The California Conundrum

So a lot of people have found it difficult to believe me when I tell them that the "New World" unit has been my most difficult so far. The assumption is that complex, foreign units, such as Italy and France, with thousands of rules and exceptions, would be the largest hurdle in wine school...but unfortunately I find them much simpler.

I think this issue is two fold...and important for people studying for the Court of Master Sommeliers Certified Exam. The first issue is completely a personal hurdle. I love Europe, I love European wine, I lived in Europe, I DRINK European wine. Despite living in California and being a full blown American patriot, Old World mystifies and captures my imagination on an unparalleled level. Not only does my proximity take away some of the Californian exoticism, but it just seems a bit drab in comparison to the grand chateaus of timeless terroir...

This is not saying that I dislike Californian wine...but I'm an earthy wine freak, and tend to steer clear of fruit driven California style of Pinot Noirs and Cabernet Sauvignons. And when it comes to chardonnay....let's just say I was the kid that always ordered sour patch kids instead of buttered popcorn at the cinema.

I think my greatest academic hurdle, and perhaps one shared with many others, lays in the lack of strict sub-regional regulation of American Viticultural Areas (AVAs). When studying the Old World, I find enormous amount of varying detail to be an advantage. Each small village has unique terroir, different permitted grapes, and strict, localized regulation. This creates a network of thousands of distinctive stories, which trigger memory for me easier than the standard "list" memorization. I can tell you all about different grand cru vineyards in Burgundy because one was bought to lay dormant for five years, one was completely replanted, one was just scandalously purchased by LVMH, and one is the oldest vineyard tied to Cisterian monks in the middle ages.

In California, and all over the United States, relatively loose regulations (compared to France, Italy and Spain) are intended to give wine makers the freedom to take advantage of a variety of difficult viticultural regions. It encourages enological creativity and viticultural experimentation, which can be good and bad. The fact that there are no quality regulations enforced through the AVA system means that the consumer must be greater educated as to producers and regional typicities.

Even when tasting, although regional styles can be quite synonymous, enological manipulation can create flavor profiles deceptive to the origin of the original vineyard.

There's a particular example I like to use to explain my difficulty studying California compared to France. I've never been a name person...and generally have had to ask people their names several times before committing it solidly to memory. Don't get me wrong...I listen and can tell them all about their grandmother's apple pie and gimpy french bulldog, Steve....but not their name after first meeting. With this in mind, studying the Old World, such as France, is like walking into the first day of class and meeting a classmate each from a different place, different backgrounds, and unique stories. I may not remember their names the first time, but stories such as their background, race, language, and hair color will help me remember it the second time. When I study California, I feel like I'm walking into that same classroom, except every person in the room is identical (aside from eye and hair color, perhaps).

Although there are unique qualities about each sub-AVA, these qualities are often similar across many. In cooler climates, pinot noir and chardonnay are almost always grown, where the hottest climates are generally reserved for thicker skinned varietals such as cabernet sauvignon. There are extinct volcanoes speckled along the coast, resulting in great amounts of volcanic bedrock in many of the regional AVAs. Higher elevations, generally, produce more rustic wines, where valley floor AVAs, generally, produce more elegant and supple examples.

Buckling down, doing ALL of the reading, and sleeping with my flashcards is certainly in my future. When you get to California, there's no way around it than Top Ramen and light-sore eyes from staring at the computer screen. On the plus side, they speak American!

Single life has me bound to celebrate Valentine's Day with copious amounts of pink bubbly, my pajamas and maybe some pink colored Italian flashcards...maybe I'll give them a cute Italian name like Francisco and Guiliani.......

Stay tuned for posts on cooking with sparkling wine...which seems to be in excess around here since the service exam is daunting!

Until next time, Chin-Chin!

Birthday Carnage: Sea Urchin, Duck and Cheese!

After a long day of shopping in NYC, it was time to suit up for dinner.

For the starter, I wanted to do a light but fresh sea urchin dish. I had never done sea urchin or anything of the sort before, so I used Bobby Flay's recipe for raw sea urchin bruschetta. It was a simple mix of the tongues (the meat of the sea urchin looks just like a tongue!), lemon juice, dry sherry, olive oil, cilantro, and diced yellow onion. I served it over bread fried in olive oil, with a lemon wheel for garnish. Was VERY light and delicious. The sea urchin was extremely tender!

