This video comes from Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Cellars, the Finger Lakes establishment that this year is marking its 50th anniversary.
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Category Archives: History
• ‘Washington & Wine’ at Albany Institute
ALBANY — Having recently returned from lending a hand making apple brandy at George Washington’s Mount Vernon Distillery, I have trouble thinking of ol’ George in connection with wine. He was, after all, the young nation’s leading distiller at the time of his death in 1799.
Nevertheless, I’m shifting mental gears in keeping with an event created by the Albany Institute of History & Art to showcase its exhibit “First in the Hearts of His Countrymen: George Washington” — a wine-and-hors d’oeuvres event dubbed “Washington & Wine.”
The 6 to 8 p.m. event next Thursday (November 10) will include meeting new museum director David Carroll and a tour of the exhibit led by curator W. Douglas McCombs as a harpist plays music from the period. Wine samples will be provided by Capital Wine.
The exhibit, which runs through May 20, 2012, “showcases an eclectic array of items from the Institute’s collection, including teapots, plates, busts, documents, personal correspondence, lithographs, paintings, and even a walking stick cut from a tree near his Mount Vernon grave site, all paying tribute to this purely American hero,” according to the museum.
Tickets for “Washington & Wine” are $55 for members, $65 for non-members. reservations are required and may be made by this Friday at (518) 463-4478, extension 469 or by e-mail.
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• Past, present mix in a punch bowl
During the Dutch Golden Age, a tremendous outpouring of creativity pushed the borders of 17th-century art, philosophy and science.
Rembrandt, Vermeer and Steen emerged to lead the Dutch Masters, a school of influential painters.
Benedict Spinoza developed his pantheistic philosophy that everything in existence is part of an all-encompassing God. The visiting French philosopher/mathematician Rene Descartes did most of his defining work in providing a philosophical framework for the natural sciences while living in Holland.
The scientists Van Leewenhoek and Hugens pioneered in cell biology and the microscope, working in the city of Delft, where local craftsmen developed the famous pottery ceramics style as an evolution of Chinese porcelain being imported at the time.
But not all the outpouring of energy went to high-blown intellectual pursuits. The needs of the spirit and the stomach were tended to as well.
One particular drink was punch, in the past a perfectly acceptable drink but today largely out of fashion. However, that can be slightly alleviated by taking notice of National Punch Day, which falls this year on Thursday, September 22.
Punch originated as a drink in what we once called the Far East — 16th-century India in particular — which is where the Dutch, and later the English, merchant sailors were exposed to it. The Dutch settlers introduced the drink to the New World, and because it was an English staple that particular drink of choice was reinforced when the Brits hit these shores.
However, most of us became aware of it at family holiday gatherings or at college keggers where a fruit juice mixture or ginger ale was spiked with whatever the local scamps could afford to invigorate the communal bowl.
In the mid-18th-century, entertaining took on a much more innovative feel. The ubiquitous punch bowls were filled with every manner of concoction, some going well beyond the five basic ingredients of punch (the name is derivative of the Hindi word panch, for five — alcohol, water, sugar, juice and spice).
One particularly memorable recipe was for something called “Norfolk Punch No. 1.” The recipe: “20 quarts of French brandy, peels of 30 lemons and 30 oranges, 30 quarts of cold water, 15 pounds of double refined sugar, the juice of the oranges and 24 of the lemons. Mix well and strain into a very clean barrel that has held spirits and put in 2 quarts of new milk. Store and then bung it closed.’”
Of course, not every recipe was so intricate. A mid-1700s recipe for something called “Cherry Bounce” required just “5 pints of mashed cherries combined with 1 quart of dark rum, and then sweetened to taste with brown sugar.”
As with nearly any drink, there were personal touches, too, such as the suggestion that, “One may give it a delicious softness by the addition of a pint of calves-foot jelly.”
And, as in all things alcoholic, the absence of moderation in punch consumption could cause problems. For example, research at the Albany (NY) Institute of History & Art uncovered a report, on a March 1801 funeral for one Volckert Petrus Douw supplied refreshments for mourners who “imbibed so freely of the delicious concoction … with spices in a keg” that they had to be transported home on ox-sleds.
