Today, winemaker Matt Spaccarelli (pictured above) and crew picked 4 tons of baco noir today. It came in at 22.5 brix.

This is Matt's first year as the sole winemaker. I look forward to tasting his first vintage without departed winemaker Kristop Brown.

I just received this weather- and harvest-related update from David Page at Shinn Estate Vineyards:

"Still too close to call. Could go either way. The best news is that whatever is coming is expected to exit quickly. If our fruit is damaged the wind and sun forcast for Saturday through the middle of next week will help to dry things out. We'll be harvesting whites soon after the storm passes. Almost pulled the harvest trigger on our oldest block of Sauvignon Blanc today. It is already at 23 brix but PH is at 3.20 so it is very healthy. We'll take the risk in the hope that we'll have a little 'Haven' on the other side."

At a press conference this afternoon, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy noted that the worse weather will likely be from Riverhead -- where the two Forks of the East End split -- east.

That's good news for me (I live west of Riverhead) but potentially not for wine country.

At 7 a.m. this morning, with Hurricane Earl promising to at least bring rain and wind to the North Fork, the riesling harvest started at Peconic Bay Winery.

According to winemaker Greg Gove, "We are picking the riesling just before the rain. At the present level of ripeness the riesling won’t last if we get several inches of rain and high winds. This is the earliest harvest I’ve experienced on the East End."

He also added that their merlot is already at 19 brix.

I'll update this post later today with some harvest data once all the fruit is in.

Sheldrake Point Vineyard on Cayuga Lake has launched an event that winegrower Bob Madill hopes will become an annual tradition. Following the New York Wine & Food Classic, Sheldrake Point hosts the wineries that earned "Best Of" awards. The event has a limited public ticket release.

"This is our chance to taste wines from our colleagues that we might not otherwise taste over the course of the year," Madill explained to the crowd on a hot but gorgeous late-summer evening. "We're proud of what you're doing and we appreciate your wines and your hard work."

Jim Trezise, president of the Foundation, urged wineries to continue submitting their wines to this and other competitions. He praised the wines and said that competitions offer wineries a great opportunity. 

Simply Red Bistro provided the food, and chef Sam Izzo demonstrated that apple, fennel, and pulled pork should always go together. Always.

For me, the moment of the night came in meeting Ian Barry's father. Ian is the head winemaker at Swedish Hill on Cayuga Lake, and his wines have won the Governor's Cup in two of the past three years. His dad was humble and sweet, deservedly proud of his son. "Two times in three years is almost too much!" he told me. "It's just such an honor. I don't know how he does it. They have a great team."

It came in at 22.5 brix with pH of 3.5 and TA of 6.68 g/L.

"We averaged a little over 3 tons to the acre. Our pinot grigio is on 7x4 density plantings which means approximately 1,500 vines per acre. Therefore, the fruit load per vine is very low thus resulting in nice ripe fruit," told me in an email.

This recent 90-plus-degree heat wave has had a big impact. Last Thursday, when assistant winemaker Robin Epperson-McCarthy took samples, the fruit was just under 17 brix.  

"Brix came in right where we want it for bubbly: 18.5. pH was also nice at 3.07. Acid good for bubbly at 10.2 g/l," he reports via email.

If you haven't tasted or seen a sparkler from Paumanok, there's a reason for that -- 2010 will be just their second sparkling wine.

"The 2009 will be released in time for the Holidays...of 2013," according to Massoud.

Long a maker of as single Tocai, winemaker Christopher Tracy made two vineyard-desginated Tocai's in 2008 -- one for a new Mudd West Vineyard planting on the North Fork and one for the Sylvanus Vineyard in Bridgehampton -- two display the uniqueness of each spot.

Channing Daughters 2008 "Sylvanus Vineyard" Tocai Friulano ($24) was aged in both stainless steel barrels (55%) and older French and Hungarian ones (45%) for 10 months, and that subtle oak influence is noticeable on the nose as a subtle nutty spice note beneath aromas of citrus blossom, lemon-grapefruit and ocean breeze.

Medium-to-light bodied, the palate is lively, fresh and intensely saline with high-toned citrus and citrus zest flavors. As it warms to room temperature, almond, apple and spice flavors become a bit more pronounced.

Tocai is a classic pairing with cured meat, and this wine fits that bill well with its salty minerality.

Producer: Channing Daughters Winery
AVA: The Hamptons, Long Island
ABV: 12.5%
Case Production: 398
Price: $24
Rating: 87

(*Ratings Guide)

Evan Dawson: Chateau Montaud 2009 Cotes de Provence Rose

For $8, this wine is an absurd value. For its regular list price of $12, it's still very, very good.

I picked it up on sale at our local store when oppressive summer heat staged an encore. It turned out to be an excellent match for our food and the weather. I tend to think wine and weather is overly discussed, but I'm fully on board with rose in summer. 

