Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
It's the summer sitting of the D&D game again. The GM is relatively healthy but not 100% sure about meeting in person yet. Given that there's a new strain of Covid around, we decide that Zoom is the better part of valor. So, he's at home in Los Angeles, the two CA-based players are in their homes, and the rest of us gather in a rambling 19th C house in the Finger Lakes region. We're in the hamlet of Benton, near to Penn Yan.
The house is great. It has 7 bedrooms, a huge game room, two ***********s, tons of old pictures of the family -- name is Benton so it appears they mattered -- old books and games, elaborate old furnishings, the whole deal. The backyard is huge. The birds love this place and there is birdsong everywhere. We're pleased.
We dragged all our tech gear with us and setup the game room. One of our number brings a Celestron telescope with an 8" mirror (which, with tripod, motor, stabilizers, power supplies, etc etc etc, occupies the entire trunk of his car.
Unlike last time, when we were hereabouts completely at liberty, this time we dedicate half the week to The Game. So, there's not really time or willpower for multiple winery visits. We decide to dig deep at Once Wine Bar, visit one spirits maker, one cider/mead maker, and have another sunset dinner at Dano's Heuriger.
ONCE Wine Bar
Since our last trip, Once has had a serious upgrade: they now have 32 bottles in Cruvinets, under food-grade argon gas. They are divided into 8 categories of four bottles each. I don't recall the exact names but it's on the order of Light, Classic, Prestige, Intriguing, Sweet. You give them a credit card, they give you a pass card, and you can pour yourself any number of wines in any quantity (three size pours available on each spigot!).
Alas, no food service on the day we are there so we buy packaged cheeses and saucisses from the 'local producers' counter.
Here are some quick notes:
Konstantin Frank 2022 Rkatsiteli - good acids, dessert-level ripeness however
Six Eighty Cellars 2022 Riesling "Cocciopesto" - 10 days of skin contact then 6 months in the vessel; nice and lightweight, the varietal flavors are overwhelmed by the technique but I'm happy to drink this anyway
Usonia 2022 Tocai Friulano - flabby
Silver Thread 2022 "Good Earth" White Wine - blend of riesling, gewurz, and NY-45 (seyval blanc x chardonnay), floral but not much else to it
Forge 2021 Riesling, Caywood Vineyard - good zip, a little vegetal though
Heart & Hands 2022 "Polarity" - a still BdN, oak-finished and not to its benefit, leesy too
Weis 2022 Riesling "Limestone" - quite dry, lemony, floral, good
Trestle 31 2019 Chardonnay - oaky and sulfury mess
Trestle 31 2023 Rose - 95% cab franc, raised in steel; intense, zingy, real wine! (the same people who made that awful chardonnay... go figure)
Apollo's Praise 2023 Rose - yup
Weis 2022 Dry Rose - yup
Konstantin Frank 2023 Rose of Saperavi - savory, intense, wow
Not sure which grouping this came from but I guess we were sufficiently offput by the other three not to even have tried them:
Usonia 2023 "Change the Weather or Change Your Mind" - 11%, total mish-mash of grapes and techniques, meh
Heart & Hands 2021 Pinot Noir - OK but not more
Living Roots 2021 Cabernet Franc - whole cluster, OK
Usonia 2022 Blaufrankisch - black cherry and tea, OK
Konstantin Frank 2021 Saperavi - nicer texture but that's as far as it goes
One of the prestige reds was out:
Inspire Moore 2022 Bourbon Barrel Red - OK (they advertise secondary flavors of charcoal and burnt coconut... really?)
Konstantin Frank 2020 Reserve Red "Lena" - OK (blend of two barrels each of their six red grapes)
Wiemer 2021 Red "Julia" - Austrian red mix, also six varieties, tastes like it should
This was from the sweet wine grouping:
Hosmer 2019 "Single Wheel" - nice!, delicate flavors of orange and tangerine, spatlese sweetness (website says 1.6% RS but how much is that in g/l ?)
Once also has locally-made ciders and spirits. Tammy tasted the spirits but I wasn't in the mood. These two ciders stood out:
FLX Cider House NV "Fruit of the Bloom" - apples, pears, ginger, and honey; yes that is gingery, and really yummy!
Dabinett Pet Nat Cider - alas, it turns out the Dabinett is the species of apple and not the maker... sigh; anyway, this one was natty, as promised, but also interesting and bitter in a good way
Epilogue:
Of course, we bought wines for the week at the house. Several were OK, you know, reasonably wet and drinkable. We indavertantly bought an expensive Konstantin Frank sparkling rkatsiteli wine, which was nice, of course, but we could have had Champagne at that price....
The most interesting house wines were rieslings from Forge Cellars (and we tasted another at Once):
2021 Tango Oaks - the marketing materials say "white peach" and yes it is, their warmest site but the wine has good juicy acidity, nice package, I bought
2021 "Railroad" - lime and minerals, much more German-like than Tango Oaks, less attractive though, kinda heavy
2021 Breakneck Creek - a bit ripe (lime and honey), tingly and dry but not sure that's minerality or something else, probably worth a try
O'Begley Distillery
It may not be quite the worst tasting experience ever but it is in the running. The people behind the counter were horrid, which came out as the tastings proceeded. Glass of water, please? No. To dilute the 150 proof absinthe you just poured me? No. And on and on.
At the end, several folks refused to buy simply because they would not see their money go towards the place. One friend absent-mindedly left without paying for the tasting (the server never asked). He wanted to go back but we wouldn't let him.
CK Cellars
If it ferments, we do it.
Well, that should be their motto. They have a half-dozen different brands, each one making some kind of beverage: grape wines, fruit wines, ciders, meads, and who knows what else. We're here for the ciders (Worthog Cidery) and the meads (Earle Estates Meadery).
Unlike the last place, the person behind this counter is a breeze to get along with, has been there 17 years so knows everything about everything, provides extra pours and extra glasses, and we loved it. We even indulged in a couple of wine slushies, concord and moscato. (The moscato was the good choice.)
Mead Flight:
Note that, other than the 'Traditional' bottling, all the rest are 'contemporary' meads, meaning they have been filtered and have higher RS, 7-8%.
Semi-dry/Baco Noir mix - the sign saying "bargain bottle" and "limited release" should have been a warning but actually this was nice to drink, it's mead cut with a little fruity lightweight red wine and that makes a pleasant sipper on a warm day
Traditional - 5% RS, this is the real deal, gently fizzy, just enough alcohol to convey floral honey scents everywhere, I bought
Semi-Sweet Contemporary - meh, it's been stripped, limp, sweet but nothing else going on
Raspberry Reflections - just silly
Blueberry Bounty - just silly
Cruisin' Cranberry - a little less silly, must be the tartness in the cranberries giving it a lift
Apple Enchantment - worse than silly
Cider Flight:
Daredevil Dobbie Dry - it is indeed dry and crisp and very good
Original Hard Cider - of course, this is the one that won all the medals and, predictably, it's OK
Crabby Abby's Cranberry - snap my head around: the extra acidity from the cranberries picks this up and makes it worth the time, I bought
Grumpy Jerry's Ginger - just silly
Bitter Betty's Lemon - worse than silly
Hickory Hollow Wine Cellars
A natural wine acquaintance urged us to stop here to taste the wines. There are two labels by winemaker Nathan Kendall, "Hickory Hollow", a continuation of his family estate and their wines, and "Nathan K.", his own wines, made to offer an old world palate but via low intervention methods.
The third label here is "chepika", a joint project with Pascaline -- this had better be old news to you all -- developing sparkling wines from native and hybrid grapes (catawba, delaware, etc).
We took a couple pours from each label. I recall liking the HH wines best of all and even bought a cab franc/merlot blend that had a good balance of grip and substance. Unfortunately, we were in vacation mode and the region was under storm watch and it was getting late and... I have no idea where those notes are.
---
Storm watch, indeed. The last four hours of the game were cancelled because the house lost power and, as the GM is on the other side of the internet....
Close call on Cindy's rental car, too.
