Category Archives: New York

May 13, 2013 · 9:44 pm

Mother’s Day, Gruner and Riesling

Mother's Day 2013

A happy Mother’s day to my sister and my mother, both interested in imbibing along with me through the years, one way in which we bond at every occasion.

I spent yesterday with my mother, buying her lilacs and chatting about life. One of our favorite topics over the last 15 years has been wine. She started me down this path when I was still in high school truth to be told. She drank Lancers and Mateus at the time while I drank Riunite in the 1980s before I was legally allowed to drink.

Both of our tastes have evolved and Mom drinks lots of white wines while I tend to favor red wines. In fact, I can credit her with bringing much of the Gruner and Riesling from Austria that I have had in recent years into my purview. I will be blogging about Austrian wines very shortly but today I wanted to send a shout out to my Mamma and thank her for keeping these wines on my radar.

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December 19, 2012 · 10:14 pm

Wine of the Week: Les Cepages Baron Philippe de Rothschild At Metropolitan Museum of Art

Met Christmas Tree

One of the truly great places to be at Christmas, if not skiing somewhere exciting, sunning somewhere warm or sailing in the Caribbean, is New York City. The city is festooned with beautiful Christmas lights and alive with wonderful Christmas shows. I love Christmas and all that it brings, including for me, a trip to the Metropolitan Museum to see the Christmas tree and its’ Neapolitan Presepio.

The Bernini show I saw was truly fabulous and gave me a real feeling of being in Rome among his gorgeous fountains which adorn every major square and his incredible sculptures which grace the interior of almost every major church.

There is actually a street in Naples where the “Maestri” of the presepio have their shops, the Via San Gregorio Armeno, otherwise known as the Via dei Presepi. When I lived in Milan I had a good friend from Naples who made his own presepio every year complete with water and electricity. It was very impressive.

Presepio

One of my favorite places to have a drink in New York City is the bar in the hallways above the great hall at the Met. Years ago I wrote an article on the restaurants in American Museums but the bar at the Met is still my favorite. The wines are passable, the nibbles are too but the location truly can’t be beat. This year I tried a new wine on their list, Les Cepages from Baron Philippe de Rothschild.

It was cheery and nicely paired with the food on the list which this month is American fare to coincide with a show on Andy Warhol. At a retail outlet, I believe it sells for between $8-$15, a nice price for a wine to bring to a party.

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Filed under Campania, France, Holidays, Italian Art, Italian regions, New York

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Aside

New World Wines: Fall Season Brings Leaf Viewing, Wine Tasting In New York State

New York has been good to me this summer and I want to return the favor, going out of my comfort zone and trying some wines that I had previously snubbed from the Hudson Valley. One summer I rented a house in New Paltz because I like to hike and I visited a number of the wineries around the town. I wrote about those experiences here. Since that time, I have had few Hudson Valley wines except for at a tasting in New York City. Lucky for me, I have been to the Hudson Valley a number of times this year.

One winery I hadn’t visited on my other trips was the Brotherhood Winery, one of the oldest in the region. This time around, with a friend we tried a variety of their wines. The merlot was actually pretty good but their biggest sales come from their sweeter wines, I believe. I am not partial to that style of wines but I always marvel at the marketing efforts of our wineries in the US. Brotherhood had everything: tours, tastings, clothes and objects to sell, a restaurant, a banquet hall and of course, 20 + wines. In short, an industry of sorts. While I don’t always love that, I do appreciate the skill and planning it takes to keep it going. Interesting, Brotherhood is owned by a Chilean concern. In fact the banquet hall reminded me of the one at Viu Manent in Chile

I like to go upstate at least once or twice in the fall for hiking and to see the leaves. Nowhere are the leaves more beautiful than in the Northeast. Arezzo and the Apennines comes in a distant second but it is beautiful there as well. I will be in Arezzo in a few weeks so hopefully, the leaves will still be on the trees. One reason I went to college in the Northeast was that I was seduced by the fall. I love the fall because of harvest, pumpkins, the color of the sky, and the harvest moon, among other reasons.

