Goodbye to summer

Here’s a paean to one of my favorite summer wines, and my last chance to drink it before it becomes all red wine all the time. (At the restaurant, actually, the shift has already started. It’s cool enough now for the customers to want red with dinner, and red wine sales have gone back up.)
It’s [...]

Classic roundup

It’s been a while but I wanted to do a post on the results of the New York Wine and Food Classic, which were resleased last week. As I posted when the results were resleased, the 2006 Bedell Cellars Musée won for best red wine in the state.
I have not tasted the 2006, but I [...]

Licorella powered

Ted Ryder, owner of the Huntington institution Seaholm Liquors, was in the restaurant last week with his wife and Charles and Ursula Massoud, owners of Paumanok Vineyards in Aquebogue.
Where Ted dines, one can be sure to find good wines. For the meal he brought a 2000 Mas Doix Costers de Vinyes Velles, a Priorat.
This wine, [...]

Gifts of rosé

The Frisky Oyster’s generous corkage policy is bringing in a range of wines for me to taste. This weekend I was able to sample the 2000 Carruades de Lafite, a second label from the Paulliac producer that focuses on merlot. (It was still ruby, young and juicy with that Paulliac austerity.) And some great wines [...]

Palmer Vineyards

I’ve been opening about two cases of wine per night for the past six days and, guess what, I wake up feeling like I have the arthritic hands of 70-year-old embroiderer. I’ve got to loosen my grip, or switch over entirely to screw cap. There’s another argument for alternative closures to cork.
Also, my schedule is [...]

High season

Last night was winery night at the The Frisky Oyster as sweetheart Joe Macari Sr. was in drinking his usual, the 2004 Macari Bergen Road; Miguel Martin, winemaker at Palmer Vineyards, was there and got my last bottle of 2005 Ferrer-Bobet Priorat (he went to school in Spain with either Ferrer or Bobet); David Page [...]

More pictures of color change

Merlot grapes at the dry-farmed Wells Road vineyard owned by Bedell Cellars.

Color changes

Veraison is well underway. At right is a picture of some beautiful syrah grapes on a three-year-old vine at Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue. Although they look near ripe, Donna says they’ll still hang for some more time. Young vines tend to go through veraison earlier than old vines.

Classic results are in

From the press release:
Swedish Hill Winery from the Finger Lakes won the coveted “Governor’s Cup” trophy at the 2008 New York Wine & Food Classic competition, held on August 19 & 20 at the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, NY. The “Winery of the Year” award also went to Swedish Hill Winery.

The elegant [...]

The 90 still matters

Although the evidence has been removed from its website, The Wine Spectator has evidently been stung by a writer who wished to find out how much effort and evaluation went into their awards of excellence for restaurant wine lists.
Robin Goldstein, author of the Fearless Critic restaurant guides, submitted for consideration the list of Osteria l’Intrepido, [...]