From the vinous perspective, while nothing here is going to make you forget about Musigny or Sonnenuhr or Le Haut Lieu, there's plenty of good table wines and a few wines that drink really well in almost every style. No breakthroughs but also much more than a lab experiment.
The house is great. It has 7 bedrooms, a huge game room, two ***********s, tons of old pictures of the family -- name is Benton so it appears they mattered -- old books and games, elaborate old furnishings, the whole deal. The backyard is huge. The birds love this place and there is birdsong everywhere. We're pleased.
We dragged all our tech gear with us and setup the game room. One of our number brings a Celestron telescope with an 8" mirror (which, with tripod, motor, stabilizers, power supplies, etc etc etc, occupies the entire trunk of his car.
Unlike last time, when we were hereabouts completely at liberty, this time we dedicate half the week to The Game. So, there's not really time or willpower for multiple winery visits. We decide to dig deep at Once Wine Bar, visit one spirits maker, one cider/mead maker, and have another sunset dinner at Dano's Heuriger.
ONCE Wine Bar
Since our last trip, Once has had a serious upgrade: they now have 32 bottles in Cruvinets, under food-grade argon gas. They are divided into 8 categories of four bottles each. I don't recall the exact names but it's on the order of Light, Classic, Prestige, Intriguing, Sweet. You give them a credit card, they give you a pass card, and you can pour yourself any number of wines in any quantity (three size pours available on each spigot!).
Alas, no food service on the day we are there so we buy packaged cheeses and saucisses from the 'local producers' counter.
Here are some quick notes:
Konstantin Frank 2022 Rkatsiteli - good acids, dessert-level ripeness however
Six Eighty Cellars 2022 Riesling "Cocciopesto" - 10 days of skin contact then 6 months in the vessel; nice and lightweight, the varietal flavors are overwhelmed by the technique but I'm happy to drink this anyway
Usonia 2022 Tocai Friulano - flabby
Silver Thread 2022 "Good Earth" White Wine - blend of riesling, gewurz, and NY-45 (seyval blanc x chardonnay), floral but not much else to it
Forge 2021 Riesling, Caywood Vineyard - good zip, a little vegetal though
Heart & Hands 2022 "Polarity" - a still BdN, oak-finished and not to its benefit, leesy too
Weis 2022 Riesling "Limestone" - quite dry, lemony, floral, good
Trestle 31 2019 Chardonnay - oaky and sulfury mess
Trestle 31 2023 Rose - 95% cab franc, raised in steel; intense, zingy, real wine! (the same people who made that awful chardonnay... go figure)
Apollo's Praise 2023 Rose - yup
Weis 2022 Dry Rose - yup
Konstantin Frank 2023 Rose of Saperavi - savory, intense, wow
Not sure which grouping this came from but I guess we were sufficiently offput by the other three not to even have tried them:
Usonia 2023 "Change the Weather or Change Your Mind" - 11%, total mish-mash of grapes and techniques, meh
Heart & Hands 2021 Pinot Noir - OK but not more
Living Roots 2021 Cabernet Franc - whole cluster, OK
Usonia 2022 Blaufrankisch - black cherry and tea, OK
Konstantin Frank 2021 Saperavi - nicer texture but that's as far as it goes
One of the prestige reds was out:
Inspire Moore 2022 Bourbon Barrel Red - OK (they advertise secondary flavors of charcoal and burnt coconut... really?)
Konstantin Frank 2020 Reserve Red "Lena" - OK (blend of two barrels each of their six red grapes)
Wiemer 2021 Red "Julia" - Austrian red mix, also six varieties, tastes like it should
This was from the sweet wine grouping:
Hosmer 2019 "Single Wheel" - nice!, delicate flavors of orange and tangerine, spatlese sweetness (website says 1.6% RS but how much is that in g/l ?)
Once also has locally-made ciders and spirits. Tammy tasted the spirits but I wasn't in the mood. These two ciders stood out:
FLX Cider House NV "Fruit of the Bloom" - apples, pears, ginger, and honey; yes that is gingery, and really yummy!