What my college town didn’t have though was a good pizzeria. That is always a serious problem if you are a pizza fan such as I am. Over the weekend though, I found the perfect spot for pizza in upstate New York, Prima Pizza. This was pizza the old-fashioned Italian-American way, just the way I like it when I am in the US.

Not too doughy, not too much crust but just enough of everything to be balanced. This place has been run by the same owner for the past 25 years and in the same family for 60 years. I was happy to find it and to see that such places still exist.Oddly enough, they also deliver pizza overnight anywhere in the US. Apparently they have a system that allows them to ship it “fresh.” Not a cheap option, I guess I might consider it if I lived in a place where I couldn’t ever get a good pizza. Luckily that isn’t the case at the moment but if it comes to pass, I will know whom to call.

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October 24, 2012 · 3:13 am
May 31, 2012 · 11:56 pm

World Science Festival, Oscar del Vino and Emilia Romagna

It’s hard to believe it is the end of the month already. Summer’s here, the World Science Festival is back in town and troubling news of earthquakes has been coming from Italy all week. For those who don’t know me, I wear many hats and sometimes they converge, sometimes they do not.

Image

This week, my worlds are converging around science. I have been working for about five years for a client called the International Balzan Foundation. I work for them under my other company, Gold Communications. Thanks to the Balzan Foundation, I have developed a fascination with science and scientists. That’s why I am always so excited when the World Science Festival comes to town. This week’s line up is most impressive. In fact, almost everything is sold out including a great discussion held at Eataly about ancient brews. I wish I could go but it was sold out early on.

I also love the science behind studying wine. When I studied for the sommelier certificate at AIS in Milan, I was thrilled with learning about all the chemistry behind winemaking. I still think this is largely ignored in most English language programs and I think it is something that should be added to the curriculum.

I noticed on the AIS website that this week was the setting for the Oscar del Vino by Bibenda. Bibenda was just recently translated into English and is available via Amazon for those who want to purchase a copy. This year’s Miglior Vino Spumante went to three producers from Franciacorta, including the Non Dosato Gualberto 2005 from  Ricci Curbastro. Riccardo Ricci Curbastro is a lovely and bright guy, a great font of information on Franciacorta. His wines are brought in by Domenico Valentino.

These last few weeks were also the scene of horrible earthquakes in Emilia Romagna. My heart goes out to those whose loved ones were affected first and foremost but I also hate seeing the physical destruction of Italian landmarks. I studied in Emilia Romagna, at SAIS in Bologna, so I feel a particular kinship to this region. I know  producers of Parmigiano Reggiano were impacted. I haven’t heard of any devastation of wineries and wines. My friend, Dave Buchanan at Wine Openers wrote a nice ode to Drei Dona, a famed winery in the area. I had the pleasure of meeting a number of producers from Emilia Romagna when I was translating for them last year with a well-known wine magazine during Vinitaly.

Emilia Romagna is often overlooked but I think that is a real mistake. They have lovely wines, including great Sangiovese and Pignoletto to recommend as well as some interesting passito made from Albana and other wines made from grapes such as Bonarda and Lambrusco.

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Filed under emilia romagna, Italian indigenous Grape Varieties, Italian regions, Italian wineries, italy, New York, Wine Industry, wines

November 10, 2011 · 12:15 am

Wine Wednesday: Older Bordeaux Wines

Today is Wine Wednesday and I’m finally thinking about and desire to write about wine rather than the Italian crises. I got an email from Snooth this morning which mentioned a new website for Bordeaux.

A friend from Bordeaux was in town recently and as always I was reminded how charming the French and their wines can be. After so many years focusing on Italy, I sometimes feel that I am cheating on her when I write about my love of things French, even though France came first in my life.

About two months ago, I had the pleasure of attending a tasting hosted by Gregory Del Piaz of Old Bordeaux. Greg brought a number of wines from his cellar and a group of us tasted and compared views of the wines.

We tried wines from Chateau Meyney, Chateau Cos d’Estournel, and Chateau Lynch Bages. The vintages we tasted, although not of each wine, were 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1990.

