On Saturday June 27th, 2015, New York Wine Events held the first annual North Fork Crush at Jamesport Vineyards. Two large tents shielded attendees from changeable weather, allowing wine and food tasting to go on unimpeded.
What makes an event like this so fantastic to attend? Normally, responsibly tasting wine means that at most you can sample from three or four wineries in a day. While North-Forks believes tasting at a winery is the best experience you can have, time and alcohol limit exploration. At North Fork Crush, you can revisit wineries you’ve already enjoyed or taste wines from wineries you haven’t visited yet. If you want to limit yourself to one or two wines from each, you can in theory taste your way through every winery there. In many cases, the winemakers were present, so in addition to tasting the results of their efforts, they engage in discussion and answer questions about their wines and the winemaking process. Wines that you taste are also available for purchase.
Interspersed among the wine tasting tables were food and wares vendors. Chocolates, goat cheese, condiments, baked goods, pickles, oils, granola, hard cider, wine-centric gift items and fruit spreads were among the many items available to sample and buy. Additionally, spreads by Noah’s of Greenport were strategically placed throughout the tents; wine needs food as much as wine tasters! While it isn’t in North-Forks realm to cover food that isn’t associated with restaurants, we have to shout out to Rita from Vines and Branches for always taking the time for us and to Backyard Brine; pickles, need we say more?
The wineries that were available for tasting included: Brooklyn Oenology, Coffee Pot Cellars, Harbes, Jamesport, Lenz, Lieb, Martha Clara, Mattebella, Palmer, Raphael, Roanoke, Saltbird Cellars, Sannino Bella Vita, Sparkling Pointe, and Waters Crest. While we didn’t get the chance to taste everything we wanted to – that’s a lot of wine – we were able to speak to several winemakers as well as taste from vineyards we haven’t been in a while. It’s a great way to help determine where to go for our next tasting. We want to thank winemakers Jim Waters of Waters Crest, Anthony Sannino of Sannino Bella Vita, Juan E Micieli-Martinez of Martha Clara, Mark Tobin of Mattebella, Miguel Martin of Palmer, and Adam Suprenant of Coffee Pot Cellars for being available and taking the time to talk about their passions. Just because the winemakers didn’t all come doesn’t mean the staff representing the wines isn’t just as knowledgeable and engaging. Heaps of thanks to Evan at Palmer and Mike at Sparkling Pointe.
Why talk about how much fun an event like North Fork Crush was? Four reasons: First, to have something to look forward to next year. Second, Brooklyn Crush is coming on the 14th of November, quickly followed by Third, the NYC Autumn Wine Festival on the 21st of November. North Fork wines will be represented at these events as well. The fourth reason is to be on the lookout for similar events; see you at Harvest East End, anyone?
With special thanks to Allen from Noah’s, Michael from New York Wine Events for providing us the opportunity to talk about this fun and fantastic event.
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