Whitcliff Vineyard's Gourmet Burger Celebration

This event is a must! Have you eaten local grass fed beef, paired with red wine? You should attend this event. I attend last year and was amazed at the difference a grass fed burger tastes.
Paired with Whitecliff's red wines...yum!! I hope they have their Malbec bottled for this event. Last year it paired great with the burgers!

At this event, you will enjoy the pleasures of eating local in a Hudson Valley summer at Whitecliff Vineyard’s Red Wine & Grass-Fed Beef Gourmet Burger Celebration. It all takes place on Saturday and Sunday, August 25th and 26th, from 12 to 4 p.m. Saturday, and 12-3 Sunday. The Celebration will give you a true taste of Hudson Valley agriculture, as it offers up the delicious synergy of wine, burgers from local grass-fed beef, sweet corn, and ice cream.

For more information and tickets you can call the winery at 845-255-4613. You can visit their website as well at www.whitecliffwine.com

New York Wine & Food Classic

Congratulations Rivendell Winery...their 2006 Soho Cellars Johannisberg Riesling won Best Semi-Dry Riesling Wine at the 2007 New York Wine & Food Classic that was held last week at Copia in Napa, CA.

The awards were based on blind tastings by 24 expert judges—10 from California, 6 from New York, 6 from other states, and 2 from other countries. Judges included prominent wine writers, restaurateurs, retailers, and wine educators. Four-judge panels determined the initial awards, with top-scoring wines evaluated by all 24 judges for Best of Category and Governor’s Cup awards.

For more information on the compeition visit www.newyorkwines.org

Bounty of the Hudson

The Bounty of the Hudson Food & Wine Festival is this weekend July 28 & 29th at Brotherhood, America's Oldest Winery in Washingtonville NY. Festival hours are from 12noon to 5pm each day, rain or shine. This festival is host to all Hudson Valley Wineries, not just those located on the Shawangunk Wine Trail. There will be food as well as farm fresh produce from local farms.

Ticket prices are $25 in advance and $33 at the door.

For more information call 845-255-2494 or visit Shawangunk Wine Trail

See you there!

Jumpin Jazz @ Glorie

Here it is...the new label from Glorie Farm Winery. Glorie held a contest for the label of their new Jumpin Jazz wine. A beautiful label as well as a fine tasting wine. Jumpin Jazz is a blend of Seyval, Cayuga White an Vidal. It's a semi sweet wine with hints of citrus, melon and tropical fruit. It's quite lovely and is a nice summer wine!

I attended the festivities yesterday at Glorie Farm Winery. The winning artist was Brandi Budziak from Lexington, New York. There currently is a silent auction going on for the original artwork. Auction ends at 5pm on September 1st, 2007. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Animal Rescue Foundation in Beacon, New York.

Trail Happenings

Boy, I've been lacking on my posts. I do apologize.

There has been a lot going on, on the trail this summer. I hope you have had time to come and visit.

Next weekend Glorie Farm is unveiling their Jumpin Jazz Label. Big party at their winery. I plan on being present for this unveiling. Should be very exciting!

The Bounty of the Hudson is coming up at Brotherhood, America's Oldest Winery, on July 28 & 29th. I'll be posting more info on that in the next few weeks.

Tasting @ Adair Vineyards

I had the chance during the pasta event to taste at Adair Vineyards. They were serving an Almond Torte that was very good and went right to my hips.

The first wine I tasted was the 2005 Vidal. This was a dry white wine made from 100% Vidal Blanc Grapes. Vidal is a grape that grows very well in the Hudson Valley. This was aged in Hungarian Oak barrels. With that it give the wine a hint of carmel flavor. This wine was crisp with citrus fruit flavors. It was very good. Something you would pair with seafood.

Next was the Blackberry Kir. This was light fruity and refreshing. It had a little residual sugar... 2 3/4 to be exact. It was made with 30% Seyval, 40% Vidal, 30% Blackberry wine, which was made from blackberries from the Marlboro/Milton area.

Then it was on to Rosalias...a dry Rose. When poured, it was dark, not your typical pink looking Rose. It is made from 25% Chambourcin, 29% Dechaunac, 25% Frontenac & 25% Chancellor. It was very nice with overtones of cherry and strawberry.

The last wine I tasted was their 2006 Peche. This is a sweet dessert wine made from 100% local New Paltz white peaches. This makes a nice after dinner drink, or drizzled over a fruit salad.

