blanc and other grapes new to the region, and he can tell you how Long Island wines improve each year as wine makers hone their craft. This guys lives and loves New York wine!

So when some people claim that Long Island's Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Bordeaux-style blends are not built to improve with serious aging, well, that really perturbs him. Lenn decided to put together a tasting of 12 year old wines from the 1995 vintage. He brought together a group of people who love wine, and who with the exception of myself, work in the Long Island wine industry. How would these wines hold up? What brand of pleasure would they offer?

They held up beautifully, and offered complex and varied pleasures, I am happy to report. Complex secondary aromas and flavors had emerged, and we had lots to talk about and enjoy.

Tasters included Joe Watson, owner of Vine, the wine bar and cafe in Greenport, Chris Watkins, Director of Operations at Roanoke Vineyards, Tracy Ellen Kamens and Jared Skolnick of Grand Cru Classes, Lenn, and myself. We gathered at the renovated former goat cheese farm that houses the Grand Cru Classes tasting room in Mattituck.

Let me begin by telling you how utterly impressed I was with the way Tracy and Jared set up the tasting. Completely professional and totally comfortable. I had my own "place mat" with 12 numbered circles, one for each stem. There was plenty of water and bread, and I had my own little spittoon. If their wine classes are anywhere near as great as the way they host a tasting, it will be quite difficult to get a reservation.

Okay, now about those wines. They were very much alive, with broad and interesting flavors, sometimes delicious, sometimes lacking a bit of body, but in general, vibrant and alive. At about 13% alcohol or lower, they brought food to mind, from venison, to salmon, to tapas, to steak. And a sense of place? I definitely got it. There was a lingering menthol/eucalyptus/herbal quality that remained in the mouth and the nose long after swallowing many of these wines. And a spicy character in the initial aromas.

Chris Watkins said that Long Island is less about opulent fruit and more about spice, and I understood what he meant tasting the wines. He also explained that 1995 should have been a tremendous vintage in Long Island, with perfect weather, but back then people didn't let the grapes hang as long as they do now, they didn't make the most of it. That might explain the lean nature of some of a few of the wines.

First we tasted one Pinot and one Cabernet Franc, both by Hargrave, the founding winery in Long Island. Louisa Hargrave sold the vineyards a while ago and now Castello di Borghese makes wine from vines. Then we blind tasted three Cabernet Sauvignons, three blends, and four Merlots. Nice!

The Pinot was a welcome surprise. There was obvious bricking in the color and not just at the rims, bricking at the core of the wine. The nose was quite alive though, with wispy hints of stewed cherries, caramel, and dried figs. The palate was just lovely, with more cooked cherries, some minty notes and nice pomegranate acidity at the finish. All of the tannins had melted away and the wine was silky and fine. I wanted to steal away with this bottle, tuck into a plate of lean venison with dried cherry compote and enjoy it all evening long, all by myself. Sigh, not to be.

The Cabernet Franc was not as impressive, but I liked it a lot, probably more than anyone else at the table. I enjoyed the mediciney character of the nose and palate, and the hints of leather and dried flowers.

Our first Cabernet turned out to be from The Lenz, one of the standard bearers on the Fork. This wine, like almost all that followed, had a youthful appearance with no signs of bricking. The nose was minty with some dried rose petals, very inviting. The palate was dark and plummy with mushrooms, leather, and earth. Still kind of tannic - maybe it could continue to improve? It was my personal favorite of the three Cabs, but some folks preferred one of the other wines - they were all vivid and interesting.

Pellegrini produced the second Cabernet, and it was quite a dark and young looking purple. The nose was cocoa, plum, and leather, with palate staining dark fruit and that wintergreen finish. The third Cab was a Paumanok. Also dark purple to the core. I wasn't getting much on the nose, and I found the palate to be a bit green, maybe the fruit was not fully ripe. Others found interesting flavors in this wine, though, which just goes to show that wine is not like math where this is one correct answer.

There was one wine from our blended flight (although technically, wines labeled "Cabernet Sauvignon" or "Merlot" may contain up to 25% juice from other grape, so some of the Cabs were probably blends) that stood out for me. It was my favorite wine of the tasting, the Pinot aside. This was the Pellegrini Encore. A youthful ruby color and a rich and inviting nose that balanced high toned fruit, dark cassis, and fresh herbs. The palate was simply classic Bordeaux-blend, with juicy dark fruit, cedar, caramel, an herbal quality, and some lingering raspberry on the finish. The wine was clean and pure, and felt great in my mouth. How happy was I when at the end of the tasting, I got to take this one home? Very happy. It was beautiful the next evening too, by the way, with roast pork chops, fried green tomatoes, and a salad with farmer's cheese dressing.

