As I sit here writing this column, the sun is shining out over my messy backyard — our two dogs and our two kids have left it a mud pit — and the window is open for the first time. Spring has been slow to arrive, but it’s here and I’m definitely ready for it.
This time of year is a real sweet spot on the calendar: when it’s starting to get warmer, but before Memorial Day when the East End traffic ramps up and spending a day on the North Fork becomes a bit more laborious.
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As someone who writes about not only New York wine but also wine grown up and down the Eastern Seaboard — and even the Midwest — I’ve been thinking a lot about diversity lately.
Diversity takes many forms in the wine world. You have the grapes themselves, of course, and not just different varieties like merlot or chardonnay. There are different clones within each variety as well. Maybe we’ll talk clones in detail in an upcoming column, but you can think of a clone as a version of a grape variety that has specific characteristics. (more…)
By the time this column is published, we’ll already be well into January, but my gym is still flooded with lose-weight resolutioners, so I think it’s still OK for me to write about some drink-related resolutions I’ve set for myself for 2019. (more…)
Inside Premium Wine Group in Mattituck. (Credit: Katharine Schroeder)
The pumpkin-picking throngs have subsided. The turkey and stuffing have been eaten (a lot of it, in my case) with some really good wines and we’re squarely in Peconic Bay scallop season. It’s a good time of year — and a good time to check in on this year’s red wine grape harvest. (more…)
Bedell Vineyard (Credit: W Studios NY)
Every fall I find myself wanting to write a harvest column to share what I’ve heard from grape growers and winemakers about the grape-growing season. Often there is a lot of “spin” involved — no matter how bad the season, wineries still need to sell the resulting wine, so they don’t want to paint too dire a picture. I also think that winemakers are generally hopeful people. They have to be in a region like this one! (more…)
The grape harvest is upon us. In fact, all of the grapes intended for sparkling wine are in already. So are many of the white wine grapes. Reds will start coming in, too, but right now everyone is hoping for a string of warm, dry days to get a bit more development, a bit more ripeness.
Look for a harvest report soon. This week’s column isn’t about the grape harvest, but rather about harvest season. (more…)
A view from Koenig Vineyards in Marsing, Idaho last fall. (Credit: Linda Paul/Flickr)
There are a lot of regions in the United States that have been anointed “the next big thing.” Long Island is on that list, of course. I’ve seen it said about the Finger Lakes and northern Michigan, too. And Idaho.
Yes, Idaho. It’s not all potatoes and trout streams, after all. (more…)