And for all of the wonderful rose made in NY state these days, it's nice to have that reference point of what the best rose producing region in the world is doing. This one brought perhaps a bit less of the classic Provencal floral aromatics, and instead delivered glazed melon, but who can argue? It was crisp, refreshing, and deftly made. A true steal, a wonderful QPR.

Julia Burke: Selento Rosso, Masserie Pisari 2007

I attended a tasting of Michael Skurnik wines recently, the highlight of which was the Italian table. There was more character and value among the ten or twelve Italians I tasted than anywhere else in the room.

Particularly interesting was this Negroamaro, a unique and oh-so-Italian example in the $15 price range.

I've had some damn good Negroamaro lately, and this one continued the winning streak.

The nose showed yummy tar, definite notes of clove spice, and dark fruit which exploded into a palate of juicy middle-of-summer blackberries. I loved this wine for its genuine personality and for how much it made me want to spend two hours in the kitchen cooking a meal to pair.

Lenn Thompson: Ridge Vineyards 2008 Lytton Springs, Pagani Ranch and York Creek

Saturday night, I joined -- virtually, via Twitter -- some folks in tasting these three just-released zinfandel-centered wines. 

For a cool-climate wine enthusiast with a palate more used to ABV topping out at 13% or so, it took me a few sips of each -- these were 14.4%, 14.9% and 15% respectively -- to get used to the size here, but once I did, I was surprised by the balance and relative elegance these showed.

These aren't you're simple, juicy $12 zinfandels. Not by a long shot.

The Lytton Springs showed the most high-toned fruit of the lot with a floral quality and surprising acidity. Ultimately, it seemed a bit thin, but only because of the two monsters next to it.

The Pagani Ranch was definitely the most approachable of the three, with intense, lush fruit, better integrated structure and beautiful spice. This was my preferred wine on days 1 and 3 of tasting them.

The York Creek was just a monster. On the day of the tasting it was incredibly dense with dark, brooding fruit and a savory, umami side to it that intrigued. It wasn't giving much up though. By day two, it had uncrossed its arms, pushing forward more of the fruit while retaining that savoriness. My favorite on day 2, it fell apart on day 3 however.

Bryan Calandrelli: Szóke Mátyás Cabernet 2002

Once again I was in the right place at the right time to try something special.

This bottle of Hungarian wine was brought over by hand from a woman that stopped in the winery last weekend. Without one word of English on the label it wasn’t easy to get background info on it but what I could deduce after some wine encyclopedia snooping was that it was from the region of Mátraaja and the area of Gyongyostarján.

Revealing a beautiful brick garnet color in the glass this wine showed mature aromas of dried cherry, strawberry preserves, nutmeg, tobacco and cinnamon. On the palate it was perfectly balanced with good acid, great flesh and fine tannins.

I got an Italian vibe from this wine overall. I gathered it was a Cab Franc/Sauvignon blend after some deliberation.

My sommelier friend described it as Bordeaulean leaving us to agree that it had old world qualities that put it in good company. It was a fun wine to try in the middle of a workday and the story behind it made me want to go to Hungary.

David Flaherty: Hanssens Artisanaal, Oude Gueuze, Belgium

Lambics are some of the strangest beverages on the planet Earth. If there is terroir in beer, this is it.

 

This last week, I visited my brother in Seatlle. In preparation for our camping trip to Mt. Rainier, we attacked the local craft beer storm like the Vikings stormed a village.  (View the complete list of our booty here: http://bit.ly/arxPSj)

 

I was shocked to hear he wasn't familiar with lambics or other "sour" beers, for that matter.  It was time to take him to beer school. Lambics hail from the Pajottenland region of Belgium and, in contrast to other breweries, they celebrate their local bacteria like royalty. Spontaneously fermented in large open vats, the brewers use ambient yeasts present in the air which give a unique quality specific to their immediate surroundings.

 

With slightly funky notes of apple cider vinegar on the nose, what follows is nothing short of a death-defying roller coaster ride. A bracing acidity grabs a hold of your tongue and torques your mouth into a joyful bear hug. Dry as a bone and stridently complex, this Gueuze (a blend of 1-3 year old Lambics) is a standard-bearer.

 

The beautiful thing? Hanssens has been making them this way since 1896. I love a good antique.

Across the island, I'm hearing reports from vineyard folks saying that the grapes are anywhere from 10-20 days ahead of schedule.

They're further ahead than in 2007, often lauded as the region's best ever vintage.

In 2010, it's been about more than just hot days -- cloud cover and the UV rays they can filter have made an impact too.

Rich Olsen-Harbich, winemaker at Bedell Cellars, told me a few weeks ago "Not only have we been hot and sunny, but the sunny days are clear with a low percentage of cloud cover."

Increased UV exposure -- coupled with leaf removal from the fruit zone -- means lower levels of methoxypyrazines. Those are the compounds that can give red wines underripe, bell pepper aromas and flavors. 