The Jamesport blend had a nose of cocoa and cassis, and a fresh tasting palate of plums, tobacco, some cocoa, and something floral underneath it all. Bedell Cellars Cupola blend was the darkest wine of the flight, with an earthy and floral nose. The palate was pretty grippy, I thought, with nice dark fruit and spices, and something like an aspirin/powdery feeling on the tip of the tongue.

By the time we got to our flight of four Merlots, we had been at it for over three hours, and our palates were probably were not as sharp as they might have been. Also, Lenn was completely drunk by this point, which was kind of surprising. Usually he spits, but whattaya gonna do?

The Merlots as a group stood apart from the other wines to me in their aroma profiles. These wines were about smoke and tar, chocolate and spice. I was really impressed. I had no cler favorite, but I very much enjoyed the Wolffer Estate (our only South Fork wine) Merlot. It had a bit of bricking in the otherwise dark purple color, with a nose of spices, cocoa, vanilla, and some flowers. The palate was dark plum, still sappy, some cedar, and the flavors that carried through from the nose. Nicely balanced with firm tannins, a slight bitterness on the finish. Maybe a tiny bit hollow somewhere in the mid-palate, but I really liked this wine.

I also liked the Bedell Cellars Reserve Merlot, a wine that to me was quite different from the others. It was a more translucent ruby with hints of orange at the rims, and a nose of nutmeg, smoke, and bloody meat. The palate was clean red fruit with more meat. It reminded me of some grenache-based wines from the southern Rhone. It was very drinkable with good balance.

Jamesport's Churchill Merlot was also nice, with black tea aromas to go with the tar and smoke on the nose, and cocoa and leather on the palate. This wine had a somewhat lighter body. The Lenz Merlot had hints of orange at the rims and powerful brett on the nose, also some orange peel and eucalyptus. The palate was spicy with chocolate, plums, and grainy tannins.

And I was of course kidding about Lenn being drunk. He's a consummate professional who would never do such a thing at a tasting.

This was a wonderful event, with knowledgeable and great people, and truly fascinating old wines that offered lots of pleasure. Thanks to Lenn for setting this up and inviting me, and to Tracy and Jared for hosting. I want to do it again next weekend...

Overheard on AM Radio

I love baseball, and as any true baseball lover, I naturally listen to the Yankees on the radio. Late in the game between the Yanks and the Seattle Mariners last night (Yanks win 10-2), sandwiched in between ads (that's short for advertisement, for those of you not in the business) for Foxwoods Casino and Wendy's, I heard an ad for Palmer Vineyards on the North Fork of Long Island.

The following is a re-creation, not an exact quote, but the content is accurate (read in radio announcer's deep sing-song voice):

"...come taste our award winning wines while enjoying our beautiful setting on Long Island's North Fork. Plenty of games and activities for the kids, and we provide designated drivers. So come to Palmer Vineyards..."

I laughed out loud. Maybe they don't actually plan on ensuring that all of the visiting adults drink enough wine so as not to be able to operate a moving vehicle. But then again, it was a late inning radio ad on the Yankee game. Maybe they think that audience wants to gulp the wine, not just taste it. Who knows what they meant, but it was funny at first, and then I couldn't help but mentally file away Palmer wines (without ever having tasted one, in my recollection) as plonk for the swilling designated driver set.

Not Palmer's intention, I bet. And before you say "well you're not their target audience Brooklynguy," with that smug smile on your face, you're wrong! I am their target audience. I listen to the Yanks on the radio, I like playing poker, I don't eat at Wendy's but I do love a good burger, and I'm a 25-45 year old male married with a kid who drinks wine. And most importantly, like 96% of us (all statistics made up, yet true) who were listening last night and who are curious about wine...I am not flattered by the assumption that I must actually get drunk to enjoy a wine experience.

C'mon Palmer, let's see if you can convince me to spend my money and time on your wine NOW. Maybe if you offered one of your designated drivers to take me to a designated wine shop and then if that driver also acted as the designated funder of my bottle, I would consider it.

That was supposed to be a joke, I am not angry at Palmer. Really, I just think it was a silly ad. The wine market is growing here in New York, and in general, and the wine industry should not make the mistake of underestimating us as consumers. Sure, a small few of us are wine gulpers who will get drunk at a tasting room, but why would you target them in your ads anyway?

