06.06.2011 News Wine Column: New varieties add spice on North Fork In my last column, I wrote about Champagne vigneron Philippe Brun and his ironic take on being a “pirate” farmer. On a drive around his grand cru vine plots,...
05.23.2011 News Wine Column: Grape farmers are anything but dumb In a current television ad for Ocean Spray cranberry juice, a young man standing in a cranberry bog in rubber waders plays out the stereotype of a hick farmer...
05.09.2011 News Wine Column: Influence that shaped Osprey’s success Few are aware of the global scope of East End resident Peter M.F. Sichel’s influence on the wine world, but it extends from local winemakers here to captains of...
04.25.2011 News Wine Column: Late harvest can yield sweet results Even after a wine journalists’ jaunt to sweet-wine-centric Germany in September, I continue to prefer bone-dry wines, and rarely consume wines with more than half a percent residual sugar....
04.09.2011 News Wine Column: Aging hasn’t slowed these local ‘relics’ I can be pretty jaded when it comes to wine tastings, but there was no room for “been there, done that” at a tasting of 26 Long Island wines...
03.29.2011 News Wine Column: What makes Long Island wines ‘cool’ From 1973 to 1999, when I had my own vineyard, I always loved to work in the field after the sap began to flow in mid-March. The barely sweet...
03.14.2011 News Wine Column: Bacon chocolate, a jug of wine and thou Pairing food and wine is part of a wine journalist’s job description, but I rarely write about specific pairings because, frankly, I’d rather generalize: Good wine goes with good...
02.28.2011 News Wine Column: International adoption for Argentine wine The swarthy gaucho came tearing across the pampas, his muscular steed foaming with sweat as they galloped toward the campfire. Around them, the Andes rose in a wall of...
02.12.2011 News Wine Column: Tasting new wines before their time Every winter, I look forward to visiting some of my winemaking friends’ cellars to taste the most recent vintage. In January or February, the wines that were harvested in...
01.28.2011 News Wine Column: Getting serious about pink Champagne The wine world is a funny place, driven by trends, fashions and critics playing favorites. In the past few years, once-maligned rosé wines have soared in popularity. Now the...