Increased UV can also lead to more TDN in riesling too -- think petrol character -- but riesling isn't a big player on Long Island.

To illustrate how big an impact UV can have: 2003 -- anything but a classic vintage on Long Island -- was a very warm one too, according to Olsen-Harbich but there were fewer than 30 "clear days" all season. The vintage suffered and several underripe reds made their way to store shelves.

Despite the great weather we've been enjoying, local growers and winemakers are watching the weather closely this week -- not to keep an eye on cloud cover or even temperatures (which are expected to remain in the 90s). Instead, they'll be keeping an eye on Hurricane Earl, which has a predicted path up the eastern seaboard and over the East End of Long Island.

Computer models aren't always reliable, but Hurricane Earl hitting wine country could have dire and serious consequences.

"The  effects a H -- I can't get myself to say the word -- can have on  a vineyard depends on the severity of the 'hit,' the amount of rain that comes with it, and the speed it is traveling," says Rich Pisacano, vineyard manager at Wolffer Estate and co-owner of Roanoke Vineyards, adding "A direct hit can lay down an entire vineyard by snapping poles at the ground, send bird netting into the next town and of course destroy the crop."

Such devastating damage would require a lot of time and money to remedy, rendering "a complete crop loss the least of the problem" according to Pisacano.

Unfortunately, hurricanes aren't anything new for local grape growers. Powerful named storms have damaged vineyards past, most recently in 1985 and 1991.

"In 1985, when the eye of Hurricane Gloria was over Nassau County," Charles Massoud, co-owner of Paumanok Vineyards remembers, "the northeast quadrant of the storm was largely a wind event. It broke lots of trees but it brought lots of spray from the ocean. The salt from the spray dessicated the leaves and after three days the vineyard was essentially dead."

Luckily, the Massouds had already picked and sold their chardonnay before the storm hit.

(Photo credit: Weather.com)

An earthworm heads back into the soil (source: schizoform on Flickr)

I think we can all agree that sustainability in viticulture is important. I mentioned in my first post that our discussion about the science of biodynamics cannot leave out organic viticulture. I asked Alice Wise, viticulturist at the Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center (LIHREC) about some of the nuts and bolts of organic viticulture in Long Island. 

NYCR: What are the primary challenges of organic viticulture in regions like Long Island?

AW: The goal is economically viable yields of high quality fruit – no matter what the management philosophy. Beyond that, growing season rainfall and morning dew favor fungal diseases such as black rot, phomopsis and downy mildew. The only National Organic Program (NOP)-allowed fungicide that provides significant control of downy mildew is copper, but no NOP-allowed material provides very good of control of black rot and phomopsis. Powdery mildew, on the other hand, is quite readily controlled by sulfur and mineral oil, both NOP-allowed.

NYCR: What are some ways to maintain nitrogen content in organic soil?

AW: Leguminous cover crops, though they must be tilled in for maximum benefit. There are organic nitrogen fertilizers such as peanut meal and others. They tend to be pretty expensive. For sandy soils, compost and/or composted manure helps with nutrition as well as nutrient retention. Realize that grapevines, at least vinifera on Long Island, do not need a lot of nitrogen so to me this is not one of the pivotal points of organic practice.

NYCR: How do organic treatments for downy, powdery, eutypa, botrytis, etc. differ from conventional treatments?

AW: The term organic is legally defined as it pertains to pesticide use. The NOP should have good information. Or go to http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/food/organics.htm. The effective materials allowed for use by the NOP are all used by non-organic growers to one degree or another, particularly sulfur and mineral oil.

The exception might be copper. Some growers won’t use copper, or limit its use, because it has a 2,600 day soil half-life and permanently builds up in the soil to toxic levels with continuous use. This has not been an issue here but is an issue in more established winegrowing regions.

NYCR: Are conventional herbicides/pesticides really that bad for the soil?

AW: Anything that is done to soil potentially alters the structure and the biology – herbicides, cultivation, cover crops, they all have impacts. Regarding the impact of herbicides, I have read/heard discussions with arguments on both sides. One measure of potential impact (or lack thereof) of herbicides on the soil is their soil half-life*. A relatively low half-life means soil microorganisms consume the material and transform it to CO₂ and H₂O pretty quickly. Many modern herbicides have low leaching potential and short half-lives and are not considered “bad” for the soil. My opinion is that there is no perfect method to manage vegetation under the trellis, each option has advantages and disadvantages.

*Note: A word about half-life: Most processes are best assumed to occur in a first-order way. That is, things will undergo exponential decay. The term "half-life" is a function of the time constant of this decay. More simply, half-life is the amount of time it will take for half of the material of interest to degrade. After two half-lives, 25% (1/4) of the original material will remain.  After 3, 12.5% (1/8), and so on. -tjm

NYCR: Copper is allowed in organic viticulture but – as you said – a common complaint is that it builds up in the soil. Are there any more eco-friendly copper alternatives at this time? Is copper buildup in soil as bad as some would claim?