Recent Sips - June 2007

I kept meaning to write posts about some of the interesting wine I tasted in June, but I kept getting derailed. Here are some notes on wines that did not get their own post:

Burgundy

2005 Jean Manciat Macon Charnay Vieille Vignes, $21 (Chambers Street Wines).
I loved this wine back in March at the real Wine Attack Tasting. I asked about the wine but was told that it would not be imported. But then, all of the sudden, there it is on the shelves and at an enticing $21. An incredible value, I would assert. The new oak is very obvious right now, not overwhelming at all, but obvious. So is the baby fat on the very ripe fruit. Delicious now, this wine will be such a star with a few years of age, when everything integrates. Right now there are lively and fresh aromas of citrus and pure water, some minerals, some tropical oak smells. Clean and balanced, with citrus, mineral, and stone fruit flavors, and some tropical flavors from the oak. Good acidity. I opened this too early - the wine was best after an hour open. I will look forward to cracking open the other bottles in a few years.

2005 Lafouge Auxey-Duresses 1er Cru Les Duresses, $28 (Chambers Street Wines).
I finally got around to tasting the 2004 version of this wine, really liked it, and boom - we're on to 2005 already. I am so glad to report, however, that this is just awesome, and at under $30 a bottle, you're crazy if you don't grab a few of them. I've been recommending this wine to my friends who are looking to get into the 05 Burgundy game without breaking the bank. Of Lafouge's three 1er Cru Auxeys, this is supposedly the one for drinking young. Maybe so, but I found this to improve tremendously after an hour plus open, and then overnight. At its best it had lovely floral and cherry aromas with complex undertones of leaves and earth. Very light and elegant, yet assertive and potent with great acidity. A balanced and interesting wine that will be lots of fun to share over the next few years.

Rhone Valley

2003 Domaine Pierre Usseglio Chateauneuf-du-Pape, $40 (Chambers Street Wines).
I'm a fish out of water in the Rhone Valley. I try but I just don't get it. I find the wines hard to sip on their own, and I only think of pairing them with the heaviest of foods. Maybe that's because the alcohol levels tend to be high, or maybe because of the intense nature of the wines, with tar, meat and roasted flavors. This wine did not bring me closer to a Rhone epiphany. Deetrane and Mike really liked it, but I found it heavy and very roasted, especially at first. The nose eventually showed some nice raspberries and dusty earth, and there was a pleasant mingling of raspberry liquor and meaty flavors. I could appreciate this as interesting, but not particularly enjoyable to me for drinking.

2005 Domaine Monpertuis Cote du Rhone Vignoble de la Ramiere, $14 (Chambers Street Wines). This wine, like the above CDP, is mostly Grenache (90% in this case). Monpertuis is a reputed producer making reasonably priced CDP. I tasted the 2001 Monpertuis CDP a few months ago and enjoyed it, but not as much as this wine. It is clearly a style thing, because any southern Rhone lover would find that insane, and me a Rhone ignoramus, I imagine. But I liked this wine because it was drinkable - clear raspberry red color, almost a hint of fuchsia. Yes, there is roasted meat, herbs, and blood on the nose, but the texture and flavor of the wine is much lighter than the CDP. I could roll the wine around in my mouth and enjoy it, it was pure tasting and full of fresh fruit, with fine grained tannins. We sipped it while making dinner, and then enjoyed it very much with our turkey burgers.

Oregon

2002 St Innocent Pinot Noir Seven Springs Vineyard, $25 (secondary market).

I hope that this wine is going through a dumb phase, because it was most restrained and reserved. Revealing almost nothing on the nose – some dark cherry and spice, but that’s after 45 minutes and enough swirling to make a dervish dizzy. Completely closed on the palate too, although the texture was nice. On the St Innocent website wine maker Mark Vlossak says “Maybe the best wine I have ever made. Drink some now and age some for 12-15 years,” and he wrote that on January 1st 2006. So my “now” might be a year into a dumb phase. Or the wine might be disappointing. Or the guy I bought it from might have abused it. Time will tell, as I have enough of this in the cellar to water your lawn.

2004 St Innocent Pinot Noir Temperance Hill, $25 (Winery).
This is one of St Innocents less expensive (but they are all reasonably priced) early drinking Pinots, and I have always enjoyed it. I drank my three bottles of this wine last summer, but Deetrane is more patient than I. He opened this the other day at a BBQ and boy was it fantastic. Everyone at the table loved it, and this was a table cluttered with several pricey big-name wines. Light and lively on the nose with clean red fruit and earth, and bursting with red cherries on the palate, some nice pine and herbal characteristics on the finish. Impressive balance and texture. An excellent Pinot, and I defy you to find a better quality American Pinot at the $25 price point. C’mon, I double dare you.