For the second course I made duck breast fillets, pan roasted in oil, and served them over a wilted watercress, caramelized pear, spring onion, and garlic salad. I wilted the watercress in sherry and olive oil, and caramelized the pears in a generous helping of butter.

On top of the duck I made a salsa of shallots, blood oranges, pomegranate seeds, golden beets, lime juice and cilantro. It was delicious on the duck...orange flavors always go so well.

The duck was superb and the salads were just enough. I had to slice the entire breasts into thirds because the whole breast was gigantic. A very sharp knife did the trick.

For dessert I put together a cheese board with a selection of one creamy blue cheese and one aged french, along with a collection of macaroons and salted caramels. So yummy. And light!

Drank a divine bottle of Chateneuf du Pape last night that went so well with the duck. We had a bottle of Domaine Carneros by Tattinger sparkling wine with the sea urchin. 

Now on my way into the city for a dinner by other people. We have three stops to make so will be a good bit of hopping around. 

Until next time!

Egeszegrede: Hungary From the Barrel

This is an oldie but definitely a goodie. It always surprises me when people are surprised to hear that I did a wine trip to Hungary. The Magyar state has quite an old wine tradition, but a rocky history considering the negative effect of the Soviet Union on all things that were not designed for mass production. I spoke with several wine makers there who described their families as six generations of wine makers with a three generation gap in the middle. Land redistribution caused many families to lose large portions, if not all of their vineyards and ethnic/racial deportation in the 1930s and 40s also significantly impacted the ability of small agricultural communities to produce.

Anyhow, I thought I would do a little piece on my trip to Hungary to highlight the GLORIOUS nature of Hungarian wine and gourmet culture that has blossomed since the fall of the iron curtain and why everyone should go there and relish it!

I organized my trip through company called Taste Hungary. Gabor and Carolyn (who met in Washington D.C., of all places!) are absolutely the most charming pair, and run culinary and wine tours of the entire region. Gabor acted as our personal foodie/wine-o extraordinaire, who hit the nail on the head with EVERY recommendation. I heard a little rumour that Anthony Bourdain spent a little time with them....**squeal**

The two Hungarian wineries Gabor took us to were called Jandl (Sopron) and Hernyak (Etyek). We had told him that we really wanted to enjoy smaller, family owned wineries so that we could get a sense of the wine but also the family tradition and people themselves. He did EXACTLY that. At both Jandl and Hernyak we were invited into the homes of the winemakers and taken through their cellars. We had respective lunch and dinners around their family dining tables while we tasted wines and chatted about a multitude of subjects. The warmth and generosity of the families and the history we learned around their tables were just the most enriching and memorable experiences.

At Jandl, the head of the house informed us that he came from six generations of wine makers, but with a gap in the middle during the Soviet occupation. The history of Hungarian wine is greatly tied to the Soviet history of the relatively young state. He told me that when he regained control of his vineyards, he not only had to relearn his family tradition, but re-create the quality of the vineyards that had been reduced by years of Soviet mass production.

At Hernyak, our hosts took us to their cellars to taste every stage of their process, tasting the newly barreled wines, the unfiltered aged wines, and the final filtered (pre-bottle) wines. They also shared with us the interesting new developments in Etyek in sparkling wine, as it had been determined the soil bares similarities with that of Champagne. Many of the wineries there now work with Champagne wine makers in the development of their own Peszgo.

Unfiltered chardonnay, straight out of the tank!

The winemaker and my Papa

Barrel Tasting in the cellar

The Hernyak House aka The Family Living Room

Gabor and the gang

While we were there, we did some eating as well. Gabor and his wife have written two books on food and wine touring Budapest, which was extremely useful! It was full of helpful words and phrases in Hungarian as well for people who like to eat and drink. I was lucky to be given both as a gift from them as a birthday present while I was there (along with a bottle of dry Tokaj white wine). One of the restaurants we visited was BOCK bistro (along with a bottle of dry Tokaj white wine). One of the restaurants we visited was BOCK bistro (Erzsébet körút 43-49) in Pest, which was probably the highlight meal of the trip. The food was so impeccably (and beautifully) presented and the service was excellent. We washed everything down with a generous amount of what is certainly my favorite Hungarian red blend, bikaver. Bikaver, meaning bull's blood, comes largely from Eger and is a blend that used to be associated with pond-water table wine during the Soviet era, but has been turned into something so much more. Jammy, gamey, thick, and full bodied. 

