Another shot at Long Island

Lori and I were walking in Red Hook today and passed by the wine makers at Dwight & Van Dyke.  There was a small gathering in the garage, and as we passed we asked each other when we'll ever approach these folks with the idea of our buying LI grapes with them. 

Well, we got to the corner, chatted, turned around and asked one of the guys - who was attaching a propane tank to what looked like a serious commercial grill - if he was one of the wine makers.  It was Mark Snyder.  We pitched our idea, and it turns out that Red Hook Winery commits to entire blocks from different LI vineyards, so there's no help we can offer them by increasing their purchase, but Mark very graciously offered to look at the idea of Red Hook Winery carving out a portion of their grapes for us to buy.  (All discussed while guests waited...)  MS's card in our pocket, we floated down the street.

In our quick conversation: what varietals, who've we bought from in the past, what quantity are we looking for... I'm dreaming Cab. Franc (and I'm guessing Lori is not). 

And then, a few hours later and back home, after bottling the rest of the 2010 Muscat, it was time to taste the 2008 North Fork Cab. S. that we made with the grapes purchased in Greenport from Michael Kontakostas.  I drew off about a pint.  Guess what?  Pretty damned good.  What a long road this has been.   Deeply colored but maybe a little brown at the edges - we know we've lost the seal a couple of times in the years this wine has been in our 100 liter tank.  A little crud under the tank lid, but no recurrence of the film yeast we had a year ago.  Cherry and licorice, very smooth, and none of the aftertaste that seemed to plague us in the first year.  Shockeroo, this is really pretty good.

And certainly good enough for Lori to play with blending, which she's wanted to do with this wine for a while.  Winning the blending race so far: 3 parts 2008 North Fork Cab. S,, one part 2009 Merlot blend (all Antelope Valley, 70% Merlot, 20 % Cab. S., 10 % P. Syrah.

Good things come to those who wait.

Guest wine at the 5th Anual 11th Street Winemakers Puttanesca BASH

Our colleague in Paris, Thomas Couval, sent us two bottles of wine this year from his neighbor, to have along with ours at the BASH.  A 2002 and a 2007 pinot noir, pictured here with three of our wines from the party.  Bernardo also brought a few bottles of his Staten Island wine, but they might have already disappeared by the time our international visitors arrived.

And here's a snap of Thomas' wine getting chatted over.

Preparing to bottle the last of the 2010 Muscat

With a ph of about 6.1 and a current SO2 reading of about 11 ppm, I'm adding about 7 ml of 10% metabisulfite solution to raise the ppm to the low 30's before bottling.  Meanwhile, here's a pic from the pre-party testing:

Labels for the 2010 Cal Blend

Did these up as 2 inch round labels: