The honor went to Arrowhead Spring Vineyards‘ 2009 Late Harvest Vidal that, on the way to the title, also took “Best of Class” and a “Chairman’s Award,” the latter requiring unanimous agreement among judges, like a Double Gold in most other competitions.

Arrowhead is a small farm winery with just 65 rows of grapes under cultivation. The facility is located at 4746 Town Line Road (Route 93) in the Town
of Cambria (14094) between Upper and Lower Mountain Roads on
the Niagara Escarpment.

Other “Best of Class”/”Chairman’s Award” winners from New York, which also were among the “Sweepstakes” round wines:

• 21 Brix Raspberry
• Chateau Frank 2006 Blanc de Noirs
• Keuka Spring Vineyards 2011 Riesling
• Liberty Vineyards & Winery Reds, Whites & Blues Rosé
• Thirsty Owl Wine Company 2011 Diamond
• Thousand Islands Winery 2010 Marquette

Other “Chairman’s Awards”-only winners:

• Fox Run Vineyards 2009 Tierce Dry Riesling (in collaboration with Anthony Road Winery and Red Newt Cellars)
• Hazlitt 1952 Vineyards 2010 Dry Riesling Homestead Reserve
• Red Tail Ridge Winery 2010 Dry Riesling
• Swedish Hill Winery Blue Waters Riesling

“Gold” medals went to:

• Arrowhead Spring Vineyards 2008 Meritage Reserve
• Casa Larga Vineyards 2009 French Oak Reserve Chardonnay
• Casa Large Vineyards 2009 Fiori delle Stelle Riesling Ice Wine
• Chateau LaFayette Reneau Seyval-Chardonnay
• Dr. Frank 2010 Semi-Dry Riesling
• Fox Run Vineyards 2010 Riesling
• Glenora Wine Cellars 2010 Late Harvest Riesling
• Glenora Wine Cellars 2003 Brut
• Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards Vidal Blanc Ice Wine
• Keuka Spring Vineyards 2010 Vignoles Dessert Wine
• Lakewood Vineyards 2010 Riesling
• Leonard Oakes Estate Winery 2009 Vidal Ice Wine
• Red Tail Ridge Winery 2009 Blaufrankish
• Swedish Hill Winery Spumante Blush 2007 Optimus
• Swedish Hill Winery 2010 Chardonnay Reserve
• Swedish Hill Winery 2011 Riesling
• Swedish Hill Winery 2011 Cayuga White
• Thirsty Owl Wine Company 2011 Snow Owl
• Wagner Vineyards 2009 Estate Bottled Dry Riesling

Other New York wines received won 96 Silver and 39 Bronze awards, for a total of 164 medals.

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It’s the B.A.M. Fest, the initials standing for beer and music.

The beer portion includes beer sampling and a homebrew competition. The music portion includes New Regime and Will Severin.

The inaugural event is scheduled for 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 2, at the Saratoga Polo complex, 2 Bloomfield Road. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the gate, and are available online. Tickets include five beer samples, although extras can be purchased at the event.

The deadline for entering the homebrew competition is May 25. Brewers can get full details by calling 669-4396. The overall event is a fundraiser for The Creative Place International, a non-profit organization that provides arts-in-education resources to young people and their families.

Speaking of Saratoga Polo, the 2012 season is set for July 6 through September 2, with matches scheduled for Fridays and Sundays at 5:30 p.m.

Check out my New York Drinks Events Calendar, the most comprehensive anywhere.

The event, scheduled for this Thursday through Sunday, will be under a huge, 250-foot tent located at Court and Main street in White Plains. Vehicular traffic will be prohibited on Court. Parking will be available at many nearby municipal garages including The Galleria, Ritz-Carlton Hotel and City Center.

The Thursday “Burgers, BBQ and Beer Bash” and Saturday evening winemakers’ dinner are sellouts, and no tickets will be available at the door.

However, there are tickets still available for the ArtsBash on Friday, the grand tastings set for Saturday and Sunday at The Ritz-Carlton, the “Sparkling Sunday Brunch,” various demonstrations, wine and spirits seminars, and other events. Ticket information and ordering are available online at various prices.

The Ritz-Carlton is located at Three Renaissance Square. Phone: (914) 946-5500.

Check out my New York Drinks Events Calendar, the most comprehensive anywhere.

Anthony Road Wine Company‘s 2009 Finger Lakes Riesling Martini-Reinhardt Selection was awarded a gold medal.

By country, 38 Golds went to France, 16 to Germany, 3 to Austria, 2 each to Hungary and the Czech Republic and 1 each to South Africa and the U.S. Riesling originated in the Rhine Valley and Moselle regions, believed to have been cultivated there since Roman times.

Anthony Road was founded by Ann and John Martini. Their first wines were made from the 1989 grape crop and released in 1990. Their vineyard manager is son Peter, and their winemaker is Johannes Reinhardt, a native of Germany whose family boasts that it has been in the wine business since 1438.

The winery is located at 1020 Anthony Road in Penn Yan, NY. Phone: (800) 559-2182.

Check out my New York Drinks Events Calendar, the most comprehensive anywhere.

The craft brewery is nearing completion of a $3 million expansion plan that will include new manufacturing facility — delivery of the new silo several weeks ago is seen at right — housing a restaurant, pub and tasting room.

The result will mean a tripling of the brewing capacity to 100,000 barrels a year, and a beer garden will be added to hold small festivals, concerts, dinners and other special events.

Owner Dan Mitchell told local media, “This will allow you to actually come in and have some nice, locally grown food in our pizza pub and still see the manufacturing facility. I think everybody knows what beer is but not necessarily how it’s made and this will give you a great opportunity to see how it’s made and really enjoy our product inside our facility, which is kind of neat.”

