Our April selections for the New York Cork Club have been posted and are on their way to Cork Club members. The New York Cork Club is our monthly wine club exclusively featuring New York State wines. Each month members receive 2 wines chosen by New York wine guru Lenn Thompson. This month, Lenn selected two whites that compare and contrast very well.
First up Keuka Lake Vineyards’s Reserve Vignoles 2007. Sold out at the winery, Lenn got the last case available. Vignoles is a hybrid grape used in late harvest and dessert wines. Lenn’s tasting notes find the nose “rich and fruity with intense ripe (almost over-ripe) pear aromas mingling with those of musk melon and peach skin” with a medium to full-bodied palate that is similarly ripe and intense. We’d add that it had pineapple notes, which are typical of this variety.
Lenn also got his hands on an advance case of Raphael Vineyards’s Naturale 2008. Made with wild yeasts and unfined and unfiltered, this represents Raphael’s winemaker’s first foray into natural winemaking. Lenn found it to be complex and intricate with aromas of ripe Gala apples, apple blossom, roasted nuts, sweet herbs, lemon zest and toasty yeast. We tried the Naturale 2008 with fava bean puree and it was delicious. The crispness of the wine counters the creaminess of the puree and the herbal notes of the wine complemented the freshness of the fava beans.
For Lenn’s detailed descriptions of the wines and his tasting notes, click here.
