Yesterday was pretty much spring perfection here in NYC. A few puffy cumulus clouds decorated the piercingly blue sky, there was a little breeze, and it was more or less cellar temperature.
I found occasion to walk around Brooklyn, taking in many adventures not relevant to this tale. After a long walk, I was in the southern part of Red Hook, at the tasting room of the winery of that name. I would note parenthetically that the commercial parts of Red Hook were looking remarkably recovered from the horrific floods of Sandy. Bars and restaurants were full on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, there was a lot of warmth in the cool air. Fairway is back. Pete Wells reported recently on the neighborhood resurgence. The Wells piece includes some nice pictures of the Red Hook Winery in addition to other places in the neighborhood.
So, enough with the civic boosterism and on with the harsh words. This is Wine disorder, after all. I have a question for the assembled brain trust about a unifying phenomenon in most of the wines I tried yesterday. To a greater or lesser degree, most of them had a vinyl note, what Chris has called "beanbag chair." I have found this in other wines from Long Island (the source of most of the grapes for both the Foley and Schoener sides of the winery). One thought is that it might be a note from incompletely seasoned wood, though the only barrels I could see through the interior window of the tasting room were Francois Freres.
Is the flavor from the inimitable terroir of the glacial moraine of the North Fork? Is it a consequence of the uniform typicite of cellar practice among Long Island winemakers? I don't have broad enough experience of the wines of the Island to know.
Can anyone advise?
I found occasion to walk around Brooklyn, taking in many adventures not relevant to this tale. After a long walk, I was in the southern part of Red Hook, at the tasting room of the winery of that name. I would note parenthetically that the commercial parts of Red Hook were looking remarkably recovered from the horrific floods of Sandy. Bars and restaurants were full on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, there was a lot of warmth in the cool air. Fairway is back. Pete Wells reported recently on the neighborhood resurgence. The Wells piece includes some nice pictures of the Red Hook Winery in addition to other places in the neighborhood.
So, enough with the civic boosterism and on with the harsh words. This is Wine disorder, after all. I have a question for the assembled brain trust about a unifying phenomenon in most of the wines I tried yesterday. To a greater or lesser degree, most of them had a vinyl note, what Chris has called "beanbag chair." I have found this in other wines from Long Island (the source of most of the grapes for both the Foley and Schoener sides of the winery). One thought is that it might be a note from incompletely seasoned wood, though the only barrels I could see through the interior window of the tasting room were Francois Freres.
Is the flavor from the inimitable terroir of the glacial moraine of the North Fork? Is it a consequence of the uniform typicite of cellar practice among Long Island winemakers? I don't have broad enough experience of the wines of the Island to know.
Can anyone advise?