AW: Copper use is limited and/or banned in some regions of Europe due to accumulation in the soil. Any soil copper level over 100 mg/kg is considered toxic and levels in French, Italian, Australian and New Zealand vineyard soils are not uncommonly found at 200, 300, 400+ mg/kg where copper has been used for decades. High soil levels of copper inhibit plant growth, impair soil microbial life, and drive out earthworms*. ‘Eco-friendly’ is not a legally defined term so I can’t comment on that. There are hydrocarbon-based, reduced risk options (for reduced risk definition, see http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/reducing.htm) for control of downy mildew but to my knowledge the only effective organic option is copper. Remember that both the active ingredient and inert ingredients must be approved by the NOP. Consequently, not all formulations of copper are organically approved. This holds true for other materials as well.

*Note: Earthworms are important to soils for many reasons, including their burrowing behavior, which increases soil drainage, and repeated turnover of the upper soil layer. Exposure to copper in earthworms at low levels can have detrimental effects on burrowing activity and at higher levels can be toxic to worms. Pictured right: Copper sulfate powder. -tjm

NYCR: You are running a trial on organic viticulture at LIHREC. Can you share any preliminary results?

AW: We are running the trial on chardonnay, probably the most difficult candidate for organic management. Overall, we have had difficulty with black rot, phomopsis and downy mildew in organic plots. Cluster rots have been problematic as well. 

However, we have harvested fruit every year, though yields have been reduced. Vine size has suffered as well and we’re not quite sure why. Our current thinking is that it is due to cumulative stress rather than any one factor. We ended up using a conventional nitrogen fertilizer this year just because vine size was declining so much. It definitely helped.

NYCR: I assume leaf removal is essential for disease control in an organic regimen. What are your thoughts on the Long Island cultural practice of 100% leaf removal from the fruiting zone vis-à-vis disease control and fruit development?

AW: The issue of timing and severity of leaf removal is not specifically related to organic viticulture. Leaf removal in the cluster zone is done for both quality and pest management reasons for VSP trained vines. The more extreme version of leaf removal is done, as I am told by vineyard managers who do it, so that only one pass has to be made rather than repeated passes to maintain adequate air flow and light penetration. Some feel ‘leaf stripping’ of the cluster zone has quality benefits as well and I have seen some data to that effect. I have also seen fruit with sunburn – we did a version of leaf stripping this spring and ended up with a lot of sunburn on exposed clusters on the west side of the trellis. Whether the fruit is riper, we’ll find out at harvest.

NYCR: How does the cost of organic farming compare to conventional methods?

AW: As organic vinifera is not common in the eastern U.S., a standard set of practices has not really been recognized. So much depends on which pesticides and fertilizers are used as costs vary considerably. Often organic management involves an increase in labor. However, there is just not any solid information on costs. The version of organic that we used in our trial was more expensive than conventional methods but we only evaluated spray materials. I would guess there might be data from the west coast where there are many organic vineyards. But it would not be completely relevant to Long Island as the viticulture is so different.

NYCR: Have you tested any of the biodynamic preparations (e.g., horn manure, horn silica, compost treated with yarrow, valerian, dandelion, etc.) in your vineyard? Why or why not? Did you discover anything?

AW: No, nor will you find any true replicated studies with these preparations. In science, we have to reduce potential variability in treatments as much as possible. To my knowledge, there are no legal standards for producing these materials, hence variability in product might account for treatment differences. Some may even fall into a legal gray area as well since any product applied for control of a pest must have EPA and NYSDEC approval. 

Regardless, since biodynamics involves a degree of faith or mysticism or whatever you want to call it, this does not lend itself to rigorous scientific evaluation. It may be interesting, but it would be hard to do a valid scientific study. And as biodynamics is a systematic approach, it might not make sense anyway to evaluate individual components. There was a west coast study that looked at conventional vs. organic vs. biodynamic over several years. It is summarized in the ASEV journal. I think it was done in WA and CA.

Note: One of the studies referred to can be found here and here. We'll be addressing the results of these studies in a later post.

So it seems like downy mildew is a real bugbear. For those growers who want to avoid using copper, there is an alternative known as phosphites. Phosphites have been shown to be effective against downy mildew, but the fungus can develop resistance to this chemical.  

My understanding is that phosphite compounds are moving towards organic certification.

This brings up an interesting question. As was discussed in the comments section of part 1 of this series, sulfur, copper, hydrogen peroxide and mineral oil are "okay" to use in certified organic viticulture, but they are synthetic chemicals. Phosphite salts seem to be in the same vein.

What differentiates a fungicide like Captan from Phosphites?  Both are made in synthetic chemical processes.  Both have relatively short half-lives in soil.  Is it their overall toxicity?  Captan can be toxic to freshwater fish but Fosetyl-Al, a commercial phosphite preparation, can also be toxic to mussels. Both have been evaluated by the EPA and "can be used without causing unreasonable adverse effects in people or the environment."  

