Today’s post is about a couple of great wines I received as samples as part of one of the blogging groups I write with called #WinePW. The essence of the event is to pair food and wine together. These two lovely rieslings showed up at my door and brought immense pleasure to my household and lift to my dinners over the course of a few days.

I paired them with broiled Salmon, Grilled Chicken, and even an Asparagus Frittata. They paired beautifully thanks to the bright acidity, structure and hint of RS in the wines.

Lakewood Vineyards is a family affair run by the Stamp family on Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region. The Stamps moved to  Lakewood Farm in 1951. For the first few decades they grew grapes for other large wineries and juice companies but in 1988,  Monty and Beverly Stamp and their children made their own…

Today’s wine of the week and Wine Wednesday post is dedicated to Domaine Drouhin Oregon wine, Laurene. I tasted this extraordinary Pinot Noir at the New York Wine Experience in October, held by the Wine Spectator. While I had been in Oregon for the first time last summer, I did not get to visit this particular vineyard in the Dundee Hills.

The wine was beautiful with bright red fruit, a spicy, forest undertone, and a long layered finish with waves of tertiary aromas and flavors. Elegant and complex yet not overpowering, this is a perfect wine to grace any Thanksgiving table. The wine is named for the winemaker Véronique Drouhin’s oldest daughter, Laurène.

Made from hand harvested, estate fruit, the wine ferments on its native yeasts and is placed into barrels. Of course, they use French oak but only 20% of it is new oak. The wine is a…

Today I was lucky enough to visit five wineries on Cayuga lake, one of the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. I’ve always shied away from tasting hybrid grapes and those made with the Vitis Labrusca vines but today I decided to throw those preconceived notions out the window and just taste what is grown locally. I found a number of wines that interested me among the many that we tasted.

The wine above was from Knapp. The winery has been active for 35 years. Apparently they are home to some of the oldest red varieties grown on the Cayuga Wine Trail.

I tried their Vignoles and their Niagara. The Niagara was very grapey and would be nice with a fruit dessert. According to the Speciality Produce website, “Niagara grapes, botanically classified as Vitis labrusca ‘Niagara,’ are an American heirloom variety that grows on woody, tendril-climbing vines that…