Money makers

Made a quick visit to Roanoke Vineyards Monday, and for sale in the tasting room were wreaths made from the discarded canes from different varieties. You could get a cab franc/merlot blend wreath for $5, or go for the straight cab franc. The woman in the tasting room said they were selling briskly, and the [...]

More budget woes

Gov. David Paterson’s budget for the 2009 fiscal year not only calls for selling wine in grocery stores, it is also proposes to cut all state  funding — $2.8 million worth — for the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, as reported by Rochester’s The Democrat and Chronicle. In addition, his budget calls for upping [...]

Wölffer expanding south, and …

According to a post on winespectator.com (subscription site) on James Molesworth’s blog, “A Stirring of the Lees,” Christian Wölffer is expanding his holdings to include vineyard land in Argentina. The goal is to make more money. Molesworth writes:
Wölffer, whose eponymous Long Island winery produces around 16,500 cases annually, makes no bones about his frustration with [...]

Pruning under way

A vineyard is  a year round occupation. Most vineyards here on the North Fork have already started pruning their vines. At right is my Billie sniffing her way through some of the discarded canes.
This vineyard uses double Guyot pruning, where the lateral canes are new every year and only the trunk gets thicker.
Other vineyards use [...]

Wine in supermarkets

Dr. Vino has already brought this up on his blog: Gov. David Paterson has included in his budget, which will then have to be approved by lawmakers, the revenue-enhancing idea allowing wine to be sold in supermarkets. In fact, this is something included in nearly every governor’s budget every year. Lawyers on behalf of Costco [...]

IWC website

The International Wine Center has been posting profiles of its recent diploma grads for two weeks on their website. And now it’s my turn. The lovely Stephanie McDade, communications specialist for IWC, sent me an e-mail to direct me to the site, which also has the group picture from the dinner. In the center is [...]

Same wine, same week

A nice coincidence happened last week when Michele Flournoy from the wine importer Domenico Valentino walked into the restaurant. The company is related to Vino wine shop on 27th Street and the restaurant across the street, Il Trulli.
What was that again? I just had dinner at Il Trulli on Monday night for the diploma dinner [...]

Disappointed!

Nothing like hype to get you hyped up.  It started with a bottle of 2001 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. In defiance of all the columns on affordable wines that mention Montepulciano as the go-to grape,  (yes, it’s a grape but more on that later) this bottle retails for more than $60. First  I had a [...]

Wait to buy Burgundy

Salesmen have been talking about this, but a report in telegraph.co.uk, talks of a release from the Burgundy wine board saying exports to English dove 23 percent in September.
Read and weep for the days gone by:
“For three years the climate in Britain was euphoric. Banks, the business world, high-class restaurants took everything [...]

NY Wine Grape Task Force Report

The North Fork’s own Kareem Massoud of Paumanok Vineyards was the chair of the November 2007-created task force charged with assesing and offering suggestions of how to improve the growing and sales climate ofthe New York State wine grape industry.
And they have just issued their report, available on the website of the State Department of [...]