If "organic" includes synthetic products, then where do we draw the line on synthetic? Or should we?

Further Reading:

For more information about herbicides and pesticides, visit ExToxNet

Organic Agriculture Trials at LIHREC

H Eijsackers, et al., "The implications of copper fungicide usage in vineyards for earthworm activity and resulting sustainable soil quality", Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 2005.

JR Reeve et al., "Soil and Winegrape Quality in Biodynamically and Organically Managed Vineyards" AJEV, 2005.

H Thao and T Yamakawa, "Phosphite (phosphorous acid): Fungicide, fertilizer or bio-stimulator?", Soil Science & Plant Nutrition, 2009.

For more info on downy mildew, see this post from Evan from about a year ago.

The powerful, intense style is gloriously complex and balanced when done right, and the perfect answer to a long day or week as it reduces the world and all its problems to the need for a nice cigar and bed.

Druid Fluid from Middle Ages  Brewing Company pours a light one-finger head and orange-amber hue into a snifter glass, where it maintains light lacing. 

The nose is vague orange flavors and a hint of cream puffs but mostly the understated malt character of a relatively aged beer. 

There's no bottling date on this bottle (ordinarily a red flag), but barleywines are traditionally crafted for cellaring and Middle Ages specifically suggests aging this beer, so I proceeded. 

On the palate there’s the sweet alcohol typical of the style, some orange peel and a razor’s edge of harsh hops, but that’s as far as it gets before a thin and resiny hop finish. 

At traditional barleywine temperature (50-60 degrees F) it tastes tired; cooler than that it gets  a boost from spotlighted carbonation but little additional flavor. Though air time opened up just a bit more fruit esters, this was ultimately more of a chore to drink than a contemplative indulgence.

The true barleywine ages with grace, losing bright fresh notes but acquiring complexity, and without a bottling date to give me any sense of the age of this beer I have to be concerned. This is what’s on the shelves in my town, and it’s not indicative of the power and beauty of the style. Brewers: date your bottles!

To date, the going has been slow with that mission. Though I know the group has done extensive research and analysis, little of it has been published or shared publicly.

Still, the group has released several vintages of Merliance, a cooperative, 100%-merlot wine made using two barrels from each member winery.

It's an interesting -- and challenging -- concept for a still-young organization because, as membership increases, it's bound to become more difficult to craft an integrated, singular wine from all of those various barrels of wine grown and made at different wineries using a diverse array of vineyard and cellar practices.

Long Island Merlot Alliance 2007 Merliance ($35) shows the power an intensity of the vintage certainly, but was released perhaps too early.

The nose is dense with black cherry, blackberry and plum with light baking spice, burnt sugar, toasty oak and subtle grilled herb character. 

On the palate, it balances power with grace -- like the best Long Island merlots often do -- but still shows a bit too much oak. A ripe, intense core of dark fruit lurks beneath the oak with vanilla, licorice, rosemary and a little graphite accents.

The finish is long with a woodsy herbal note and cedar character... and just a little heat.

While deserving of a re-taste in 6-12 months, the oak is just a little too prominent right now for my tastes.

Producer: Long Island Merlot Alliance
AVA: Long Island
Price: $35*
Rating: 86

(*Ratings Guide)

It's still summer and this month's New York Cork Club selections reflect my still-strong preference for white wines this time year. They are Lieb Family Cellars 2008 Pinot Blanc and Red Tail Ridge Winery 2008 Dry Riesling.

If you haven't herad of the New York Cork Club (NYCC), it's pretty simple. We've partnered with BacchusWineOnline.com to create a wine club that features only wines made in New York -- making them more accessible to people around the country.

We can't ship to every state, shipping laws being what they are today, but we can ship to a lot of them.

For more information and to sign up, visit the Bacchus website.

So a bit about each of the wines...

Lieb's pinot blanc has long been a local favorite. Pinot blanc can sometimes be a bit boring, but not so here where fresh pear and apple aromas reach up out of the glass and get your attention with a little melon, wild flower and subtle nutty character. Fresh, snappy acidity lifts Gala apple and more pear flavors on a medium-bodied palate, with nuances of honey and nuts lurking in the background. The finish lingers nicely with a saline note and a squirt of citrus -- making it both thirst quenching and appetite whetting. This is a wine that local seafood longs for.

2008 rieslings from the Finger Lakes have been wowing me all summer during my weekly tastings, and this one stood out amongst an impressive group of dry versions. It features a citrusy nose of lime and sweet grapefruit with obvious flinty slate character, and subtle floral and sweet herb notes.

Extremely focused and zesty on the palate, green apple, lime and lemon peel flavors are framed and energized by electric acidity. The finish is long with trailing slate flavors that linger along with more citrus and sweet herb.

Interesting in signing up? You can do so on the Bacchus website.

