Finger Lakes Chardonnay

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we visited my parents in the Albany New York area. On Saturday night, we had some time to kill so we asked, “Where do you get your wine?” They directed us to the Exit 9 Wine and Liquor in Clifton Park, NY. This is a large discount wine store. They price their bottles by the case price, meaning you don’t get a case discount, but you get an excellent deal. We found some wines that we know well and noted the prices to be very competitive.

Now I was on a mission. Our readers may recall that my first wine was a New York Catawba. I was used to producers such as Great Western and Taylor from my youth. I wanted to find out if New York was capable of producing wines that are interesting, fun and something that would keep me going back to my wine glass with strong interest. Can New York produce a wine that would make me shut out the rest of the world as I savored the universe held in my hand?

I told the sales associate that I have been away from the east coast for the last 20 years and I want to know what is being produce locally that is worth while. The week before, they had 20 New York State producers in the shop giving tastings. He pointed me to three wines that fit our request, Lamoreaux Landing was one of them.

Chardonnay
Lamoreaux Landing
Finger Lakes
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 12.5%
Price: $9.76

Color: Yellow
Intensity: Pale
Aromas: Pear, melon, litchi, banana, orange blossom, slate, earth, vanilla, oak.
Flavors: Lime, apple, pear, pineapple, grass, mineral, butterscotch.
Body: Light
Acidity: Crisp
Sweetness: Off-dry
Finish: Short


Summary:
Nice explosive fruit forward, very aesthetic color, tree fruit sensations with lime mid tongue tastes. Earthy slate taste. As the wine opened up, the vanilla and oak flavors joined the chorus. Taster B exclaimed, “We need to get a case.” As the wine warmed up in the glass, (I served it a tad too cool), the vanilla and oak flavors just permeated my glass.

For the price, this wine is an excellent value. When we started discussing the wine, we wondered what we paid. I thought it was about $15.00. When I pulled the receipt, we both were stunned! This Chardonnay is oak aged, but it is very subtly done and complements the wine. Very pleasant.

The pairing of this wine, of course, gnocci in vegetable broth, light chicken dishes, and tonight, it was excellent with poached haddock with herbs and rice.

Magic Food, Sometimes you have to Pull a Rabbit out of a Hat.

No, I’m not making hasenpfeffer, it is late, there is next to nothing left in the pantry and I’m hungry. Taster B is coming home from work at 7:30 and although she doesn’t expect dinner, I like to let her know I’m thinking of her.

So there I was, standing in front of the fridge for 5 minutes thinking, "I have nothing to work with". The pantry was missing the emergency tomato sauce. That saved my butt last night. I pride myself on always being able to pull a rabbit out of my hat when it came to matters in the kitchen, but I was ready to give up and to run up to the corner for a pizza. (Oh, that bottle of Super Tuscan is starting to sound good.)

Then out of the corner of my eye, I spied a bottle with a bit of white wine. I’m SAVED! I grabbed two carrots, a handful of kale, two medium onions, two sticks of celery, a finger of ginger, some fresh parsley and got to work.

The vegetables were rough-chopped and put into a five quart pan, covered with water and the remains of two bottles of white wine saved for cooking. This made about two or three cups of wine. The kale is cut fairly fine in long strips. The onions were caramelized in a frying pan with some olive oil and two cloves of garlic while the other vegetables were boiling like mad in the stock pot to which I added some marjoram, rosemary, a half of teaspoon of cayenne pepper, ground black pepper, sea salt, a big cube of peeled ginger, and dill.

I had some frozen gnocci that we bought from a local Italian deli. Oh, this is going to be good.

Cook the veggies until they are done (I mean really done). I let this boil hard, covered for 20 minutes. Usually, I’ll simmer for a couple of hours. Your vegetable stock should be ready now with the color extracted from the kale and carrots. Remove the vegetables (most would have you pitch the veggies because you just want the flavor--I’m going to put some rice vinegar on them and serve them as a salad tomorrow).

Now bring the stock back to a boil and put the gnocci in and cook for five to seven minutes. Oh, this came out perfect. The white wine gave it a citrus flavor, with the ginger in the background and slight taste of cayenne.

Pair it with a New York State Chardonnay and you’ve got a gourmet meal. Save a little for the photo props and you have your snack set aside for later. I'll talk about the Lamoreaux Landing Chardonnay in the near future.

Dionysus

Click to animate.

Can’t Ship There from Here.

It’s an old New England witticism, particularly in Vermont where I hail from, “How do I get to Barre?” asks the stranger to the farmer. “Can’t get they-ah from he-ah.” “Well then,” protests the stranger, “where does this road go?” “Why, I’ve lived here for fifty-eight years, and it ain’t gone no-way'ah yet.”

On our trips to Sonoma, Paso Robles and the Russian River, we’ve been running into the problem of how much can we purchase and still get it home. Since our state is so difficult to ship to, many of the small producers we visit cannot direct ship to us. The problem becomes, how can we purchase the wines that we tasted on out trip at home? Can’t ship they-ah from he-ah.


How can this be?

It all can be tracked back to Prohibition. As a child I heard the stories told by my aunt’s husband, about his uncle’s car being riddled with bullet holes when he crossed the Canadian border with a trunk full of hooch. When I was about five years old, we were visited by great uncle Walter (who also married into the family). He was telling a story at the dinner table about his adventures playing banjo in a speak-easy and getting raided by the cops.

If I knew these people from only one or two degrees of separation, then perhaps these activities were not uncommon and booze was very prevalent during Prohibition. Not to mention my grandmother and her siblings sledding great-grandfather’s spent grappa mash to the river on their sleds in the middle of the night to covertly dispose of the evidence.