I mentioned Tokaj before, on the white wine front a dry Tokaj is certainly my favorite when it comes to Hungary, but is harder to find. Tokaj is extremely famous for its sweeter dessert wines, which are UNREAL. 

Roman Ruins in Vienna

We also did a short jog up to Vienna on this trip, but I guess that's a story for another blog. This is an extremely abbreviated summary of my trip, I might come back and revisit parts of it in more detail later! 

Just a quick shout out to my grandfather, who made this lifestyle so real to me. I definitely would not be in culinary school right now, nor would I be as in love with this amazing place if not for him. Thanks Gramps!

Until then, Egeszegedre!

(Cheers in Hungarian)

When Color's Worth A Thousand Words

Color is a huge factor when blind tasting a wine. Color is hue, intensity, clarity...the whole gamut. This is a short post, but an interesting one for those who want to do more than just taste...

Color hints at may aspects of the wine, including age, winemaking, and grape variety. Clarity can range from opaque, to cloudy, to clear. Hues include purple, magenta, pink, garnet, ruby, orange, and more.

Without too much technical detail, it is extremely important to pay attention to these details when assessing wines. More delicate varietals such as pinot noir can be so clear that you can read through them, whereas some wines, such as Napa cabernet sauvignon or Northern Rhone syrah, can be so opaque that you can hardly see your finger through the glass.

When it comes to age, reds get lighter and whites get darker with age. Clear, straw colored young chardonnay will transform to a rich golden, almost brown color with age (if it's really brown its usually too old...). Reds in youth will be more purple, with age transforming violet hues to more ruby, and eventually garnet (red/orange brick) colors. Older wines can also tend to absorb more light, and sometimes even become dull...

The wines shown in the photo show the difference between a Beaujolais Nouveau and an aged Burgundy Pinot Noir. Beaujolais Nouveau, on the left, is extremely young wine, undergoing carbonic maceration, to produce youthful purple and magenta tones (the pinkish magenta is very common for wines going under carbonic maceration). The Pinot Noir, on the right, not only shows its typical varietal clarity, but shows age with subtle rim variation, as an orange-ish rim can be seen around the edge of the wine in the glass. This is a tell-tale sign of age, and is considered a solid garnet hue.

Color can sometimes be a product of oxidation, not age. Extensive oak barrel ageing or intentional oxidative viniculture styles can result in advanced color development without advanced age. Nebbiolo is the primary example of this, as young examples often display solid garnet, bordering orange hues.

Until next time, sip responsibly :) 

(It is Friday after all!)

If Your Cat Pissed In The Glass...

The title of this post is probably not the most appealing to the reader. For those of you who have never owned cats...it's a pretty horrible thing, cat piss. It might be the most pungent and unappealing smell in the domestic world of animals....but I digress.

This evening it was raining cats and dogs (reference was certainly intended) and so what is one car-less wine student to do?! Drink a lot of wine (duh). And so my California V. France comparative was born.

France and California pretty much represent the essence of Old World and New World rifts. Strict regulation versus encouraged vinicultural experimentation, earth versus fruit, medium versus high alcohol, the emphasis of terroir versus winemaker's personal style....I could go on, but why bore?

California is the PREMIER New World producer, as a state (alone) producing the fourth most amount of wine after France, Italy and Spain. The 1976 Paris Tasting put Napa on the map, and the rest is history. The California Northcoast AVA is center and leading force in New World wine, with nearby UC Davis acting as the leading researcher in vini/viticulture outside of Europe.

As much as I could go on about how far California has come, France remains the example for quality wine, regardless of style. With thousands of years of wine production behind them, tradition suits them well. The terroir is arguably the best on the planet, with many (if not the majority) of New World varieties originating from France. If California is the prodigal child, France is still Big Papa.