Ithaca Beer, now 13 years old, has shown a 20% growth over the past five years. The new location is behind the current facility, on former farmland. The company is located at 606 Elmira Road (Route 13), just south of Buttermilk Falls. Phone: (607) 273-0766. Current tasting room hours are noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Free brewery tours begin on the hour starting at noon Saturday and Sunday.

Check out my New York Drinks Events Calendar, the most comprehensive anywhere.

NEW YORK — The New York Craft Beer Week will have something different when the fifth annual event kicks off next month.

Founder Josh Schaffner has passed the baton to the newly-formed New York City Brewers Guild (NYCBG) which will announce the festival’s schedule on May 22 when it holds a debut event at the Brooklyn Brewery in the Williamsburg section.

Tickets for the May 22 event are $75, which covers a souvenir tasting glass and unlimited samples of each brewery’s offerings. Food will be provided by Guild members Eataly Birreria and 508 GastroBrewery. An additional $50 will result in a discounted year-long individual Guild membership to the NYCBG. Regular membership after the festival will be $75. You can get tickets online.

Other members of the NYCBG are the Bronx Brewery, Chelsea Brewing Co., Harlem Brewing Co., Heartland Brewing Co., KelSo Beer Co., Shmaltz Brewing Co. and the Sixpoint Brewery.

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OVID — The folks at Sheldrake Point are feeling very ecumenical these days. Two events are proof to that. Both are limited-seating tastings of various Finger Lakes wines in specific categories.

• Dessert Rieslings: 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 6.

Sheldrake winemaker Dave Breeden will lead a blind tasting of dessert-style Rieslings, from late harvest to frozen grape examples. At least six examples produced by various Finger Lakes wineries and small foods will be provided to showcase dessert style Rieslings’ affinity with foods other than desserts. Producers’ labels will be revealed at the end.

• Gewürztraminers: 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, July 8.

Breeden will lead this blind tasting as well, a followup to a similar event he hosted last year. Examples have been selcted from various producers on the west side of Seneca Lake and on Keuka Lake. The tasting will include small food paired with the wines. Producers’ labels will be revealed at the end.
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Seating for both events is limited to 20 guests. Reservation deadline for the Dessert Rieslings tasting is April 25, and June 30 for the gewürztraminers tasting. Contact Antoinette at (607) 532-9401 extension 106. Admission to each event is $25 per person, $15 for club members.

Sheldrake Point is located at 7448 County Road 153 in this Seneca County community on the west side of Cayuga Lake. It also has a tasting room at 5930 State Route 414 in Hector.

Check out my New York Drinks Events Calendar, the most comprehensive anywhere.

“We are cracking the doors of the library once again,” says a winery announcement.

“Inspired by the success of our vertical Riesling and Merlot tastings, we recently uncorked past vintages of the La Barrique Chardonnay, a moderately oaked Burgundian style wine. Our in-house tasting … revealed vintage after vintage of vibrancy and youth to even Greg’s surprise.”

Reservations are $25 per person ($15 for wine club members). The event is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 5.

Peconic Bay Winery is located at 31320 Main Road. Phone: (631) 734-7361.

Check out my New York Drinks Events Calendar, the most comprehensive anywhere.

The Senate already has passed S.4242-A, but that was back on February 13. The same day it was delivered to the Assembly and 11 days later it was referred to its Committee on Economic Development as A9387-2011. And, there it sits nearly two months later.

In a joint statement, State Sen. William J. Larkin Jr. (R-C, 39th District), and Mike Oates, President and CEO of the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp., said passage of the bill would mean “more local products will be available to shoppers in the area, opening up a new avenue of business for companies that are an integral part of a proud tradition of excellence right here in the Hudson Valley.

“In addition to the many wineries and vineyards in our region, the bill has the full support of the Hudson Valley Food and Beverage Alliance, a group that promotes and represents the wide range of organizations in the food and beverage industry that call our area home. Leading the way in this sector is the winemaking industry, which traces its roots in this region back hundreds of years.”

If the bill passes the Assembly and is signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo, it would allow the sale of specific wine products at roadside farm markets, as long as the stand is within 20 miles of where the wine is produced.

The stands would be under the supervision of the State Liquor Authority They would be allowed to sell wines from a maximum of two wineries each. Only wines by the bottle would be allowed for sale, and no tastings could be conducted.

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]]> http://drinkingny.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/roadside-market-wine-sales-bill-advances/feed/ 0 williamdowd Picture 19 http://drinkingny.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/tour-de-tanks-in-finger-lakes-this-weekend/ http://drinkingny.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/tour-de-tanks-in-finger-lakes-this-weekend/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:33:05 +0000 Bill Dowd http://drinkingny.wordpress.com/?p=8274 ]]> WILLIAMSON — Five restaurants will be part of this weekend’s “Tour de Tanks” event on the Lake Ontario Wine Trail.

The event, scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, will include tasting flights, winemakers’ tours and food samplings. “Passports” are $15 each or two for $25, which provides access to all five wineries.

Each participating winery will have a different approach to previewing its new wines. The participants:

• Casa Larga Vineyards, 2287 Turk Hill Road, Fairport
•  JD Wine Cellars at Long Acre Farm, 1342 Eddy Road, Macedon
• Young Sommer Winery, 4287 Jersey Road, Williamson
• Thorpe Vineyard, 8150 Chimney Heights Boulevard, Wolcott
• Ontario Barns Vineyard, 513 Whitney Road, Ontario

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Check out my New York Drinks Events Calendar, the most comprehensive anywhere.

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]]> http://drinkingny.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/tour-de-tanks-in-finger-lakes-this-weekend/feed/ 0 williamdowd