Browsing CategoryWhat We Drank

What We Drank ( July 23, 2014)

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor: The Commons Brewery, Flemish Kiss Among all of my beer-loving friends, I have two guys that I always absolutely geek-out with when we get together. We always try to pick up new beers that we haven’t had, explore styles that we know we like and occasionally try something that we don’t really expect to like. Over the weekend, I got together with one of these friend and we tasted a bunch of stuff but mostly farmhouse styles and Brett-influenced beers. Of the two Brett beers, the one was harsh, searingly dry and too much about the…

What We Drank ( June 11, 2014 )

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor: Schloss Gobelsburg 2013 Gobelsburger Gruner Veltliner, Kamptal I’ll write more about this soon, but I’ve been lucky enough over the past month or so to become the wine buyer for a soon-to-open restaurant here on Long Island. It’s going to be a gastropub with a focus on beer, so the wine list isn’t front and center, but the chef and owners have tasked me with creating a fairly small wine list that will appeal to a wide audience but also push them out of their comfort zones a bit too. And of course my target is…

What We Drank (May 28, 2014)

Lindsay Prichard, Finger Lake Correspondent: Bellangelo 2010 Fifty/50 As Memorial Day was winding down on Monday night, I decided to check the wine cellar to find a wine that would pair well with the latest History Channel mini-series that I had planned to watch. With the prospect of work the next day, I decided to pull an easy-drinking white. I had a few candidates in mind, but settled on the 2012 Fifty/50 from Villa Bellangelo. Although I had tasted several of Bellangelo’s wines, I had never tried this particular one. Fifty/50 is a blend of 50% Riesling and 50% Gewurztraminer with Riesling…

What We Drank (May 14, 2014)

Lindsay Prichard, Finger Lake Correspondent: Pappy Van Winkle 15-year-old Reserve Bourbon I was recently in Nashville to visit my son who lives there. The city is famous for lots of things: music, food, history – and an abundance of southern bourbon. I’m not a whiskey aficionado and my normal drink of choice would be wine or beer. But I decided to take a “when in Rome” approach and sample some of the South’s finest. I had heard about “Pappy” from my whiskey-drinking friends, but had never tried it myself. When our server brought it out, he said “if heaven was a whiskey,…

What We Drank ( May 2, 2014 )

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor – Domaine Chignard 2012 Fleurie “Les Moriers” My birthday was last weekend. I turned 39, so it wasn’t any sort of milestone. Not worth spending money on a birth-year wine. That’ll be next year. I did use my birthday as an excuse to go wine shopping though. I spend most of the house wine budget on local wines, but I decided to visit the only decent wine shop for 30 miles and came home with this beautiful Fleurie. Beaujolais is always a good bet in my house. It’s one of the few regions that my wife…

What We Drank (April 10, 2014)

  Editor’s Note: Starting today, we will publish WWD twice a month, rather than every week, going forward Amy Zavatto, Contributing Editor: Macari Vineyards 2010 Riesling Kelly Urbanik’s first vintage with the Joe and Alexandra Macari, this Finger Lakes-sourced beauty started off with a little petroleum on the nose that blew off after a bit, and then opened up with aromas of beeswax, fresh, juicy pears, nougat, and white flowers. It’s mouth filling and lush, with weight and length that tells of the warm vintage this came from, but with a delicious zing and bite of minerality, grapefruit juice, and zest, and…

What We Drank (April 1, 2014)

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor: Paumanok Vineyards 2012 Riesling Saturday night, we hosted three couples — new-ish friends we’ve made through our first grader, actually — for drinks before heading out to dinner together to our local BYO joint. I pulled nearly a case of New York wines from my cellar and I could easily have picked any of them for WWD this week. Instead, I’m going to write about this bottle that one of the couple brought for us as a “host/hostess gift.” It’s rare that someone brings wine to my house (why? I WANT it as a gift, always) and I hadn’t…

What We Drank (March 26, 2014)

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor: Jules Taylor Wines 2011 Barrel Fermented Sauvignon Blanc I don’t get wine as a gift very often, but when a teammate at my day job was in town from the Bay Area, he brought me a couple wines that he and his wife enjoy. His wife is the general manager of an importer, so that means more than it might otherwise. When I saw “Barrel Fermented” on the label, it gave me pause. My disdain for oaky whites is well documented. But only older barrels were used here and I have to tell you — I really…

What We Drank 2014.03.19

  Todd Trzaskos, Contributing Editor: Macari Vineyards Early Chardonnay 2013 It being the New York Cork Report’s 10th anniversary I felt compelled to open something from the Empire Wine Cellars Club selections. This is the second time we’ve encountered this wine via the club, and I’m starting to think I need to buy direct. The flavors of this wine bring back youthful memories of summer bike rides to the local soda shop where we’d turn spare change into a treasure trove of penny candies. It’s intensely possessed by the spirit of sweet tarts…the green apple and lemon ones especially.  Many might take…

What We Drank 2014.03.12

Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor:  SingleCut Beersmiths Full Stack IIPA Long Island has enjoyed a beer renaissance in the years since I moved here just over a decade ago. Breweries continue to pop up all over the Island. Beer bars (or at least bars with a handful of good beers) are increasingly common. But my section of Long Island has been slow to get on board, with only one or two options if I want to go out for an interesting pint of beer. No more. We’re still not drowning in craft beer options, but there are a handful of places…