So back to the liquid stuff, I compared two sauvignon blancs. From France, I opened the Domaine de la Pauline Sancerre 2013, from the Central Vineyards in the Loire Valley. From California, I opened the Round Pond Estate Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc 2013. From both wines I got the varietally common factors of white grapefruit, cat piss (absolutely UNMISTAKABLE), grassy notes, and minerality. My tasting notes were as follows...

Domaine de la Pauline Sancerre 2013 
Aromas of white grapefruit with subtle kiwi, papaya and passionfruit. Reminiscent of catpiss, fresh green grass, white blossoms, chive and blanched asparagus. On the palate, candied grapefruit with hints of pineapple, apple pith, kiwi skin, freshly cleaned cantelope and dehydrated mango. Earthy, bitter grass with floral daisy, jalapeno, chive and floral stems, followed by a chalky minerality on the finish. The wine is bone dry and unoaked with solid acidity. I would love to pair with proscuitto wrapped cantelope, tropical fish dishes, or creamy cheese. Higher in acid and more delicate in flavor than its Californian cousin, I would try and match the more delicate flavors in the wine to aspects of a dish.

Round Pond Estate Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc 2013
Cat piss is evident on the nose, as well as waxy aromas of starfruit, oxidized apple, dried pineapple and overripe pear. Aromas are also reminiscent of a dusty chalkboard (when you get in trouble in school and are supposed to clean it...), leading me to call a dusty, chalky minerality. On the palate, a bitter honeydew melon, especially the rind, is on the front, followed by waxy, yellow grapefruit rind, grapefruit pith, underripe guava, and "pear sauce" (is that what you call apple sauce but with pears?). Dry grass, if not hay, is certainly present with (again) a floral stem flavor, with sandy, fertile earth and preserved, salty Morroccan lemon on the finish. This is a dry wine with solid acidity, but certainly more bitter in flavor than its French counterpart. I would pair this with a dish including honeydew melon, or a morroccan dish with preserved lemons as an ingredient. Alcohol was significantly higher than the French example, so I would consider full bodied and pair it with slightly heavier dishes.

Passed my French test this last Wednesday, thank goodness! One of the hardest blinds I have ever done, but the learning experience was well worth it. Halfway through the New World unit, and cannot wait to get to Australia and New Zealand at the end of next week.

Stay tuned for a lot more wine stuff...I can't afford to cook fancy food with these wine bills!!!! Please don't mistake that as complaining....life is good!

Made friends with the pastry chefs this weekend and got invited into the chocolate lab to taste all of their new confections. Definitely one of the most delectable cocoa experiences I have ever had...my favorite being the corn flake truffles!

Three cheers to all the amazing chefs and pastry chefs who keep my belly happy :)

Until next time, here's to natural irrigation (we sure needed it out here)!

A Practice in Pairing

Had a chance to get back into the kitchen this weekend in Paso!!! Am trying to apply some stricter wine and food pairing regimes to my meals, and it turned out pretty damn well.

The thing about food pairing is that there are simple rules that are meant to be broken. The traditional idea is that you pair based on the intensity and qualities of a dish. Big tannic reds go better with fattier red meat, but leaner cuts of beef should be paired with more delicate red wines because you don't HAVE to "cut" the fatty quality of the steak. Acidic and/or off dry whites pair well with spicy food to balance the heat of the dish. You can even match flavors, such as big buttery chardonnays from California with butter poached lobster. By these rules, Napa cabernet sauvignon pairs perfectly with a rib-eye, a Burgundy pinot noir with filet mignon, a riesling with smoked salmon, and Napa chardonnay with butter poached lobster in cream sauce. I know I used that analogy twice in two lines...but its just so undeniably standard.

As any wine rule ever written, this is also a malleable, or even breakable rule. On the other edge of the pairing sword is the ability to match more minor qualities in a dish to wine, which can often be surprisingly wonderful. Now this is not to say you would pair an oaky, tannic cabernet with a spicy dish. That rule should not be broken due to the natural ability of tannins to add petrol to the already burning fire on your palate. I tried it in class. Don't do it. It's just not worth the amount of milk you may have to drink afterward. Instead, think about unique aspects of a wine or a dish that are shared, and disregard the "classic" rules. This is harder and a more finnicky business than following the traditional rules, but can be more fun and thought provoking. After all, the whole point is to take your guest or yourself out of your other busy life affairs and bring them into the present through the experience of dining.