If you had the opportunity to tast any of these wines, I would love to hear how you enjoyed them.

Warwick Vally Winery & Distillery

It was a beautiful day last Saturday for the Pasta Primo Vino event, a far cry from last years rain. Our first stop was Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery. They have done some renovations to the winery and bakery area since last year. The big doors leading out to the patio were open giving the outdoor café feel.

We tasted tasted 5 wines during our visit here. The first was a Merlot, which was also used in the pasta dish. This Merlot was crafted from 100% Merlot grapes which were picked at peak ripeness. It was then aged in French Oak for 24 months. We felt it was a light bodied wine with hints of cherry and cassis.

We then tasted the Riesling. This Riesling had a wonderful floral nose with hints of apple and pear. It was a Semi-sweet wine with a light mineral finish. These types of wines go great with spicy food. I like them with Thai food.

Next up was the Black Dirt Blush. This was grape jelly in a glass. If you grew up with Welches or Smuckers grape jelly, this smell of this wine will bring you back to your childhood. These grapes were made from the Vincent and Delaware grapes.

Then it was onto the Hard Cider…Doc’s Hard Cider… I’ve had the Apple before, which is very good, so I decided to try something different. I tried the Black Currant Cider and Paul tried the Pear Cider. The Pear Cider was very dry. It is made from Bartlett and Bosc pears. The Black Currant Cider is made from pressed NYS apples and fermented with Champagne yeast and local black currants. Both ciders are very good and will quench your thirst on a hot summers day.

Pasta Primo-Vino

I hope all who attended the event had a wonderful time. I did! We tasted some wonderful new releases as well as some wonderful pasta dishes. (picture of Rivendell's Orzo Pasta Salad.) My favorite dish was Applewood's Baked Ziti with Sausage and Ricotta. I wonder if it will taste as good when I try to make it:)

I would love to hear your comments on the event.

Pasta Pasta Pasta

I have heard from some of the wineries and the pasta dishes sound wonderful. Here is some of what you can expect:

Almond Torte Pasta, Baked Ziti with Ricotta and Sausage, Shrimp, Bean and Pasta Salad, Pasta e Piselli (Oricchiette), Stuffed Shells, Orzo Pasta Salad, Asian Pasta, Pasta with Bolognese Sauce.

Now guess who is serving which dish.

Pasta Primo-Vino

The season is starting...the annual Pasta Primo-Vino is this coming up weekend April 21 & 22 on the trail. Many wineries will be featuring new releases.

I will be around on the trail, taking pictures. I will be posting on the different wines that I will have the opportunity to taste.

We encourage you to contribute to our blog and post your comments.
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If you need tickets to the event, you can purchase them by clicking here.

What's an AVA

An AVA is an American viticultural area. That means it has been recognized and defined by Federal regulators to include a specific geographical area as a wine-growing region.AVA’s were first established by law in 1973, the regulations governing them were finalized in 1978 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the regulations became mandatory in 1983.

What does all that mean to wineries and wine-drinkers?

The idea of the AVA was to establish standards to protect consumers and producers alike. The regulations control what a winery needs to do if it wants to label wine as being from an AVA.

To label a wine as “Estate Bottled”, the winery must own or control vineyards in a common AVA from which the grapes come, and must handle the entire process of making and bottling the wine on their own premises.

The AVA is not necessarily an indication of quality. The regulations do not allow for the government to test and grade the quality of wine the way they do eggs or meat. It is an indication of where the grapes came from, and generally indicates areas that have historically grown grapes for wine and have a particular defining characteristic. As long as the interested parties in an area can provide the data to persuade the regulators to approve their petition, almost anything can be a designated. The process is long and expensive – you need work from historians, soil experts, meteorologists, lawyers and others to detail the AVA and shepherd your petition through the system. The costs of that add up quickly, but well over 100 AVAs have been designated since the regulations went into effect.

Wine-drinkers benefit by that protection as well. The AVA regulations allow the consumer to buy with confidence, knowing that wine that says Hudson River Valley, actually came from the Hudson River Valley AVA. No need to wonder where the grapes were actually grown.

The AVA will also allow you to make certain broad characterizations. If you like a particular wine from an AVA and know of several similar ones you have tasted, you might place more confidence in purchasing a similar but unknown wine from that same AVA. Nothing can guarantee satisfaction here, but you may be able to form some general rules for what you find appealing.

Stoutridge Vineyard

WOW! is what I have to say about Stoutridge. Steve and Kim have done an incredible job on designing this winery. A lot of thought, love and attention to detail have gone into this state of the art winery.

