The Finger Lakes Cork & Fork!

Yesterday was the first annual Cork & Fork festival in Seneca Falls, NY.  I got the opportunity to attend this event thanks to working at Casa Larga.  It was an interesting experience on two levels the first was that this is the first event like this I have been able to attend!   So it was a great experience getting to go to several of New York's wineries that I haven't been able to have the chance to try their wines.   The first winery I stopped by and gave a sip was Montezuma Winery.  I made a point of making this my First stop because my buddy Phil is the wine maker there and I owe him a great deal of thanks for getting me a job at Casa Larga.  I got a chance to try two of their wines that are the same blend but one is oak aged and one is just stainless steel aged.


Red-Tailed Red 
 This was the oak aged blend that I tried and it was delightful and a nice easy drinking oaked red.   
Canvasback Red
The Canvasback Red is the exact same blend as the Red-Tailed Red. I found this wine to be more enjoyable to drink than the Red-Tailed but thats because I don't enjoy oak as much. 


The next winery I got a chance to do some sampling of was the Swedish Hill Winery.  Quick note on Swedish Hill they won the 2010 Governor's Cup with their Riesling Cuvee, which I wasn't able to try at the event.  But what I was able to try was great!


2009 Dry Riesling
This was the first wine I tasted and I really enjoyed it.  This was a good classic Riesling with some great stony characteristic and the crispness you expect when you drink a great Riesling.
Viking Red
The Viking Red was the second wine I tasted from Swedish Hill and it was also pretty tasty!  This lightly oaked blend let the fruit come through the middle of the wine making it pretty smooth and not to dry.


The final winery I am going to talk about is Sheldrake Point  which has won best winery in New York two years running.  I am going to talk a little bit about their table wines.


2009 Luckystone White
This fun wine is a blend of Riesling, Muscat, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris and makes for a light easy drinking wine that reminds me of a sweet style Riesling. 
Luckystone Red
This blend is Pinot Noir, 08 Cabernet Franc, 07 Cabernet Franc, and Gamay Noir.  This fun wine had lots of fruit to it but also had some warmth and tannins to make it a great easy drinking red that if given the opportunity to try you should.


Now on to the reason that I had the chance to attend this event,  I was there being the face of Casa Larga and working their booth.  I had the chance to do my first tasting for people and talk about wine!  It was and absolute blast to get to do this for people.  Sure I was there to sell wine to people and get the Casa Larga name out there but more importantly I got to talk to people about wine.  Its always fun getting to see people try new wines and that moment of hesitation to see if they like the wine or just like to pass on it.  I do have to say that this was the first time that I have been the presenter of wine and that was a little nerve racking for the first hour.  But after that I settled in and was on a roll!   I really think that working in wine is a great match for me.

Some Weekly Things To Do!

Couple of things coming up this week. First off  a reminder that Wine Sense will be doing their typical Friday tasting with discounts on those wines from 5-7.  So if you aren't doing anything else check it out.

Something else that I have added to the calender is the Finger Lakes Cork & Fork event in Seneca Falls.  This is a paid event thats cost 25$ in advance tickets and 30$ at the door there will be demonstrations and tastings from a lot of Finger Lakes wineries.   I'll be there working for Casa Larga Vineyards on Saturday so stop by and say hello.

Thats what I have for right now I will continue to update the post as more things come up through the week.

Intro to the Glassware that Loves Wine!

So lets talk about glassware, more specifically the kind that we put our wonderful wine into!  Well the first thing we are going to talk about is what you can drink wine from.  The correct answer to this question is, pretty much anything.  Now there are somethings that are kind of frowned upon in society... like pitchers, ladles, straight from the bottle or from a bucket.   Now don't get me wrong how you enjoy your wine is none of my business,  my business is how ever to talk about the other vessels that are made for wine!

Excuse my slightly dirty glasses.

There are 3 main types of wine glasses, Red, White and Sparkling/Champagne. Everything else is a modification of those 3.  Above are examples of each of those 3. You will see wine glasses mainly made out of two materials, glass and lead crystal.  Yes there are plastic wine glasses but they don't warrant much discussion.

The next thing you should know are the different parts of a wine glass. Above you will see a diagram showing the 3 parts.  The top most part is the bowl and it holds the wine, obvious yes, but it had characteristics we will talk about later in the types of wine glasses section.  The next part down on the glass is the stem, again the obvious, its where you hold the glass and separates the bowl from the foot.  Speaking of feet the bottom of the glass is the foot it does what your feet do and keep you planted on the surface of your choice. So now that you are familiar with your wine glasses lets talk about some basic usage of your wine glasses.

Now that you know your wine glass anatomy lets talk about how to use your glasses.  First off when filling them only fill them to the widest part of the bowl this will allow you to get the best view of your wine as well as tilt it to get your nose in the bowl to smell it.  The next thing you should do is hold your wine glass by the stem... IT'S WHY IT'S THERE.  Holding the wineglass by the bowl or cupping the bottom of the bowl may look cool but it warms the wine up and leaves finger prints all over that will obscure your view of your wine.

Sorry about the tilt but its the only way I could get it framed on my Phone.

Finally the foot. Other than being the part of the wineglass that holds up the rest it is very useful when swirling your wine.  Placing the stem between your middle and ring finger and placing your hand on the table over the foot will allow you to swirl the wine in a very controlled way (see above video) allowing you to bring out all your favorite aromas.  So starting off with these fine pointers will get you on your way to enjoying your wine that much more.

My next post will be some suggestions on stemware, where to buy it and so forth.

~Court + Wine