ALL THIS BEING SAID: There are foods that pair horribly with wine, just because. Eggs, asparagus, vinaigrettes, artichokes....their never going to be easy nor an "ultimate pairing." Lowering the standards there is key.

My throw together dinner in Paso was a little more traditional, but I did what I could with a small wine selection and time span.

First course was a smoked salmon, boiled artichoke heart and creme fraiche salad paired with a Kabinett (dry) Riesling. Salmon and Riesling are a great pairing, but artichoke is a toughie. I thought it would add interesting texture and flavor to the plate, but due to a compound called cynarin, artichoke is actually famous for making other things, particularly wine, taste flat, or flabby. High acid wines are encouraged in pairing...and Riesling definitely fits that bill.

The second course was a whole trout, stuffed with citrus (grapefruit, lemon) and fresh sage sprigs. I rubbed the outside in olive oil and placed on the grill to cook (very quickly, I may add). I made a grapefruit vinaigrette and tossed in watercress to serve underneath the fish, and that was pretty much it. Very easy, very yummy (but not as good as my branzino....). I didn't have a lot of wine to choose from for this, but ended on a Lieb Cellars Pinot Blanc from North Fork Long Island. It worked perfectly fine, but might have opted for a Sancerre or Pouilly Fume Sauvignon Blanc to match the kind of earthy, fishy, grapefruit flavors of the dish. Even a Sevre et Mains Muscadet Sur Lie might have been nice, with a salty, briney, stoney quality.

Had a great time exploring the Adelaida Road vineyards down there, including Tablas Creek, Halter Ranch and Dau. Dau was a little snooty for my taste but the views were unbeatable. 

Until next time, Vin Jaune is really gross....

(I know I'm supposed to be objective...but man it is just rank)

Bourgogne? BourgognYES.

The weekend past just happened to hit smack dab in the middle of my France module in school, with Burgundy straddling the days off on the Friday and Monday. The result? An extended weekend of Burgundian bliss.

Units (in school) like France and Italy really are the best, giving you the excuse to spend a little more than you normally would on tastings where you can't help but finish everything you open because it is DELICIOUS. Even some of the wierder Chenin Blancs we have tried are just so intriguing and austere that "study sessions" almost feel criminally fun :) Study shouldn't be that fun, right?! As much as I can appreciate the classic quality of a Napa Chardonnay or an Aussie Shiraz, it just doesn't have that sexy European thing going on. There may be a hidden man comparison in there somewhere but we are talking about 50 shades of purple, garnet, and ruby here....not grey.....

I guess part of the reason I love Burgundy so much is because it has one of the richest and most fascinating historical frameworks. A bottle of Burgundy is, in its purest form, a historical artifact. Terroir, in France more than any other country, is so much more than elevation, rainfall, sun exposure, soil composition...but a family history of vineyard ownership and cultural evolution. From the Cisterian monks whose detailed maps in the 15th and 16th centuries to Napoleon's inheritance laws and love of Gevrey-Chambertin....the characters of these wines are truly unique.

We've split Burgundy into multiple days, conquering Chardonnay in one, Pinot Noir (largely all Chablis and Cote D'Or examples) in the second, and the surrounding areas of Jura, Savoie and Beaujolais in the final class. The wines in class have been divine, and I've been in a sea of mushroom, leather and mossy cherry heaven. I wanted nothing more than to pull out a rare filet mignon with shaved truffles to pair with the 2006 Drouhin-Laroze Latricieres-Chambertin Grand Cru.

Over the weekend "The Nose" and I met up to "study" the french whites we had covered so far, with a melange of Bourgogne Blanc, Vouvray Sec, Sancerre, and some other fun "off topic" things. By the end of it we had our noses in scotch bottles to compare the "petey" smell with the "mossy" smells of the straw-dried late harvest wine I had brought and the Bordeaux style Dau Cabernet Sauvignon. I should certainly dedicate a whole different post to my ridiculous obsession with dusty dried rose bouquet of Chenin Blanc.....but certainly best left for another time.