New York

2002 Castello di Borghese Cabernet Franc Reserve, $32 (winery).

I liked this wine enough to buy a couple bottles last August when BrooklynLady and I visited the North Fork. I know I should wait, but when we made delicious herbed local lamb skewers earlier this month, it just seemed like a good time to give this local wine a go. I really liked it again! Very different style, to my palate, from the Loire Cabernet Francs I usually drink. This wine is bright garnet red and translucent, with dark fruit, flowers, and cedar on the nose. When I get cedar on the nose I think of Bordeaux blends, and Cab Franc is certainly a part of that. Maybe the producer was going for that style? In any case, the wine was just delicious, medium bodied with pure and clean plummy and blackberry flavors, and undertones of that same pleasant cedar. The earthy leathery funkiness that is usually there in a Loire red wine was absent here. An interesting and highly enjoyable departure from my usual Cab Franc habits. Hard to make a habit of it at $32 a pop, but certainly a yummy and distinctive wine.

Brooklyn Uncorked: A Tasting of Long Island Wines

I'm already a believer in Long Island wine. Multiple mini-tastings at Vintage NY, a bottle here and there at home, and a visit to the North Fork last summer convinced me of the high quality of many Long Island wines, and of the potential of the region in general. So Brooklyn Uncorked, a tasting of Long Island wines featuring at least 25 producers, was not some sort of test for me to decide whether or not I like Long Island wines. I already like them.

Here is what I like about them:

• The reds tend to be somewhat "old-world" in style - they offer complexity and balance that can be elusive among new world wines made with the big three Bordeaux grapes. They typically clock in between 12-13.5% alcohol. They are not "fruit bombs." They are Long Island wines, the producers are not using grapes grown in Long Island to make California style wine.


• They grow and make good Cabernet Franc. Lenn says some of the wines are in the Loire style. If by "Loire style" he means delicious, I agree. If by "Loire style" he means similar in terms of typical aroma and flavor profiles, or in terms of texture - the general feeling of the wine, I am not so sure I agree. I have found Long Island Cab Francs to be very good in general, in their own dark, thick, fruity way. Not in the peppery and animal-earthy, mineral, medium bodied translucent style of many a good Chinon or Bourgueil. If I had to compare Long Island Cab Franc to Loire Wine, I would say that the more extracted wines of Saumur-Champigny are the most similar in style.


• The producers I have met have, to a person, been friendly, inviting, eager to discuss their wines and other wines from Long Island, and incredibly open about how they make their wine. In other words, I find Long Island to be a user-friendly place to drink and to learn about wine.


• It's local - drink and eat local as often as we can, right?

I don't like everything about Long Island wines, though. My big issue right now is quality to price ratio (QPR). A good bottle of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, or Chardonnay from Long Island usually costs the same as a better bottle of wine from elsewhere. Yes, there are exceptions. A very tasty bottle of Loire Cab Franc from a good producer can cost about $15. That same producer's top bottle might cost about $25. That being the case, it's kind of hard for me to justify buying Long Island Cab Franc for $35.

So, back to Brooklyn Uncorked. A great opportunity for me to taste a load of Long Island wine in one sitting (standing, and walking actually). I was excited to move beyond Cabernet Franc, to explore other wines from the region, particularly the whites. I started out by following Lenn around, took his guided tour of Long Island whites, tasting many a Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. I was very impressed with several of the un-oaked Chards that I tasted, some were priced really well too. I learned, though, that I am not a fan of the Long Island style of Sauvignon Blanc, which based on the wines I sampled at this tasting, is super pungeant, o'er brimming with cat pee aromas. I prefer a more subtle style.

I did not taste every wine that was offered - I ran out of time. I may have missed some great stuff. Three producers that I did not taste, much to my regret, are the reds of Castello di Borghese (I was really impressed in their tasting room last summer), Wolffer Estate (loved the bottle I had at Home restaurant recently, and Schneider Vineyards (supposedly very good Cabernet Franc), which for some reason, was not present at this event.

Here are some notes on the wines. "5"s are my favorite wines of the tasting, a"1" is a wine that I just didn't like. "3" is a wine that I would not necessarily seek out to buy for my cellar, but I would gladly drink anytime.

My "5"s:

2006 Channing Daughters Scuttlehole Chardonnay, $15. Un-oaked, crisp, fresh fruit, good acidity. The best value white of the tasting, in my opinion. Maybe the best white of the tasting, period.

2004 Shinn Estate Vineyards Cabernet Franc, $38. Excellent wine. Spicy, ripe with juicy fruit, great balancing acidity, a sense of soil. If you’re a Bordeaux-hound then this is a steal at $38. Check it out. If you are a Loire-head, then you can do better for your dough.

2001 The Lenz Estate Selection Merlot, $22. now here it is, a beautiful red wine from Long Island with an attractive price, representing great QPR. I will admit that I loved the 2000 vintage of this wine, so I might be a bit biased. Blind Long Island red tasting anyone? Earthy nose of dark fruit. Silky and smooth but well structured, flavors of dark plums, dusty earth, some herbs. Sign me up!