Punch today usually is reserved for festive occasions. Recipes are as numerous as toadstools after a rainy spell. Some, I’m sure, are delightful, but many I’ve sampled are, to put it charitably, hideous.
Here’s the recipe my wife uses for a successful punch. She’s been serving it for more than 20 years to soothe irascible in-laws during interminable sleepover visits, which makes it good enough for me. By the way, it not only tastes great, it contains five basic ingredients, the basis of all true punches.
OPEN HOUSE PUNCH
(Makes 32 servings)
1 (750-milliliter) bottle Southern Comfort
¾ cup fresh lemon juice
6-ounce can frozen lemonade
6-ounce can frozen orange juice
3 quarts lemon-lime soda
Red food coloring (optional)
Chill the soda and soften the frozen lemonade and orange juice. Mix Southern Comfort and lemon juice in a punch bowl. Spoon in the softened concentrates and add the soda.
Add several drops of red food dye and stir. Float a ring or block of ice (you can suspend maraschino cherries in the ice for eye appeal) in the mixture.
Garnish with orange and lemon slices.
•••
Here’s another, dreamed up by the makers of Ketel One vodka and Zacapa rum.
PASSPORT PUNCH
(Makes 30 servings)
1 (750 ml) bottle Ketel One Oranje Flavored Vodka
½ 750 ml bottle Zacapa 23 Rum
½ 750 ml bottle Tanqueray 10 Gin
15 ounces fresh lime juice
15 ounces orgeat
Dash of grenadine
Grated cinnamon
Combine vodka, rum, gin, lime juice, orgeat and grenadine in a large punch bowl. Stir until evenly mixed. Ladle into a small rocks glass with ice and garnish with cinnamon.
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• Women’s world at Troy brewpub
TROY, NY — How can you resist an event announcement that begins this way: “What’s really woman’s oldest profession?”
The correct answer appears to be brewing. As the folks at Brown’s Brewing Co. tell it, “Women have been brewers of beer since the time of ancient Sumeria -– around 1800 B.C. The women of Brown’s Brewing Co. are coming together to honor women in the beer industry from ancient to modern times.”
To mark this, the brewpub will hold “Women & Beer,” an evening of conversation and tastings beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 15.
The event will include a sampling of Brown’s ales and lagers, paired with cheeses made by local female cheese-makers, a brewery tour and a discussion on the anatomy of beer, the origins of the craft, and “Gender Studies In Beer: An Herstorical Perspective.”
Tickets are available at the brewpub host desk or online, for $18 per person or $16 per person with groups of two or more. The brewpub is located at 417 River Street. Phone: (518) 273-2337.
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• Drinking in a lot of history
NEW YORK — If you like a little learnin’ with your drinkin’, the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden is hosting an event involving historic cocktails.
“Tavern Drinks & Diversions” is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 12. The facility is located at 421 East 61st Street, between First and York avenues.
The program will involve historic cocktails and light tavern fare with Sarah Lohman, a “historic gastronomist.” Guests will be served three different drinks from the 1830s in the museum’s Gentlemen’s Tavern Room (right), including what it claims is “the original Cock-Tail.”
Cocktails will be accompanied by a typical light tavern supper of the period — cold meats, game, and fresh bread with butter, homemade pickled walnuts and mushroom ketchup . Tickets are $35 for the public, $30 for members, and only persons 21 or older will be admitted. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling (212) 838-6878.
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• About the claim of being the oldest winery …
Back in August, I posted an item headlined “What is NYS’s oldest winery? Wrong!” and the debate on it continues right through today. The latest broadside is by a historic researcher from the region that claims New York’s first commercial winery.
The crux of the debate is Brotherhood Winery’s claim to be the oldest winery, whereas there is much evidence that although it is the oldest one still operating, it was not the state’s first.
You can get in on the debate — reading about it or chiming in with your view — by clicking here and catching up on the latest.
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• Historic Hotel Chelsea bar reopening
NEW YORK — This Saturday, another chapter begins at the very historic Chelsea Hotel.