I normally don’t drink aged Bordeaux sadly but that day did give me a clear profile of this group of wines. Of the vintages we tasted from Chateau Meyney, the 1989 impressed me more than the 1988 and the 1990.

The 1989 Chateau Meyney from St-Estèphe was still deep ruby red in color with persistent chocolate, meaty, earthy and cedar notes. It was harmonious and balanced with some black fruit. It tasted and smelled like a classic older Bordeaux I was told by the Bordeaux experts in the room.

The 1988 offered fewer nuanced aromas and flavors and the 1990 had a somewhat bitter finish and newer oak.The 1990 also has a liquored note while the 1988 had traces of Brett. I am not opposed to Brett but it is not a must for me either in terms of the tasting profile of these wines.

For more information on the estate, here’s a great write up I found on the Wine Doctor.

The second grouping that we tasted was a 1986 Chateau Lynch Bages, a 1986 Chateau Cos d’Estournel and the 1989 Chateau Cos d’Estournel. This grouping blew me away.

Lynch Bages is in Pauillac while Cos d’Estournel hails from St-Estèphe. They have different blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and other Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot for the most part). We compared a 1989 Cos with a 1986 Cos and a 1986 Lynch Bages. All three were spectacular. The 1986 Lynch Bages was my favorite of the three. It had ‘nothing to prove” one of my companion tasters noted. It was spectacular with a deep ruby red color, great acidity and alcohol, firm tannins, fruit, chocolate, leather, spice, you name it. It was exquisite. We also discussed whether the wine was about to go into it’s closed period,something wines do during their lives and concluded that it might go into a quiet phase soon although on that September night it was incredible.

The 1986 Cos also was fabulous in fact in my notes I wrote, “I’m happy” while tasting that wine. It was more luscious and floral, with exciting fruit notes and wonderful balance. It made me crave a steak then and there but I just ate an entire box of crackers.

When I compared the 1989 Cos to the 1989 Meyney, the Meyney won out surprising. I liked the traditional old world Bordeaux style of the Meyney more than the fuller Cos.

In all, it was a great tasting with interesting people and was very educational for my palate. Thank you Greg for allowing me to participate.

I didn’t get any pictures of the tasting group but our phones were out in force. Modern living :) .

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August 8, 2011 · 11:08 pm

Happenings: Rocky Start To Week, Looking Locally For A Smile

I don’t know about you but today’s plunge of 634.76 points of the Dow Jones Industrial Average kind of took my breath away. Not that it was unexpected but it still is a jolt when you see the Dow fall below previous resistance levels.

On Friday, I wrote about Italy’s debt problems but that was before S&P downgraded US debt from AAA to AA+. Surely there are jitters on the market that will be calmed in the coming week but it was a rough start for a Monday, for all I think.

Economists will tell you that while many people are on vacation in August, the market almost always has important news that sends investors into a tailspin this month. This year will be no different it seems.

Italy and Spain are basically closed for the month but with the lingering debt crisis in the European Union, even their leaders are still working this year. That is a first, at least in my memory except for the 1992 crisis.

What to do, I ask myself, stay calm and don’t get panicked. Drink wine and think local. That said, there’s a great site on local New York wines that you should check out, New York Cork Report. They have lots of information on local New York wineries.

If you live in Manhattan as I do, some of the closest vineyards to visit this summer are those on the North Fork of Long Island or in the Hudson Valley. Looking on Local Wine Events, I noticed that Lieb Cellars is having an event that looks interesting this coming weekend. I’m not sure I’ll make it but if you get there, fill me in.

Warwick Valley Winery in the Hudson Valley always has fun events too. I’ve seen Dylan bands there as well as Shakespeare plays outdoors, all enjoyable. Thinking about these events distracts me from my worries about the economy which is a good thing.