Co-owner Carlo DeVito and winemaker Steve Cascles haven't stopped there though, recently releasing Hudson-Chatham Winery 2009 Empire White ($15), the white wine sister to Empire Red.

Made with 33% seyval blanc from the Hudson Valley, 33% riesling from White Spring Winery on Seneca Lake and 33% sauvignon blanc from Long Island, it brings together the signature white varieties of the regions.

Fresh and fruity, the nose shows the full range of citrus -- lemon, lime and grapefruit -- with a little honey, hay and understated herbaceous notes.

Easy drinking and citrusy (again) the palate is dominated by white grapefruit right out of the refrigerator, with faint hints of herbs. As it warms a bit, subtle peach character emerges just a bit. Good-not-great acidity leads into an abrupt finish, where that hay-honey combination peeks through again.

The riesling is a bit buried on the palate -- but I guess you'd expect that with a bold grape like sauvignon blanc in the mix.

Much like the Empire Red, I think the concept of the wine is outstanding but I think with the white, it's difficult to blend riesling without losing much of it's true character. This seems more like a sauvignon-seyval blend in that regard.

Producer: Hudson-Chatham Winery
AVA: New York
Price: $15*
Rating: 83

(*Ratings Guide)

Evan Dawson: Pichon Lalande 1975 Pauillac

Tom Mansell: Cambridge Brewing Company Arquebus "Summer Barleywine"

Nestled among the biotech firms in Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA is a huge beer geek den known as Cambridge Brewing Co.  I went on a recommendation from our own Bryan Calandrelli, who unsurprisingly nailed this reco.  They serve about a half dozen house beers, with a long list of seasonals as well.

Many of the seasonals were outstanding including a floral heather ale and a spicy rye IPA. 

The one that impressed me most, though was the one I saved for dessert: their Arquebus "Summer Barleywine."

Conversely, there is a part of me that is always a little sad as we move into late fall and winter, the goats move into the barn, and that fantastic cheese is taken away for another year. 

Goats generally mate during the September and October months, and give birth to kids through April. Although the first few months of milk go to the kids, mothers can usually continue producing milk for the next six months, resulting in a somewhat finite period of time during which chevre and other goat’s milk cheese to be made. 

Fresh chevre is essentially the ultimate expression for seasonality in the cheese world. One of the finest examples of this is right on Long Island at Catapano Dairy Farm.

Located on the North Fork of Long Island, Catapano Dairy Farm has been making headlines since 2005 ever since their cheese won 1st place for chevre from the American Cheese Society, considered the most prestigious cheese competition in the country.

I was first introduced to the cheese a few years ago when my wife and I first started coming down to visit Lenn and Nena on Long Island. It was a revelation then, and continues to be the benchmark that I strive for every time I make fresh chevre at home.  T

he cheese has an incredibly moist and creamy texture with a slight scent of grass and flowers that you immediately associate with freshness and quality. What I like about this chevre is that it isn’t overwhelmingly "goaty."  What I mean by that is some goat’s milk cheeses can be so acidic and tangy on the backend that it can overwhelm some people to where they will swear off any cheese made with goat’s milk. The Catapano is incredibly mild and smooth with just a hint of the brightness on the end, and has converted several goat cheese haters into Catapano lovers. 

Put it on a cracker, put it in a salad, put it on a spoon…it’s that good…

As I sit and write this on a cool day near the end of summer, I am reminded once again that the spring and summer months are fleeting. Fresh chevre is only going to be made available for a little longer. Take advantage of it while you can. Catapano is a good place to start.

Peconic Bay Winery's new solar panels aren't the first in wine country, but they are among the largest.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony this afternoon, the winery will unveil a solar electric generating photovoltaic (PV) system that will produce approximately 47,826 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity annually saving the winery $8,895 in annual electricity costs at today’s rates.

The 180-panel PV system cost $327,760, but Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), through its Solar Entrepreneur Program, provided a significant rebate of $97,830 which helped to reduce the out-of-pocket expense for the system. Peconic Bay Winery may also be able to further reduce the cost of the system via Federal and State tax incentives.

Jim Silver, the winery's general manager (and frequent visitor to this site) said that the winery "Intend(s) to offset more than 70% of our energy needs with this new equipment," adding that "Cutchogue is the sunniest
spot in all of New York State. That not only makes for outstanding grape-growing conditions, but makes solar collection a natural and obvious choice."

Congratulations to owners Paul and Ursula Lowerre, to Jim Silver and the entire gang at Peconic Bay.

The owners of Peconic Bay Winery, Paul and Ursula Lowerre, are wholeheartedly committed to reducing non-renewable energy usage at the winery. They believe saving energy and protecting the environment shows sensible stewardship of this beautiful land. .”

Just a few wines to be tasted at this years Indy International Wine Competition

Photo courtesy of Dave Falchek

It's official. We are done judging big, blind, medal-focused wine competitions.

