Applewood Winery Blog

 Here are the recipes from the New York Riesling Experience courtesy of our Chef Suzanne Donovan.  The event was a great success and people really enjoyed her pairings with the different Rieslings.  One of the big hits of the event was a dry sparkling Riesling which we made just for the event.  It was so popular that we intend to bottle some for a Wino Club selection in the future.

I'm excited about the 2010 NY Riesling Experience because Riesling is the most interesting, nuanced and thought provoking grape in the world.  

I recently sat down with Debbie Giaquindo "The Hudson Valley Wine Goddess" (Wow, a real goddess!) who has her own blog  http://hvwinegoddess.blogspot.com/and answered a few questions for her.

The 2009 Vintage is now in the tanks and it's time to be introspective and take a look back at what we've done over the past year to make better wine, to reach for the "Holy Grail" of a fine Hudson Valley wine

Summer 2009 has been an especially wet one with cooler temperatures in the Hudson Valley.  Vine growth has been very vigorous with excessive leaf cover which has made a lot of work for us to hedge the vines back to maximize sun exposure of the clusters. 

About a month ago we invited everyone to help us write a Riesling Manifesto by answering three questions.  We didn't want anyone to go through the hard work of putting words to paper without the potential for some big prizes.  The best in each question got a free bottle of Riesling and the best overall entry won a free case of Applewood Wine.

We were overwhelmed with the amount of response.  Here are some of the entries and the winners

What is the best city to enjoy Riesling in?

To get everybody in the spirit of things for The NY Riesling Experience on May 2nd and 3rd  here at the winery in Warwick.  We would like to hear about your Riesling thoughts and experiences and allow you to write your own Riesling Manifesto.  There will be 3 prizes and a grand prize awarded to those who demonstrate the greatest powers of Riesling, which can be difficult after a few glasses...

To claim your prize you must answer me these questions three:

Our friend Barbara Patterson visited us  from Australia.  Barbara is one of our employees who we lost to an international love affair with her now husband Bruce.  Bruce also worked for the winery for a time when he lived in the States. They now live on Australia's "Gold Coast" but were home in Warwick for Barbara's Mother who had her 80th Birthday! And since Vegas happened to be on the way they stopped in there too.

“Riesling is the grape of the 21^st century” declares winemaker Jonathan Hull.

Sommeliers have always loved Riesling for it’s piercing acidity.  Winemakers love it for the wide variety of styles that it lends itself to.  It can range from a dry wine with crisp apple and pear flavors to Sweet dessert wines with honeyed notes.