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July 5, 2011 · 8:29 pm

July 4 Festivities & The End Of The First Vintage of My Super Teaneck Wines

Almost five years ago, I made my first vintage of a Super-Teaneck. I was so excited when I made the wine, pressing my own grapes adding selected yeast, racking it, refining it in oak and storing it, hoping for a miracle. Over the years, I have opened bottles here and there with mixed results. This weekend as part of a larger celebration, I decided to check on my handiwork. I must say, everytime I try my own wine – made with a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon – I have renewed respect for winemakers. Sadly as with so many things, the idea of my wine is better than the realty. In fact, yesterday, I decided to get rid of all the remaining bottles.

I will try again this fall, perhaps with white wine. We shall see. I like getting my hands dirty and understanding all of the processes of making wine first hand as opposed to reading or writing about it. I must say, I also have a new desire for better storage conditions for all of my wine and especially that which I make. It didn’t ruin the holiday though.

Check out these photos of the Hudson River in all it’s glory.

I love the Hudson. I think it’s one of the world’s great rivers.

I did get to see the fireworks last night in very good company.

I’m suffering from that sindrome da rientro probelm after the holidays. I’m sure I am not alone.

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June 2, 2011 · 4:18 pm

Italian Indigenous Varieties: La Festa della Repubblica & “UNA”

Today is the “Festa della Repubblica” or Italy’s national holiday celebrating the creation of the Italian republic. This year is a special anniversary year, it is the 150th anniversary of the republic’s birth. All year long, the 150th anniversary has been celebrated in a variety of ways.

In fact, Eataly owner and entrepreneur Oscar Farinetti is celebrating by arriving on his sailboat in New York after a trans-Atlantic crossing with world class sailor Giovanni Soldini. The ship docked earlier today at the Chelsea piers. The initiative was more than just an Atlantic crossing with friends. The voyage called the “Seven Moves for Italy” also had a political bent. I wrote about the trip during Vinitaly 2011.

Veronafiere and Vinitaly celebrated the 150th anniversary by creating special bottles of wine that can be seen in the picture above. Ettore Riello, the President of Veronafiere, decided to create two bottles – one red and one white- with 20 indigenous Italian varieties each. He got the idea after speaking with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano last year at Vinitaly. The two bottles were beautifully made with a very long history and many significant references both in terms of the font used on the label – Bodoni, the creation of the bottle by a famous designer – Aldo Cibic and the packaging of the entire project.

Most exciting for me though is the blend. To make the “White wine of Italy,” a representative selection of wines made from autochthonous varieties harvested in 2009 were used. None of the wines were aged in oak.

To make the “Red Wine of Italy,” wines that were produced during the years 2005 to 2009, some of which were aged in wood were used.

I was lucky enough to taste these wines during a celebratory luncheon in March when President Giorgio Napolitano was in town. Riello and Giovanni Mantovani, CEO of Veroanfiere, presented Napolitano with the first bottles of the wines. The wines are given out to Ambassadors and dignitaries from around the world. Only 3400 cases of two bottles have been made.

The luncheon was held to celebrate the President’s trip to New York, the 150th anniversary of Italy, and the Italian and Italian-American community. The wine were served at a small apertivo before the lunch. I was serving them so I got to taste them. It was a moment that made me very proud and I was of course, wearing my distintivo or my pin from AIS

The wines were surprisingly good. The white wine was very minerally and absolutely ready to drink. It could also be kept for a few years thanks to great acidity. The red was not yet ready to drink but was also very pleasing.

The white is a blend of Priè blanc (Valle d’Aosta), Cortese (Piedmont)
Vermentino (Liguria), Trebbiano di Lugana (Lombardia), Garganega (Veneto),
Weissburgunder (Trentino-Alto Adige),Friulano (Friuli Venezia Giulia),
Pignoletto (Emilia Romagna), Vernaccia di San Gimignano (Tuscany),
Grechetto (Umbria),Malvasia (Lazio), Verdicchio (Le Marche), Trebbiano (Abruzzo),
Falanghina (Molise),Fiano (Campania), Fiano (Apulia),Greco (Basilicata)
Greco bianco (Calabria), Grillo (Sicily), and Vermentino (Sardinia).

