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SPONSORED: 2016 Adirondack Wine & Food Festival | June 25 & 26

The 2016 Adirondack Wine & Food Festival is coming up in just a couple of weeks — and it’s looking to be a great event that features wine and other products from across the state. “This festival celebrates the bounty of amazing craft beverages and locally made foods that New York has to offer and we’re not short on vendors for this year’s event,” said Owner Sasha Pardy. The vendor list for the 2016 Adirondack Wine & Food Festival includes 21 wineries, 4 breweries, 4 distilleries, 2 cideries, 19 artisan food vendors, 6 food / beverage trucks, 1 local restaurant…

Coming in June: The Cork Report’s 2015 Eastern Rosé Tasting

New York wine remains the core of this website, but — as you’ve probably noticed — I’ve started to stretch my legs a bit. I’ve been learning about and tasting wines from other eastern states, which I’m arbitrarily defining as any state that isn’t California, Oregon or Washington, more. My time organizing TasteCamp up and down the east coast, as well as my time on the Drink Local Wine board, taught me something: there are some seriously delicious wines made in places even a local wine advocate might not expect — places like New Jersey, Connecticut, Colorado, Michigan, Virginia, Vermont,…

From the Archives: Finger Lakes Flooding Leaves Devastation but Minimal Impact on Wine Industry

Photo Courtesy of Miles Wine Cellars Facebook Page Editor’s Note: On most Thursdays — call them Throwback Thursday if you’d like — we’ll pull a story from the more than a decade of NYCR and republish it. This week’s “From the Archives” was written by Evan Dawson and Paul Zorovich, and covers flooding in the Finger Lakes two years ago. On Tuesday night, May 13, northern Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes was hit with the most severe storms it’s had since Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Reports say that between 4 and 9 inches of rain fell, coming largely in two waves…

Corks of the Forks: Long Island Wineries Should Act, Not Talk

The internet is a place of quick judgments and irrational over-reaction. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that when the Long Island Wine Council, led by executive director Steve Bate and marketing director Ali Tuthill, met with the Southold Town Board to discuss some recommended changes to how local wineries operate, people lost their minds. Lost. Their. Minds. Many supposed-longtime wine club members vowed in Facebook posts to never buy another drop of local wine. Others called the plans — which include things like eliminating live music on weekends, one-ounce tasting pours and requiring reservations for groups larger than six —…

Keuka Spring Vineyards 2014 Cabernet Franc

On my last visit to the Finger Lakes, I got to spend some time with the Keuka Spring Vineyards winemaking team. As I tasted with head winemaker August Deimel and assistant winemaker Rachel Hadley, I realized something pretty unique: though they are using oak barrels of various age and in varying percentages in their rose and Gewurztraminer programs, oak barrels have been completely eliminated from the red wine program for the 2015 vintage — and for the foreseeable future. Now, this is primarily a white wine house anyway, but it’s a bold shift to remove oak from the reds program…

New York Cork Club: May 2016 Selections

With summer just around the corner — despite the cool, grey weather blanketing most of the northeast right now — I wanted to pick some wines this month that are well suited to warmer weather occasions and foods. I think I’ve done that with these wines even if they don’t offer the same sense of discovery as some other picks have. These aren’t obscure producers or grapes or wines that you haven’t seen before. Instead, I’ve chosen two delicious wines from two of my favorite producers — one in the Finger Lakes and one on Long Island. My first pick is…

New York #Tastemaker: Ian Barry | Barry Family Cellars

“Tastemaker” is a term typically used to describe a person — either a sommelier or writer in the wine world — who decides what is good, cool or otherwise interesting. With our new #NYTastemaker profiles, I’ve decided to usurp the term to mean someone who actually makes the wines, ciders, spirits, etc. that we love. A “tastemaker” should make something, after all. I first met Ian Barry, winemaker and general manager of Barry Family Cellars several years ago when he was working at a far-larger winery on Cayuga Lake. He was making at least two dozen different wines every year…

Uncork the Forks: Local Wines Should Be on Local Menus

(Photo Credit: David Benthal for northforker) Local wine people — both inside and out of the industry proper — have long lamented how few local restaurants support and offer local wine. Short of visiting every restaurant and asking to see their wine lists, it is hard to know precisely who is listing local wine and how much of it. Visiting restaurant websites — many of which aren’t updated very often, rendering them largely useless — does offer some insight, though. The results are still ugly, though there are some exceptions — restaurants doing good things with local wine. Some restaurants,…

New York #Tastemaker: Anthony Nappa | Raphael & Anthony Nappa Wines

“Tastemaker” is a term typically used to describe a person — either a sommelier or writer in the wine world — who decides what is good, cool or otherwise interesting. With our new #NYTastemaker profiles, I’ve decided to usurp the term to mean someone who actually makes the wines, ciders, spirits, etc. that we love. A “tastemaker” should make something, after all. As a wine lover and a wine writer, I know that I can trust Anthony Nappa, winemaker at Raphael, owner of Anthony Nappa Wines and co-owner of The Winemaker Studio with his chef-wife Sarah. It’s not just that his wines almost always…

Keuka Lake Vineyards NV KLV Red

Need another reminder that generalizations can be dangerous in the wine world? Look no further than Keuka Lake Vineyards NV KLV Red ($16). Many will look at a wine like this one — without a vintage year on the label — and look elsewhere for something to drink. I get it, often non-vintage wines end up being whatever is left over and the wines aren’t very good. But you know what they say happens when you assume. This is a blend that is mostly cabernet franc, with Leon Millot, pinot noir and a “splash” of Delaware rounding out the blend. It’s…