The Chelsea Room is set to open in the basement space there that previously was home to Star Lounge. Rather than offering a modern drinking spot, Marcus Bifaro and his crew have styled The Chelsea Room as an early 20th Century place. The ambiance in the 2,700 square foot space is set by rustic wood salvaged from an Upstate barn as well as classic cocktails. The signature drink will be The Chelsea (gin, lemon juice and honey) at $13.
The hotel itself is on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been famous for its short- and long-term tenants — the writers Tennessee Williams, O. Henry, Thomas Wolfe, Eugene O’Neill, Arthur C. Clarke and Allen Ginsburg; musicians Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead; the artists Jasper Johns and Willem de Kooning — as for its bizarre happenings. Punk rocker Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols was suspected of murdering his girlfriend there.
The hotel was the first building to be listed by the city as a cultural preservation site and historic building of note. The 12-story red-brick building that now houses the Hotel Chelsea was built in 1883 as a private apartment cooperative that opened in 1884. Until 1899 it was the city’s tallest building. At the time Chelsea, and particularly the street on which the hotel was located, was the center of New York’s Theater District. The cooperative went bankrupt and the building was purchased and converted to a hotel in 1905.
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The return of the tiki bar, and a memory
It has been a good half-century or so since the tiki bar reigned in pop society drinking and dining circles. Led by the iconic Trader Vic’s, the fad swept eastward from the Pacific Coast and there wasn’t a home worth its sea salt that didn’t have a couple of souvenir tiki drink glasses on a shelf somewhere along with a few leftover paper umbrellas.
Well, return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. The New York Times has decreed that the tiki bar is back.
In the newspaper’s annual fall restaurant report, Florence Fabricant writes:
The tiki revival — a gust of nostalgia for a time when Trader meant Vic’s, not Joe’s — planted its paper umbrellas at a couple of New York bars this year. But soon it will go for the big time when the 250-seat Hurricane Club opens on Park Avenue South.
“I think we need some of the escapism, especially in an economic downturn,” said Michael Stillman, president of Fourth Wall Restaurants, which is opening the 13,000-square-foot bar and restaurant on September 13. “All that farm-to-table stuff is serious and exhausting and too earnest. We need to have some fun.” (Full story here.)
One of the upscale staples of the tiki bar was one version or another of the famous Mai Tai, a Polynesian-sounding cocktail actually invented in the U.S. It was whipped up in 1944 as the signature drink at Trader Vic’s in California by owner Victor Bergeron for his South Seas-style restaurant and bar.
Over the years, other Trader Vic’s were started all over the world, known for their South Pacific decor, elaborate drinks menus (the cover of the 1965 edition is shown at left) and live entertainment. Some eventually went off under non-Bergeron ownership and the credit for creating the Mai Tai was claimed by many other people.
In 1970, Bergeron, who died in 1984 at the age of 82, got fed up with people laying claim to his drink and wrote the following:
“Many have claimed credit. … This aggravates my ulcer completely. … In 1944, after success with several exotic rum drinks, I felt a new drink was needed. I thought about all the really successful drinks; martinis, Manhattans, daiquiris, all basically simple drinks.
“I was at the service bar in my Oakland restaurant. I took down a bottle of 17-year-old rum. It was J. Wray Nephew from Jamaica; surprisingly golden in color, medium bodied, but with the rich pungent flavor particular to the Jamaican blends. The flavor of this great rum wasn’t meant to be overpowered with heavy additions of fruit juices and flavorings. I took a fresh lime, added some orange curacao from Holland, a dash of rock candy syrup, and a dollop of French Orgeat, for its subtle almond flavor. A generous amount of shaved ice and vigorous shaking by hand produced the marriage I was after. Half the lime shell went in for color.
“I stuck in a branch of fresh mint and gave two of them to Ham and Carrie Guild, friends from Tahiti, who were there that night. Carrie took one sip and said, ‘Mai tai. Roa ae”. In Tahitian this means “Out of this world. The best.’ Well, that was that. I named the drink Mai Tai.”