My "4"s:

2005 Lieb Pinot Blanc, $19. Nice floral aromas, fresh peach and citrus flavors, medium bodied and fleshy.

2004 Paumanok Barrel Fermented Chardonnay, $19. My favorite oaked Chard of the tasting. Fresh melon aromas, a hint of wood maybe, but not at all overwhelming, well balanced.

2005 Waters Crest Private Reserve Chardonnay, $25. This sees some oak also. Well balanced with nice tropical and floral aromas. Good fruit and nice acidity.

2003 Scarola Vineyards Chardonnay, $13. A lovely steel tank Chard, with bright fruit flavors and good acidity. Not offering quite the same pelasure as the Channing daughters wine in my opinion, but quite good, and at $13 it's sort of hard to argue.

2004 Shinn Estate Vineyards Estate Merlot, $25. This bad-boy has almost 20% Cabernet Franc in the blend. Maybe that accounts for the lovely floral aromas? Also tobacco and earth on the nose. A firm mouthfeel, with nice red and dark fruit on the palate, and an interesting mineral finish. I liked this wine very much.

NV Shinn Estate Vineyards Red, $15. This is Shinn's non vintage, basic red wine, and it's surprisingly delicious. At 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, you might think it would be a hearty wine, but I found it, in an odd way, to remind me almost of a Cru Beaujolais. Somewhat because the fruit flavors were bright and light red, but more so because of the moutfeel - gentle and easy with not much evidence of tannin. I bet it would be great with a slight chill in the summer.

2002 Scarola Merlot, $??. The second wine I really enjoyed from this winery that was previously unknown to me. Leather and dust on the nose, some dark berries. Complex palate of black fruit, spices, and more leather. They really brought out the animal in this wine

My "3"s:

2006 Paumanok Semi-dry Riesling, $22. A lovely surprise, the only Riesling I tasted. At 10% alcohol with plenty of residual sugar, approaching a German Kabinett style. Drinking very well now (the wine maker said that this will not age as well as a German wine), vibrant stone fruit, some flowers.

2005 Channing Daughters Enfant Sauvage Chardonnay, $35. Made with local yeasts, spends time in new oak. Lots of banana and tropical fruit on the nose, a bit flabby still. Will this balance itself out?

2006 Channing Daughters Pinot Grigio, $18. Pinot Grigio from Long Island...who knew? This one is more in the Italian style (no surprise, given the name), as opposed to the Alsace style that Oregon, the major new world Pinot Gris player, has adopted. Fresh and lively, nice citrus flavors, nothing complex, but very pleasant. Yes, this wine is more expensive than the superior Scuttlehole Chardonnay...life is strange.

2006 Waters Crest Chardonnay, $18. Great nose of fresh ripe fruit, some mineral. The palate does not quite live up to the nose right now, but tasty.

2005 Waters Crest Nightwatch, $45 (375ml). The only dessert wine I tasted. This one is a blend of Chardonnay, Riesling, and Gewurtztraminer, I believe. A lovely full gold color with orange hints, and a wonderful nose of ripe peaches and other stone fruits, ripe pineapple underneath, some floral notes too. Just a great nose. The palate to me, though, was not focused, a little flabby. The wine was quite viscous with an aloe-like sensation. I definitely liked this wine, but at $45 for a half, it's just too easy to do better in the dessert wine world.

2006 Shinn Estate Vineyards First Fruit Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon, $23. The blend with Semillon (4%) and that this wine sees oak seems to indicate that Shinn is going for a white Bordeaux style wine. Nice nose of citrus and some flowers, crisp and fresh fruit flavors.

2004 The Lenz Old Vines Merlot, $??. Fruity nose, bright raspberry and some dark fruit flavors, a bit tannic. Yummy. Did I make a mistake on the vintage here - shouldn't this be 2001 or 2002?

2003 The Lenz Merlot, $15. Spicy nose of dark fruit, leathery dark plums on the palate. This is their basic Merlot and it's pretty darn good.

2005 Corey Creek Cabernet Franc, $30. Nice floral nose, smooth red fruit palate, very pleasant, if not all htat complex. Steep pricetag though.

2004 Waters Crest Cabernet Franc, $??. Spends a year in oak. Funky earth aromas, some flowers. Sweet red fruit, very grippy - too young for me to really tell what's going on here.

2004 Waters Crest CR, $??. CR stands for Campania Reserve, Campagnia as in the Italian region known for red wine made from Aglianico and white from Falanghina. This wine is 80% Merlot, so I'm not sure that I understand the name, but whatever...The wine had nice dark fruit aromas, and a very grippy mouthfeel - probably a little too young to drink, but very tasty fruit.