The biggest thing that I have walked away from this week has been the importance of THE PRODUCER when purchasing or selecting Burgundian wines. Good vintages are good and bad vintages require more creative wine making, but the scarcity of Burgundy and the specificity of its AOC (Appellation D'Origine Controllee) causes prices to shoot through the roof regardless. Scarcity of wine can cause a price to rise regardless of the quality. Knowing good producers, whose quality is reliable, is therefore absolutely essential unless you want to risk spending $100 dollars on a Chablis which could be upstaged by a Bourgogne Blanc. Boutique wine shops with educated staff (or even places like Total Wine) are great places to find these wines, which if you are unfamiliar, can be guided to the good value bottles versus taking shots in the dark.

The other important thing when purchasing Burgundy is understanding that varying terroir and the chameleon like quality of pinot noir as a varietal can bring significant differences between neighboring towns, or even neighboring vineyards! Trying through different villages to develop more specific tastes is helpful for the aspiring Burgundy enthusiast, as Saint Aubin Rouge will be significantly different from a Volnay or Givry. Generally you'll get a mouthful of mushroom, minerality, and macerated red fruit (cherry, strawberry, raspberry, cranberry, pomegranate), but even generalizing to that level can be a mistake.

Spent a good part of the weekend in Paso Robles wine country interviewing at vineyards. Great experience and can't wait to dig deeper into some of these career opportunities!

Until next time, remember varietal and jammy are not technically real words.

This is....Somm School!

So I haven't decided yet whether the west coast thing is driving me crazy crazy or crazy in love but I'm sure trying to figure it out. If one this is in it's favor, it's the weather. Holy mackerel....this is the third day this week that I've sat on my back porch drinking chardonnay in a bikini. Not even joking my neighbours think I'm insane but it's broaching 85 degrees there is no way anyone can make me wear pants on my own property. ***I have thick cold weather proof Dublin skin*** How the hell this can ever be considered January...it alludes me........

So I've been in wine school for 2 weeks now, and my first exam is on Tuesday. Even though I've only had eight class days...I already feel like I've been here for months!!!! **crazy eyes*

Definitely the most fun part of wine school is the blind tasting. There's something super exciting, and almost liberating, about a "mystery" glass of grape juice. The idea that, if you're not overly concerned with enjoying the wine, you can address it from a neutral stand and often notice things that might have been fleeting before. I actually find I taste better blind than if I know what it is, because, to my detriment, I tend to search for things that should be present rather than what is actually shouting at me from the bowl of my glass.

We did a blind for two to study for the test this weekend, and it really displayed exactly that. I got together with "The Nose" (her nickname for sheer skill of what that thing can pick up!) and tasted four wines blind, did a comparison of two wines from two different areas, and then just drank a few....all in the spirit of research (of course!). Whether it was luck or we're getting better, we got all of the blinds right.....but I'm pretty sure she may have been rubbing her genius off on me. They ended up being a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (medium/medium plus acid, bone dry, good tropical notes, grassy undertones), a Napa Valley Chardonnay (butter, medium acid, mild use of oak, fruit reminiscent of apple and pineapple), Barossa Shiraz (big blackberry, blueberry jamminess, mild pepper, subtle bay leaf), and a Right Bank Bordeaux (bright red fruits, new leather, chocolate flavors, medium plus tannin). They were all yummy, but the shiraz I probably won't end up drinking just because it is a little too much like blueberry syrup.

We finished off by tasting a Hungarian and Austrian Gruner Veltliner back to back, followed by a Napa Cabernet Sauvignon from Conn Creek, finishing on what we actually wanted to dig into, which was a Slovakian Riesling. This Riesling was interesting because it was made by a famous German wine maker whose wife is Slovakian. He decided to make dry Slovakian Rieslings in the German style-and man is it delicioussss! This would be the equivalent of a Kabinett level sweetness (dryyyy) and would have paired excellently with some smoked salmon. If you haven't tried smoked salmon with dry reisling yet, get on it.

I've sat out on my porch for the last few nights now....I can deal with the whole shorts and a t-shirt in the middle of January!

Until next time, stay warm!

North Fork is for...Vintners?

DISCLAIMER: Yes I am in wine school and my instructors would probably yell at me for what I am about to write as it has less to do with actual quality than my own personal taste. This is more just about my general experience at the different vineyards and the wines I preferred there.