We did not arrive at this position without much thought and discussion. Ultimately, we believe that transparency and clarity are core values that should permeate the wine world -- from the creation of wine, to the marketing of wine, to the writing about wine.

Everything that happens in those areas should relate in some way to answering this question: Is this providing more transparency and clarity to the consumer, or less?

We have decided that medal-focused competitions provide less clarity and transparency to the wine consumer. We feel that medals only confuse consumers instead of educating them, and that they provide little real value.

Our position going forward will be simple: The editors and writers at the New York Cork Report will not accept invitations to judge wines at large-scale, blind-tasting events with the goal to hand out "medals" to "winning" wineries.

We want to explain, and -- this is vitally important -- we mean no disrespect.

The vast, vast majority of competition creators, organizers and judges perform their roles with the best of intentions. Often, we find that the wines we think are best are the ones that win top honors. Anthony Road Wine Company's 2008 Semi-Dry Riesling winning the Governor's Cup is one example).

But that cannot and does not change the reality: There are so many medal-awarding competitions that the events have lost any sense of meaning to the average consumer, and even wine-loving consumers can't possibly know the significance of a single bronze or silver or gold medal awarded at the many, many events. Furthermore, the very act of blind judging a wide range of wines should be viewed as a parlor game and not some official declaration of merit.

Good intentions give way to nebulous marketing

We can't stress this enough: The organizers of wine competitions are people who constantly impress us with their enthusiasm and event planning. Collectively, we have judged at many events and have been invited to judge at many more. We admire the goal of wading through oceans of wine to sort out the very best for consumers.

The problems with judging will be addressed below. 

Even the medal winners can't explain much about the meaning of such an award. Evan recently stopped by a Finger Lakes tasting room that was drowning in medals. He was told, "Our 2006 Merlot won Silver at the So-and-So Wine Competition!" He asked the staff to explain what that meant. "Well, it probably means that the judges liked our wine very much!" they replied. He asked who the judges were. They didn't know. He asked how many wines, by percentage, got at least a silver medal. "Oh, I don't think it's very many," came one reply.

Sadly, that's wrong, by almost any measure.

On Long Island, Lenn has been similarly regaled by tasting room staffers with stories of medals awarded -- often incorrectly. He's up on some of these things, so he often knows that they are wrong when they tell him that their riesling won gold but it actually won bronze. The average person off the street can't possibly know; there are too many medals from too many competitions. Ultimately these medals and discussions of them have become nothing more than white noise, like static on your television.

Medals have almost no defined meaning that the wineries themselves can even explain, let alone their consumers. Ask a consumer what a medal means -- really, grab a customer in a tasting room -- and there's almost no chance they'll be able to offer anything close to an answer describing where it comes from and why the judges awarded it. 

It seems that wineries simply hope the use of medals will make their bottles more attractive. We understand the impulse. The business of wine is a competitive one, and discretionary dollars are being held tightly. But ultimately a state that is attempting to attain world-class status does itself a disservice with an over-reliance on meaningless handouts.

We can promise that almost every tasting room customer would be shocked to find out that often the standard for getting at least a bronze medal is simply to create a wine that is not mortally flawed. That's it. That's the baseline.

The first problem with judging: Subjectivity

At Evan's first wine judging competition, a huge annual event that we won't name, he remembers a debate over a flight of pinot noir. One judge refused to award a particular wine a gold medal because, in his words, "There is plenty of fruit but not nearly enough supporting oak." Evan, understandably, was stunned. A judge demanding more oak? What next?

He didn't have to wait long to find out. During the next flight, a judge detected a whiff of Brettanomyces in one of the wines. She decided it was a nice addition to the wine, adding character. The judge to Evan's right was offended to the point of near-insanity. "Brett is a FLAW," the judge declared. "And a flawed wine wins no medal." The other judge persisted, arguing that it should be a gold medal wine. Evan thought he was about to witness a fistfight. 

How can you or anyone else tell a judge how to evaluate wines? The beauty of wines is that we have the opportunity to decide for ourselves what makes a wine special. Now, that's not to say that there aren't clearly discernible qualities and flaws. But if I love oak and over-extraction in, say, cabernet sauvignon, and you appreciate a more restrained approach, which one of us is right? If I think the best wines are indicative of where they were made, whereas you believe the best wines are hedonistic missiles, place-be-damned, who's correct? 

If you sit in on a judge's panel at just about any wine competition, get ready to hear the same conversations. And then ask yourself how anyone can possibly hand out medals when it's over, as if one wine correctly identified that 7x4=28.

The second problem with judging: Blind tasting 

Everyone on the NYCR team has come to love blind tasting. It is great fun. It is also a bit like a sporting event or game, not befitting the anointing of medals that ostensibly carry serious value.