2003 Roanoke Vineyards De Rosa Red Table Wine, $30. Lots 'o leather on the nose, earthy palate with dark fruit character. Nice wine, not a great value though.

2004 Shinn Estate Vineyards Nine Barrels Reserve Merlot, $43. Good fruit on the nose, incredibly tighly wound palate. I honestly couldn't assess this wine because it isn't ready for drinking, in my opinion, but as Shinn wines were clearly my favorite of the tasting, I figure this should get the benefit of the doubt...stiff pricetag though so you're really keeping your fingers crossed that this wine will grow up to be beautiful.

My "2"s:

I will not go into specifics, actually, because I don't feel like disparaging the wines from my local region based upon only one tasting. Instead I will just mention a two things that irked me: $30 for The Lenz Sparkling Wine? C'mon, I can buy a fantastic small grower Champagne for that, or a lovely NV Perrier-Jouet. And the wine was just no good, in my opinion. Nice enough nose, but a strange and flat palate. And secondly, did I mention that I did not care for any of the Sauvignon Blancs that I tasted, except for the Shinn blend?

Okay, that's it. thanks for comin' out tonight, folks.

Brooklyn Uncorked is Next Week

Consider this your reminder - next Wednesday May 16th you will, for the reasonable price of $30, have the opportunity to taste a load of Long Island wine. Come on down to Brooklyn uncorked! That's right, Shinn, Castello di Borghese, Paumanok, The Lenz, Macari, Wolffer, Palmer, and many others will be pouring their wines at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) from 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM.

New York is making great wine these days, Long Island in particular. This is a great opportunity to sample some excellent local wines, to meet fellow wine lovers, and to support local business. If you're in the area, you really should just get your &%#* together and come on down - no excuses.

Some of your favorite NYC area bloggers will be there too, if meeting people who write about wine in cyberspace turns you on...

Blind Tasting: Bordeaux Varietals Part 2

In a world...where all wine is served blind from paper bags...four friends are about to embark on a journey...that will change their lives forever.

If you re-read the above nonsense in your best movie-preview-guy voice, it sounds better. So maybe it wasn't quite that dramatic, but we had a lot of fun with the Bordeaux varietal blind tasting. We lost a few people, as it was the first truly cold night of winter in Brooklyn, and things just come up some times. So it was only Deetrane, Mike, BrooklynLady, and I who tasted 6 wines blind, made notes, and ranked them in the order of preference.

We didn't tell each other anything about the wines we brought - no one knew the full lineup of wines until after the bags came off. I had so much fun smelling and tasting the differences in these wines, grouping them by color or by aroma. It's silly to make generalizations because the wines were from all place, and from many vintages. Yet I noticed that many of the wines had an herbal minty-ness in the aromatic profile. In fact, I enjoyed the aromatics very much, more than the flavors in most cases.

We assigned five points for a 1st place vote, three points for 2nd place, and one point for 3rd. Here are the results of the voting:

First Place - 2003 Roxy Ann Winery Claret, Rogue Valley, Oregon $25: two 1st place votes, 1 2nd place vote = 13 points. A blend of 47% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 19% Cabernet Franc. This wine comes from south west Oregon. I have enjoyed this wine on many occasions, yet I was a little surprised that it won the tasting. My notes: Dark garnet color. Interesting nose of candied cherries and mint, some chocolate too. Silky velvet in the mouth, sweet fruit with nice acidity on the finish. Makes me think of chocolate cake. I put this wine in 2nd place.

Second Place - 2001 Sterling Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Napa Valley $68: one 1st place vote, one 2nd place vote, one 3rd place vote = 9 points. A blend of about 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot. This is an expensive wine, and I was curious to see how it would compare to the others. My notes: Herbs on the nose, expressive palate of eucalyptus and cassis, a little cedar on the finish. I liked this wine and picked it 3rd.

Third place - 2000 Jason's Vineyard Meritage, North Fork, Long Island, $13: one 1st place vote, one second place vote = 8 points. I really liked this wine when I tasted it a few weeks back, and I knew then that I would enter it into this tasting. My notes: lighter red than the others, more translucent. Huge nose of wild animal fur, some mint. Silky mouthfeel, complex flavors of cassis, cherries, and earth. The more I sipped and smelled, the more I liked it. I had this wine as my top wine of the tasting. And at 13 clams per bottle - you gotta be kidding me! Order it online if you have to (and if you like gamey Bordeaux style wine). I wonder...what would Lenn say about this wine?

