Category: Wine Local and Worldly

Wines we are tasting and enjoying with Hudson Valley cuisine

Just Because We Are off Wine This Week for a Cleanse

Ribs From Marbled Meats

Doesn’t Mean We Can’t Write

about the great Shiraz we had last week and the great dinner from Marbled Meat Shop and the Cold Spring Farmers Market.

As you may note we are on a bit of a Syrah kick, both the great Syrah’s from France, Rhone Valley in particular, and the same grape by another name, Shiraz, from Australia, especially the McLaren Vale region.  We love these robust earthy wines for all sorts of summer dishes. Our cleansing fast this week is in preparation. Continue reading Just Because We Are off Wine This Week for a Cleanse

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Artisan Wine Shop, Beacon
Another Great Wine Store

Artisan Wine Shop Beacon Wine Browsing

I am one very lucky guy

to have many great wine stores so nearby. I have been anxious to check out Artisan Wine Shop in Beacon. Wanting to see what they have to offer but reluctant because some small wine shops are just too specialized for me. I was so happy to find a store that is very approachable, offering many interesting selections, which are well presented, and at reasonable price points.

Being CIA graduates, that’s Culinary Institute of America, not the other CIA, owners, Mei Ying and Tim Buzinski bring a unique angle to their provisioning of fine libations, which is how well they go with food. Which is to my mind essential.

That’s my friend Jonathan, a wine geek like me, he found a lot he liked too.

Continue reading Artisan Wine Shop, Beacon
Another Great Wine Store

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Just One Problem

Domaine Mur-mur-ium Sublime SyrahWith this perfect wine and food pairing

the wine came all the way from the Rhone Valley in France, a fabulous organically produced Syrah that paired so well with our Chinese take out.

The wine I found in nearby Wappinger Falls, Viscount Wines & Liquors. But our Chinese food had to be imported from far away Montclair, NJ, our former home.

Can you help me here? Know any really good Chinese places around here?  Please do share.  Continue reading Just One Problem

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A Great Wine Find! Spirits Too!

Great Wines and Spirits from Mid-Valley Wines & Liquor

Mid-Valley Wine and Liquors, Newburgh, Welcomes You Too

You surely know by now that I am very serious wine habitué and cocktail devotee.  And ever since I was so dramatically severed from my many tried and true sources, developed over decades, in New Jersey, it has been a riveted and phrenetic search to find new. Two things have complicated my quest, the frost-bound winter, and the potent Hudson Valley command to be “Locally Centric.”

Today my unrelenting hunt was significantly rewarded upon my passing through the threshold of perhaps one of Hudson Valley finest purveyors of thoughtfully selected wine and spirits. With a special concentration, Mid-Valley Store Manager, Lindy Steele, revealed in our conversation, “we make a great effort to offer New York state products, it is a great market for us.”  Continue reading A Great Wine Find! Spirits Too!

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Locals, Tourists, and We Like Whistling Willies, Cold Spring

Whistling WIllie's the Tapsa classic old world American Bar and Restaurant

with great drinks food and entertainment. Set in what must have once been a hotel decades ago.  We especially love their happy hour. The friendly staff are oh so welcoming here, you feel right at home with all the locals, regular customers, here on any given night.  Continue reading Locals, Tourists, and We Like Whistling Willies, Cold Spring

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Where to Find Great Wine

Viscount Wine & LiquorsI vividly remember the first time I entered a wine superstore

It was back in the early “00s”, 2003 I believe, when the now famous Wine Library moved from it’s normal sized wine store to a 35,000 square foot mega store around the corner. It was astounding.  The boom in wine was just beginning then, fast forward 10 years and now there are superstores everywhere.

I just visited the mammoth, 40,000 square foot, Viscount Wine and Liquors in Wappinger Falls.  Now bigger does not always mean better, a lot of the warehouse style stores that have popped up lately are just not that good.  But Viscount is not in that category, ask a man who has tasted thousands of wines. This place is amazing. Continue reading Where to Find Great Wine

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On a Cold Rainy Night

chionetti dolcetto di doglianiA very good red wine and comfort food is in order

Imagine Giuseppe Chionetti with his family sitting by the hearth tasting wine of one his early harvests, his son Andrea taking a small sip too.  It was April 1914, the rainy season in Dogliani, the wine was still young but showed great promise. Giuseppe glanced a warm smile to his wife as she served their dinner. Farming was a struggle, but life was good, World War I had not yet come to Italy.

Over a century later, on another rainy night, we are tasting Giuseppe’s legacy in a 2008 vintage of his great wine. A tradition carried on by his son, Andrea, and grandson Quinto. And I smile to Diana and she back to me, what a wonderful wine.

 Chionetti Dolcetto di Dogliani Briccolero 2008

Continue reading On a Cold Rainy Night

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