There is perhaps no wine more fitting to explain this problem than Finger Lakes riesling. The best winemakers in the Finger Lakes often remind their customers that riesling is a "food wine." It certainly is. It is versatile, ranging from dry to sweet, and pairs harmoniously with a range of dishes. Winemakers have such things in mind when crafting their products. But they are not producing rieslings designed to impress judges in sterile, blind-tasting settings.

Now try to imagine tasting dozens and dozens of these wines with hardly a bite to eat. The acids are ripping at your mouth, and in the sweeter flights the sugars seem like a welcome respite. In the cabernet flight, there is no juicy steak to accompany a rich wine, and the judges are left to consider them bereft of that partnering.

But most importantly, blind judging robs the evaluators of the most significant parts of the wine -- its context.

Tell a judge he's drinking cabernet, and he'll immediately try to lock in and ascertain the country of origin, then the region and perhaps sub-appellation. But the mind is a funny thing. Instead of simply enjoying (or not) the wine, and thinking about it individually, the judge begins to add context where there is none provided. How did the other wines in the flight taste in comparison? What might that say about this wine? When was the last time I tasted a wine like this one? Where was it from? Should I allow myself to believe this is Bordeaux, when I'll feel awfully silly when I'm told it's from somewhere else? 

Delving deeper, we find that judging a wine that is simply known as cabernet sauvignon is extremely constricting. We don't want a Napa cab to taste like a Bordeaux. We expect Chile to turn out something else entirely. If we're tasting a Bordeaux cabernet that tastes like Napa, we're bound to be disappointed. But tasting blind, we might convince myself it's from somewhere else, mistaking place and winemaker intention. Whoops.

We've had judges tell us that we should forget about figuring out where a wine is from and simply taste it to see if we like it. Fair enough. But in that one statement, we see exactly why wine has become so homogeneous, so dangerously banal. Judges are not required to give a damn about a wine's sense of place.

We find it vital. With no standard, how can we expect judging to be consistent? 

Ah, but see: It's not consistent. Not even a little.

There is ample evidence that judging is like throwing darts

When Robert T. Hodgson set out to research the reliability of judging, many of us suspected he would find that judging is inconsistent. Instead, he found that medals are awarded in a fashion that almost appears to be random. Hodgson wrote, "It is reasonable to predict that any wine earning any medal could in another competition earn any other medal, or none at all." Indeed, he found hundreds of examples of wines that earned gold medals in one competition and no medal at all in another. 

Put another way: If you make a competent wine, you can enter enough competitions and that wine will almost certainly win gold eventually.

No study is perfect, but we suspected that after this study was released, drastic changes would hit the wine judging circuit. We have yet to see any. Hodgson stated that his goal was to provide some measure of judging reliability to help these competitions improve. We see the result being supportive of the idea that these competitions ought not exist at all. After all, judging in mass competitions is putting wine into just about the least most suitable place for good evaluation and enjoyment. 

And for wineries that might protest, it should be said that the little study that has been done only indicates that tasting room customers really don't care much about medals. Why should they? As we've already explained, they don't know what the medals mean. 

Clarity? Consumers don't know which wineries entered a particular competition and which didn't, they don't know the judges and what the judges are looking for, they don't know how many medals were awarded, and they don't know what a medal is supposed to signify.

That should say everything.

Our decision, and our call for others to join us

In the future we will politely decline invitations to judge at these events. That does not mean we won't participate in wine seminars, conferences, etc. This is simply about mass judging. The wine competition circuit has become quite an industry itself, but there has to be a good explanation for the purpose it serves.

We ask our colleagues to do one of two things: Pledge to join us in this decision, or provide a suitable answer for the problems we've outlined above. We're more than willing to listen, and to change our minds if it can be proven that these competitions help the consumer. 

But right now, we're sitting them out. - The NYCR Team

It's of course way too early in this budding region's development to anoint any single grape as royalty, but Niagara pinot noir certainly shows promise. And just like every other New York wine region, differences in growing season conditions have a profound impact.

Vintage matters in New York.

It certainly did when I sat down to taste two vintages of estate pinot from Freedom Run Winery in Lockport, NY.

Today, we'll focus on the Freedom Run Winery 2007 Estate Pinot Noir ($35).

As you no-doubt already know, 2007 was a warm, dry year across the state and that shines through in this pinot.

Ripe blueberry and black cherry aromas lead the way on an extroverted nose with light mushroomy earthiness, exotic spice, and subtle cocoa powder notes in the background.

Mouth-filling and lush on the palate, a dense core of sweet blueberry-cherry fruit intermingles with notes of earth, exotic spice, milk chocolate and tobacco. The texture is beautiful here, silky with both powerful ripeness and elegance in the form of fine tannins and good acidity.

Double-blind I might think this from California if not for that lurking earthiness that really steps forward on the end of a lengthy finish.

Though listed at 13.5% ABV, this might be higher as there is a slight bit of heat on the end.

Producer: Freedom Run Winery
AVA: Niagara Escarpment
Case Production: 90
Price: $35*
Rating: 87

(*Ratings Guide)