In my previous jobs in wine bars, I've never been overly impressed with New York (Fingerlike and Long Island) wines that were brought in for tastings or special events. I could appreciate what they were doing with the fuller bodied whites and sparklings, but the reds always fell a little short.

Well apparently they just don't export any of the good stuff! Right before Christmas my family decided to take the ferry over from Connecticut and spend a few days exploring this corner of the wine world, and indulge in far more oysters than is healthy for any human.

I really was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed a lot of what they were putting out. I tried to stick to the reserve lists, not out of snobbery, but as those lists generally have the wines that the vineyard prizes as their top wines. If they make anything worth tasting, those wines are going to be the best of the best examples of it.

The biggest surprise of the whole trip was how much I enjoyed the reds I tried. I really was expecting, well, to not like any of them. I certainly enjoyed the white more on a whole, but found about half the reds I tried very pleasant. Merlot and Cabernet Franc grow best in the area, so most were single varieties or blends of those two. I found a significant amount of Pinot Noir as well, but didn't enjoy them as much as their cabernet franc counterparts.

Anyhow, here are a few highlights from my trip:

1. Shinn Estate Vineyards, 2000 Oregon Road, Mattituck, New York

So on a whole, Shinn Estate was an interesting study in North Fork wines. It was our first stop on the trip. The grassy and savory quality of their house sparkling and their Haven oak aged sauvignon blanc/semillon blend was excellent. An organic quality that you miss sometimes in white wines in place of overly citrus or fruity flavors. Their coalescence blend and reds fell a little short, but the climate really isn't suited for those styles. Generally, a great start and an excellent expression of terroir in specific wines. The tasting room was also unbelievably charming. Old oak/cedar cabin style with small tables attached to a small B&B. We were the only ones there and I absolutely loved it. Very quaint...but can't imagine it in summer!

2. Lieb Cellars, 13050 Oregon Road, Cutchogue, New York

Lieb, I think, was our favorite of the trip, as far as wine quality goes. Little bit more acid and earth driven, with attempts to avoid too much residual sugar. Again, we were the only ones in there. It was great! The staff were amazing, the quality of wine, across the board (including reds) was great, and the room was large and comfortable without being stark or isolating. Just do it.

3. Lenz Winery, 38355 Main Road, Peconic Bay, New York

This was the dark horse of the trip. I had googled reviews on Lenz, seen intriguing things, and since it was across the street from Bedell.........we figured it was worth a shot. Their reds, in my opinion, were the most impressive of the lot. We got to do a little bit of a vertical tasting as well. Their whites were typical North Fork...enjoyable in the higher levels. Their team was really great behind the bar and we tasted so much more than the standard, without having to pay for it. As an aspiring Somm, this was great for me. I really got a sense for their style, range and terroir. I would highly recommend a visit here. They also had some really great wine kitch, including beautiful blown glass wine stoppers (my brother secretly bought us a bunch as presents!).

4. Bedell Cellars, 36225 Main Road, Cutchogue, New York

So apart from my brother looking extra suave, this was definitely the most "high end" tasting room we visited. I actually had featured Bedell wines at a wine tasting I conducted once, and used to sell their rose and white blends on my bottle list. It's a fancy example of North Fork wine, but it wasn't my favorite. They certainly play off the off dry strengths that the climate and terroir pushes the grapes towards, but it was VERY formal and you often need reservations. I preferred some of the other wines that were much more casually presented elsewhere, but I wouldn't count this one out for decadence.

5. Sparkling Pointe, 39750 Middle Road, Southold, New York


My last stop was a sparkling wine pairing at...you guessed it....Sparkling Pointe. They did a sushi pairing with the sparklings, which was nice. I prefer to taste things in comparison when I go to vineyards, to see the range and variety of their production. I really do like their wines and use it in a lot of my pairings, but the vineyard experience was a little overrated. They have a huge, lovely dining room, which I would prefer to be dining in to be perfectly honest.

On a whole, was a really great experience. If you like oysters.....the Peconic Bays are to DIE for. Just say yes. If you don't like seafood, or borderline off dry wine....maybe spend more money on drier climate wines with higher cattle content. 

Until next time, stay thirsty my friends.