Dabinett Pet Nat Cider - alas, it turns out the Dabinett is the species of apple and not the maker... sigh; anyway, this one was natty, as promised, but also interesting and bitter in a good way
Epilogue:
Of course, we bought wines for the week at the house. Several were OK, you know, reasonably wet and drinkable. We indavertantly bought an expensive Konstantin Frank sparkling rkatsiteli wine, which was nice, of course, but we could have had Champagne at that price....
The most interesting house wines were rieslings from Forge Cellars (and we tasted another at Once):
2021 Tango Oaks - the marketing materials say "white peach" and yes it is, their warmest site but the wine has good juicy acidity, nice package, I bought
2021 "Railroad" - lime and minerals, much more German-like than Tango Oaks, less attractive though, kinda heavy
2021 Breakneck Creek - a bit ripe (lime and honey), tingly and dry but not sure that's minerality or something else, probably worth a try
O'Begley Distillery
It may not be quite the worst tasting experience ever but it is in the running. The people behind the counter were horrid, which came out as the tastings proceeded. Glass of water, please? No. To dilute the 150 proof absinthe you just poured me? No. And on and on.
At the end, several folks refused to buy simply because they would not see their money go towards the place. One friend absent-mindedly left without paying for the tasting (the server never asked). He wanted to go back but we wouldn't let him.
CK Cellars
If it ferments, we do it.
Well, that should be their motto. They have a half-dozen different brands, each one making some kind of beverage: grape wines, fruit wines, ciders, meads, and who knows what else. We're here for the ciders (Worthog Cidery) and the meads (Earle Estates Meadery).
Unlike the last place, the person behind this counter is a breeze to get along with, has been there 17 years so knows everything about everything, provides extra pours and extra glasses, and we loved it. We even indulged in a couple of wine slushies, concord and moscato. (The moscato was the good choice.)
Mead Flight:
Note that, other than the 'Traditional' bottling, all the rest are 'contemporary' meads, meaning they have been filtered and have higher RS, 7-8%.
Semi-dry/Baco Noir mix - the sign saying "bargain bottle" and "limited release" should have been a warning but actually this was nice to drink, it's mead cut with a little fruity lightweight red wine and that makes a pleasant sipper on a warm day
Traditional - 5% RS, this is the real deal, gently fizzy, just enough alcohol to convey floral honey scents everywhere, I bought
Semi-Sweet Contemporary - meh, it's been stripped, limp, sweet but nothing else going on
Raspberry Reflections - just silly
Blueberry Bounty - just silly
Cruisin' Cranberry - a little less silly, must be the tartness in the cranberries giving it a lift
Apple Enchantment - worse than silly
Cider Flight:
Daredevil Dobbie Dry - it is indeed dry and crisp and very good
Original Hard Cider - of course, this is the one that won all the medals and, predictably, it's OK
Crabby Abby's Cranberry - snap my head around: the extra acidity from the cranberries picks this up and makes it worth the time, I bought
Grumpy Jerry's Ginger - just silly
Bitter Betty's Lemon - worse than silly
Hickory Hollow Wine Cellars
A natural wine acquaintance urged us to stop here to taste the wines. There are two labels by winemaker Nathan Kendall, "Hickory Hollow", a continuation of his family estate and their wines, and "Nathan K.", his own wines, made to offer an old world palate but via low intervention methods.
The third label here is "chepika", a joint project with Pascaline -- this had better be old news to you all -- developing sparkling wines from native and hybrid grapes (catawba, delaware, etc).
We took a couple pours from each label. I recall liking the HH wines best of all and even bought a cab franc/merlot blend that had a good balance of grip and substance. Unfortunately, we were in vacation mode and the region was under storm watch and it was getting late and... I have no idea where those notes are.
---
Storm watch, indeed. The last four hours of the game were cancelled because the house lost power and, as the GM is on the other side of the internet....
Close call on Cindy's rental car, too.
From the vinous perspective, while nothing here is going to make you forget about Musigny or Sonnenuhr or Le Haut Lieu, there's plenty of good table wines and a few wines that drink really well in almost every style. No breakthroughs but also much more than a lab experiment.