The red is a blend of Petit rouge (Valle d’Aosta),Barbera (Piedmont),
Rossese di Dolceacqua (Liguria),Croatina (Lombardia),
Raboso (Veneto),Teroldego (Trentino-Alto Adige), Refosco dal peduncolo rosso (Friuli Venezia Giulia), Sangiovese (Emilia Romagna),
Sangiovese (Tuscany),Sagrantino (Umbria),Cesanese di Affile (Lazio),
Lacrima (Le Marche),Montepulciano (Abruzzo),
Tintilia (Molise),Negroamaro (Apulia),Aglianico (Campania),
Aglianico del Vulture (Basilicata),Gaglioppo (Calabria),
Nero d’Avola (Sicily),and Carignano (Sardinia).

The “UNA” bottles come with a beautiful little book with citations by many famed Italians and the national anthem at the end. My favorite quote is “L’Italia e fatto,tutto e’ a posto,” Camillo Benso conte de Cavour.

Auguri!

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May 19, 2011 · 10:04 pm

LinkedIn IPO – Someone’s Popping Corks Today

Today is indigenous grape Thursday I know but I thought I would deviate and mention today’s IPO of LinkedIn, the popular networking site for professionals. It was up 109% from its listing price. No mean feat. I am sure they are enjoying some sparkling wine toasts with French Champagne, Italian Franciacorta, Prosecco or Spumante or maybe some Spanish Cava.

I had a nice little bottle of Asti last night actually to celebrate a family event. My aunt Clara was a huge Asti Spumante fan all her life. I wear a beautiful ring that she gave to my mother so perhaps it is channeling me to drink Asti. I’m not alone though, Asti which is made from the Moscato grape, is doing an amazing business thanks to the growth of the Moscato market.

Getting back to the IPO, I started my career as a financial journalist and still follow politics and economics quite assiduously. In fact, I am currently in shock about Dominique Strauss-Kahn like many other people I know.

On another note, I myself have had a LinkedIn issue this week and sadly it wasn’t about my stock almost doubling. My email mistakenly contacted everyone who has ever been in my yahoo email account so, I apologize if I have sent you a second request on LinkedIn and we are already connected or any other version of that. It has created a number of uncomfortable moments this week but hey, my numbers are skyrocketing and I have some great new contacts.

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May 10, 2011 · 11:31 pm

Largest BYOB Party Ever, James Beard Awards, Kevin Zraly

Last night the James Beard Awards were held in New York City. Many of the wine and food luminaries were of course in attendance, those getting awards and those merely watching the festivities. I really like this article in The Atlantic about the Awards.

For those of us who were not invited or prize winners, one had to celebrate in other ways. Luckily, my friend Eric Orange of Local Wine Events invited me to Kevin Zraly’s after party which was billed as the largest BYOB party.

I am not sure how many people where there but it seemed like a rockin’ crowd to me. I saw many of the wine world luminaries I know and some I do not. Kevin won the Lifetime Achievement award for his work in the field. Hats off to him. I have sat in on many of his classes and enjoy his enthusiasm and warmth, verve and energy when teaching. Many of his former colleagues from Windows on The World were in attendance which was very touching.

Hudson Chatham Baco Noir

Everyone brought a wine to the event. I tasted a number of wines including some that I had never tried such as a Baco Noir from the Hudson-Chatham Winery. I was favorably surprised.

I also tried Merican, a Bordeaux blend made by Eric Miller of Chaddsford Winery in Pennsylvania. I had heard about Chaddsford from my Society of Wine Educators friend Mark for a few years now but had never tried their wines. I was impressed.

Chaddsford Winery

Apparently, Eric and Kevin go back 40 years to early days at the Depuy Canal House in the Hudson Valley. Many of Kevin’s old friends were in attendance and it was touching all around.

Amarone
The best wine of the evening that I tried was a 1960 Bertani. It was so alive and still filled with fruit and spice, acidity and finesse. This 50 year old wine was drinking beautifully. Tomorrow I hope to write about my experiences at the Bertani home in Verona during Vinitaly. Quite memorable but for today just a congratulations to Kevin Zraly and other winners.

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