This winery sits on the site of the "1902" Marono Winery. Stoutridge will feature a "gravity flow" style production.

They have an indoor event room that can accommodate 125 persons with spacious rooftop patios adjoining. Beginning the summer of 2007, they will have an underground barrel room available for dinner events up to 30 people.

Not only will Steve and Kim be producing wonderful wine, but they will also be producing Whisky and flavored Vodka. The flavored Vodka will be flavored from fruits from surrounding farms.

A tour of this winery is a must! Congratulation to Steve and Kim!

Whitecliff Harvest

I just got back from visiting two vineyard / wineries...Whitecliff & Stoutridge.

At Whitecliff, as I stood in the tasting room, I could look into the winery and see the tanks filled with juice and crushed grapes. You can see the Merlot grapes crushed fermenting with their skins on. The entire winery smells of crushed grapes... It's a nice sweet smell.

Fermenting in other tanks are Seyval, Vignoles, and Riesling. If you have the time to visit on Sunday, you will get the opportunity to see Michael and his staff at work crushing Malbec and Merlot.

The next stop was Stoutridge...Stay tuned and I'll write more later on that beautiful state of the art winery!

Harvest

It's harvest time in the area. Many of the wineries are in the midst of processing the next few years vintages. If you have time to visit, you will learn lots about the wine making process.

Cheers,

Baldwin Wins Double Gold

Baldwin Vineyards won a double Gold Medal for their Strawberry Wine. This made their Strawberry Wine the Best Fruit Wine in New York State for the third year in a row.

Congratulations Pat and Jack!!!

Benmarl's Winemakers Workshop #4

Sunday October 22 from 11:00AM to 3:00PM join Benmarl's winemaker Kristop Brown in the cellar.

The grapes have been harvested and are in the cellar. Find out what happens next in the winery!

Celebrate the harvest with Winemaker Kristop Brown. Coffee, donuts, lunch & wine tasting all for $25.00.

Reservations are a must ... Call 845-236-4265 ext. 102.

Benmarl Winery

Annual Benmarl Harvest Grap Stomping Festival

ANNUAL BENMARL HARVEST GRAPE STOMPING FESTIVAL
Saturday & Sunday, October 7-8
From 12 Noon to 6 PM

Stomp grapes (be just like Lucy)
take a hayride
learn about winemaking
tours-tastings-food
and much much more.

Crafts for the kids ... Vendors for the grownups

This is your chance to be voted by your friends as
the 2006 "King & Queen of the Harvest Festival".

Admission:
Adults, with wine tasting ... $15.00
Designated drivers, non-drinkers ... $10.00
Minors, non-drinkers ... $5.oo
Buy your tickets at the gate.

Benmarl Winery is Open Daily from 12 Noon to 6 PM

Located at 156 Highland Avenue, Marlboro, N.Y

Pictures from the Bounty

I have posted pictures from the Bounty on the website. Click here to view them.

Glorie Farm Winery "Jumpin Jazz" Wine Label Contest

Glorie Farm Winery announces a "Jumpin Jazz Wine Label Conterst.

Artists from the Hudson Valley Region, loosely defined as counties that border the Hudson River from Albany to New York City, plus Bergen County, New Jersey, are invited to submit their artwork for consideration to be used on the Glorie Jumpin Jazz bottle. Entry fee is $10 and one submission per artist is allowed. The winning work will be printed on 4” x 4” labels, and artists are encouraged to be creative.

In addition to being featured on the Glorie Farm Winery website as well as promotional materials related to the contest, the winning artist will receive half the entry fees, a case of the labeled wine, plus two free tickets to Bounty of the Hudson 2007, an annual event sponsored by the Shawangunk Wine Trail. The artist’s name will also appear on the label.

For more information and details go the Glorie Farm Winerey Website

winemakers workshop @ Benmarl

-Saturday, August 19th from 11AM to 3PM
Winemaker's Workshop #3
Benmarl Winemaker Kristop Brown takes a day out of his
busy pre-harvest schedule to lead attendees on a romp
through the vineyard. Want the answers to questions
like "What is Veraison"? Bring your own questions to
stump the pro. We will provide lunch, a winetasting
and complimentary gift to each attendee.
Yes, you should attend even if it is your first
workshop ... each is a unique and fun experience.
Fee and reservation required by Thursday August 17th.
845-236-4265 ext. 102