Fourth place- 2001 Bodegas Caro (Barons de Rothschild / Catena), Mendoza, Argentina, $33: three 3rd place votes = 3 points. A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Malbec, this wine is made in collaboration with Barons de Rothschild Lafite. My notes: dark purple, reserved nose of olives and dark fruit. Simple palate of dark fruit, with an interesting high toned finish of herbs. I found this to be an interesting wine, but I didn't like it enough to want bottles of my own.

Fifth place - 2004 Baron Philippe de Rothschild Mouton Cadet, Bordeaux, $7: one 2nd place vote = 3 points. The 3rd wine of Baron Philippe de Rothschild. My notes: Odd nose of candied orange peel, some mint. Reserved palate. Not my favorite, slightly bitter. For 7 bucks it's hard to complain, I guess, and I hear that as recently as 2003, this wine was really quite good.

Sixth place - 2003 Siverado Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, $34: no votes. This wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, and it is a 94 pointer in Wine Spadvocator. Mike suggested that the wine might simply need more time in the bottle. It was very reserved, and started to open up more after a while, but it never really took off for me. My notes: Dark purple. Reserved nose of dark fruit. Sweet sap , some black fruit flavor. Simple.

Dinner at Home

No, not at my home this time, but at the restaurant called Home in Manhattan's West Village. Opened by David Page and Barbara Shinn in 1993, this place functions as an example of their food, wine, and environmental philosophy: local, sustainable, delicious.

These people do not just pay lip service to buzzwords like "organic," and "locally grown." They thoughtfully put them into practice at their restaurant and their winery, Shinn Estate Vineyards in Long Island's North Fork. You probably know by now that Lenn Thompson is a great resource for learning about Long Island wines. He recently posted a link to his interview with David Page on his blog Lenndevours, where you can read in more detail about Page's and Shinn's philosophy and practice. This is not crystal wearing hippie stuff - this is an intelligent way to approach the problem of interacting healthily with the earth while growing food and making wine, acting responsibly. This is something that we all could be thinking about, and here is a great example of how.

Anyway...how was the restaurant? BrooklynLady and I went with our friends NorthCarolinaGuy and Gal last week. One visit does not make or break a place, but this was a pretty good start. We had no reservation and when the host lead us to a table outside in the backyard, I was worried about the temperature. Normally I wouldn't care but BrooklynLady is almost 8 months pregnant and I didn't want her to be uncomfortable. As soon as I mentioned this the host whisked us inside to a table that he said had been reserved by other people. Fair or unfair, we felt cared for before we even got a menu, and this is good.

If you used the link above to look at the menus, you know that Home serves local fish, meat, and fowl, and offers only New York wines, with a bottle or two from Massachusetts and Virginia thrown in for good measure. I had a glass of 2004 Castello di Borghese Dry Riesling while we perused the menu. I had this wine last summer and loved it, but this time I found it to be a little sweeter than I wanted. It had nice green apple aromas, and sweet apple and citrus flavors. But the sweetness was not balanced with enough of a mineral feeling, enough acidity.

Maybe I liked it less this time because I watched the waiter pour me the dregs of an open bottle, about a half a glass, and then top that off with wine from a newly opened bottle. I understand that restaurants don't throw out wine, but I think that you shouldn't mix bottles of wine like that - its just bad form. And if you do, make sure that the customer does not see you doing it.

I started with a special appetizer salad of watercress with shreds of duck confit, shitake mushrooms, and pickled red onions. Delicious! Earthy, salty, vinegary, and peppery flavors in harmony. NorthcarolinaGuy had this too and when we were done our plates looked like they had been through the dishwasher. BrooklynLady's macaroni and cheese appetizer was also yummy, real comfort food. Home is known for this dish, apparently. Crusty on top, some herbs, some oven roasted tomatoes, plenty of rich melted local cheddar...how can you argue with that?

I did not taste NorthCarolinaGal's entree of cinnamon cured duck breast, but it sure smelled and looked beautiful. She said it was very good (and her plate was clean when she was done). I liked my spice crusted pork chop very much, although there wasn't much spice to it, mostly crust. Don't get me wrong - it tasted great and had a nice texture, but I couldn't taste individual spices. Had it not been called "spice crusted" I might have thought it was some sort of bread crumb mixture. It was served raw in the middle like a steak, which as local pork, I can live with. Ask for it well done if you don't eat raw pork. BrooklynLady and NorthcarolinaGuy both ordered roast hen, which was simple and tasty with its own juices, some herbs, and turnips and other winter vegetables.