Today, there are Trader Vic’s in places ranging from the U.S. to Dhubai. In the U.S. alone, they are in Scottsdale, AZ, Beverly Hills, Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and Las Vegas, among other places, and abroad they are in such locations as London, Berlin, Tokyo, Shanghai and Beirut. They are a fitting homage to the name Trader Vic’s, which has popped up in films, books and in such unexpected places as the lyrics for the late Warren Zevon’s song “Werewolves of London.”
To wit, “I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic’s. His hair was perfect.”
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What is NY’s oldest winery? Wrong!
The iconic Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, NY, has long laid claim to being the oldest winery in the United States. That claim is being challenged by a tiny Livingston County organization.
The upstart is the York Historical Society, headquartered in the Warren Homestead which was built in the 1830s by Samuel Warren (below left), a York grower and businessman.
They note that Warren’s first wine vintage was 1832, which would make Brotherhood not even the oldest in the state although it still can claim the title of oldest operating winery. By 1853, Warren’s line of York Wines topped the 3,400-gallon mark and had a national reputation. His sons, Josiah and Harlan, succeeded him in the growing and winemaking efforts. After five decades of operation, a railroad development program put the family out of business.
His reputation lay fallow for generations, until the York Historical Society recently purchased the property and decided to create tourism interest to help finance restoration and development of the property, in part by making it known as the birthplace of New York State’s wine industry. Society President Gary Cox has spearheaded the effort, and cites an 1836 newspaper ad for York Wines as proof of the tenure of Warren’s wines.
Cox, a retired college philosophy professor and amateur historian, says Samuel Warren came to the area from eastern New York at the age of 19. The following year, he purchased a 33-acre farm in what would become the Town of York. He built one of the area’s first sawmills, and made bricks and drainage tiles on his property. He also taught in the local school and became known as an expert horticulturist.
“By the late 1820s,” Cox writes, “Samuel Warren had married Sarah Flagg of Boston, MA, and had begun planting a vineyard near Bidwell’s Creek (a.k.a. Warren’s Creek) about two miles south of York Center. … Instead of European grapes, Samuel Warren, like a few others at that time, wisely chose for his vineyard American varieties like Catawba and Isabella. These were, it appears, chance inter-specific hybrids of American wild vines and the European varieties, and, in some cases, like Warren’s Early Catawba, the seedlings of such vines.
“In the autumn of 1832 — 28 years before the founding of Hammondsport’s Pleasant Valley Wine Company and several years before the planting of vines and founding of Blooming Grove, now Brotherhood Winery, Warren’s vineyard had produced enough fruit for a tiny vintage of 20 gallons. … By 1836 Warren was marketing the wine from his own vineyard in York. Cornell Librarian Marty Schlabach uncovered Warren’s advertisement [left] in, of all places, a widely-read periodical of that time called New York Evangelist, now accessible in digitized form. Marty’s discovery has had quite an impact.”
On Brotherhood’s website, it dates its history in these word (bold-faced emphasis mine):
“In 1810, a French Huguenot emigre named Jean Jacques purchased land in New York’s bucolic Hudson Valley and began planting grapes. By 1837, Mr. Jacques needed more land, so he purchased a plot in the quiet village of Washingtonville, NY, and planted another vineyard. By 1839, his first underground cellars were dug and Mr. Jacques fermented his first wine vintage.”
The Livingston County advertising discovery has prompted a number of well-known chroniclers of the wine industry to revise their works to recognize Warren’s pioneering efforts.
The relatively quick demise of the York Wines line came about 1880 when, Cox writes, “apparently with an unrestrained power of eminent domain, the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad acquired a right-of-way through the Warren farm that destroyed their family businesses. When travel through York on the DL&W began in 1882, Harlan Warren — Civil War veteran, farmer, winegrower, miller, musician and purveyor of musical instruments –- tragically hung himself in the remains of the winery.”
Today, the York Historical Society markets the New York Heritage Collection of wines (some labels shown above) and a sparkling hard apple cider based on heirloom 19th Century grapes and the Northern Spy apple such as the Warrens and other farmers grew in Livingston County (shown in marked area of map). A charitable donation to the society is built into the selling price. The New York Heritage Collection has collectible labels that link these wines to the story of the pioneering Warren family.
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DRINKING NEW YORK 