So how does this answer the question of how did direct wine shipping became so discombobulated in the US? During Prohibition, the alcohol industry was pretty much a vertical monopoly. The major markets were supplied by organized crime. The same mobsters produced, distributed, ran the clubs and sold the product.

At the end of Prohibition, politicians were faced with a problem. The supply chain that they were getting their libations from were run by criminals. In order to weed out the criminals, it was necessary to make it illegal for anyone with a criminal record to play a role in the industry.

Producers were required to be bonded by the federal government. Wholesale distributors were required to be bonded by each state government where they did business. Every retailer and restaurant was required to be licensed by the government of that state subject to review by local authorities. Further, one can not hold a distributor’s license and a retailer’s license. You can be a producer or a distributor, but not both. Thus the supply and distribution channels became split up.

In order to get the states’ support, they were given the responsibility of controlling the sale of alcohol as they saw fit. Some states even delegated responsibility down to the county level. In some states, you have no choice but to by your liquor and wine from state owned stores.

In all of our trips to wine countries, we have found one winery that can ship wine to our door. They bundle direct shipments together to our state and ship it to a distributor in our state...for a fee. The distributor then ships to our home. This adds to the price of the wine. But we feel it is damn good wine that we cannot get locally.

Other wineries that we purchase from ship our wine to my parents in New York. A New York excise tax is applied, (ouch!). With the wine club discount, we still are slightly ahead. Life goes on, so it may as well be a good life worth enjoying. For us, that means a break from the mass market wines from time to time.

The Fear of Flying
Flying wine home? Check the http://www.tsa.gov/ website for the latest rules regarding alcohol. Many wineries have special gorilla proof wine boxes for check-in baggage and there are some great wine carriers available on-line and at wine accessory stores. At the time of this posting, you can carry on a corkscrew.

Obligatory Turkey and Wine Pairing Blog Post

Anybody who's anybody already posted a well researched 'What to drink with turkey' blog so, I will join in for the sake of keeping up appearances but, since I didn't do any of the actual research myself, I will list a Top 3 Thanksgiving Wine Pairing Blog Post list!

This is my 2007 Top 3 Thanksgiving Turkey and Wine Pairing Blog Post list:

• I like this list from Winery Adventures
• Dr. Debs is already looking ahead to Thanksgiving leftovers on Good Wines Under $20
• Thanksgiving recipes that rock from Wine.com

Have a great holiday!

Rabbit Ridge, our lucky winery.

In July 2004, we took a drive from Colorado to the Russian River region. We drove through Healdsburg and visited Rabbit Ridge’s northern tasting room. Recently, Rabbit Ridge announced the sale of their Healdsburg properties and is focusing on the Paso Robles vineyards.

On that 2004 trip we picked up a mixed case of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel. The prices of the wines are very reasonable. The wines offer a complexity not often found in their price point.

Our Lucky Winery
Rabbit Ridge became our traditional “celebrate the good news before it comes in” wine. When we feel we have sewn up a big deal or we are expecting to get the job offer, we will pop open a bottle of Rabbit Ridge to celebrate the pending arrival of good news.

This is one of the wineries that we can purchase locally. Tonight I made a vegetarian spaghetti sauce with garlic, onions and the tail end of an unfinished red Bordeaux. We had a bottle of 2005 Zinfandel in the wine rack. Many of our friends ask us to post notes on wines below $15.00, so this wine is a good choice. Expect to pay from $8.00 to $12.00 depending on your wine shop.

2005 Central Coast Zinfandel Barrel Cuvee
Rabbit Ridge Winery

AVA: Paso Robles
Alcohol: 15.0%
Price: $7.99

Color: Ruby red
Intensity: Medium
Aromas: Blackberry, cherry, current, jammy, floral, earth, eucalyptus, black pepper, chocolate
Flavors: Blackberry, boysenberry, current, plum, tobacco, black pepper, vanilla, cedar, chocolate.
Body: Full
Acidity: Moderate
Tannins: Soft
Finish: Long

Summary:
Very fruit forward. This is a young Zinfandel. Let the finish play out. You will be delighted as the finish goes from fruit to spice to a wonderfully smooth tannin feel. The aromas are big and surprisingly complex for this price point. Maybe a bit sweeter than you average Zin with a 15% alcohol level.

Pairings:
This wine will go with a wide range of cuisines, Moroccan, Italian, and Lebanese. This wine, with its sweetness, will do well with most deserts.

Really Good Wine - Really Great Price!

We opened up this mysterious bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma Creek we couldn't quite remember buying. It was just like Christmas! Great bottle of $15 wine that tastes like a $30 bottle.

2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
Sonoma Creek

AVA: Dry Creek, Sonoma Co.
Alcohol: 14.5%

Color: Purple
Aromas: smoked meat, vanilla, jam, raspberry, chocolate
Flavors: tar, coffee, blackberry, allspice, rose

Summary: Gorgeous color and wonderful nose. Nice mouthfeel with silky tannins and interesting palate: I was first struck by somewhat bitter notes of coffee and tar which quickly faded to nice round chewy fruit and a subtley floral finish.

Pairings: While I noted down that this would be good with anything with Hoisin Sauce, the actual pairing turned out to be spinach ravioli in a light butternut squash and wine reduction, with chevre and baby greens tossed in balsamic vinegar on sourdough toast. I hope Taster A doesn't put me in a home: I keep repeating the phrase "this is really good wine!"