I did a strange thing when ordering wine with dinner. Why did I not order Shinn Estate wine? I have no excuse, really. Their Merlot wine is well known as one of the North Fork's best wines. Eric Asimov has mentioned it several times, it generally gets excellent reviews. The 2004 Shinn Estate was sitting their on the wine list, but I felt like I should try something else. We loved the wine we got, but I wonder if the best way to experience Home is to include Shinn Estate wines in your meal...next time.

We had the 2002 Macari Reserve Merlot, $42 (restaurant price). This wine was deep dark inky purple and smelled of chocolate and spices when first poured. It got a little muskier and plummier with air time. Flavors mirrored the smells - dark fruit, some spice, a little bit of barnyard and musk - a real winter kind of wine. It was powerful but also light on its feet, not at all overpowering. And at a reasonable 13.5% alcohol, it went well with food. I have to say - I continue to be impressed with Long Island wines, particularly reds made with Bordeaux varietals.

Desserts were excellent. Butterscotch pudding (when was the last time you had that?) was creamy and indulgent, and chocolate banana bread pudding was a fiesta of warm banana-chocolate bready goodness. We had a scoop of home made Calvados ice cream too because it sounded to good to be true, but was great. Espressos arrived before dessert which was like the glass of Riesling issue, a sloppy and easily avoidable mistake. Not to be too picky, but hey - you pay more than $100 for two people at places like this and its fair to expect them to get it right.

All in all, I would definitely recommend Home based on my first visit. It's not the best restaurant in the West Village, but it's not trying to be. It serves local food prepared simply and deliciously with excellent local wine. It does so in a lovely and log-cabin-elegant setting, and at reasonable prices. I will return for sure, and next time I will order Shinn Estate wine!

WBW 27 - Icewine

And now we continue the experiment that Lenn of Lenndevours began in 2004 - what happens when a bunch of bloggers form a tasting community once a month, sharing their experiences with a certain type of wine? So far, fun, "meeting" new folks and checking out their blogs, learning, and in my case, tasting wine I have never tried.

The Kitchen Chick is our host this month and she loves Icewine! I had never tasted a real ice wine (make sure to check out Kitchen Chick's great link that explains Icewine in detail), so I was pretty psyched to participate. And Kitchen Chick lives in or spends a lot or time in Ann Arbor, which is my college town, so I ahave an affinity for her even though we've never met...

First thing I learned is that Ice Wine is expensive! I’ve had my eyes open for the past few weeks and I saw nothing under about $30 for 375ml, and many of those were made from grapes frozen after they were picked. Dessert wine is costly in general, yes, but when sampling a new type of wine there are usually lower priced versions to begin with, for example, there are $12 half bottles of Sauternes or Barsac that allow the taster to decide whether or not to continue trying that type of wine.

I found only "freezer frozen" Ice Wines at entry level prices, and I just can’t bring myself to purchase 375ml of wine I have never tasted for $40. So I instead visited Vintage New York, a wine store that allows you to taste 5 wines for $10. They currently offer two real Ice Wines, and another wine that is Ice Wine style, all from the Finger Lakes region of New York. The dude pouring the wines agreed to help me to taste them blind so I could experience them without bias.

My notes:

Wine #1 - Honey gold color, lighter thatn the others. Appealing and mouth watering ripe pineapple smells. First impression on the palate is of vibrant acidity. Bright citrus fruit with some tropical notes of pineapple, and oddly, some cedar. A lingering finish of sweet pineapple. I liked this wine very much. I wanted to eat creme brulee with it.

Wine #2 - Golden caramel color with some orange hues. Completely different nose compares to wine #1 - no pineapple. Smells of flowers, orange peel, some vanilla, and rainwater. Great acidity, well balanced, thicker texture than wine #1, with floral and citrus flavors. This wine was powerfully flavored and textured, but somehow more delicate than the first wine. My favorite wine in the tasting. I wanted to eat a second creme brulee, possibly a pineapple creme brulee.

Wine #3 - Golden orange color. Nothing at all on the nose - I could not get anything even with vigorous swirling (tossing and flipping almost). Sweet dried fig flavors that are almost cloying and the thickest texture of the three wines. My least preferred of the three (and I guessed it was the only one that was opened right before my tasting - the others were opened the previous day).

Here are the wines:

Wine #1 - 2005 Hunt Country Vidal Ice Wine 375 ml, $40 (opened before the tasting)
Wine #2 - 2005 Casa Larga Fiori Delle Stelle Vidal Ice Wine 375 ml, $40
Wine #3 - 2004 Standing Stone Vidal Ice Wine 375ml, $27 (the "fake" Icewine)

I guess there is something to letting the grapes freeze on the vines. The Standing Stone wine is well regarded too, but it just didn't compare with the other two. Thanks again to Kitchen Chick for inspiring me to try these interesting wines, and go blue!