2006 Waters Crest Cabernet Sauvignon

Type: Red
Producer: Waters Crest
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Country: USA
Region: New York
SubRegion: Long Island
Appellation: North Fork
Price: Suggested retail $39.99
Disclosure: This was received as an unsolicited free sample.

Sorry folks, no picture. I actually drank this on April 24, and the Wooden Guys consider Arbor Day a national holiday. They drank the wine, sure, but refused to write a review. They said it was their day off.

Night One

This has an interesting nose, a really strong French Syrah funk. After a few minutes the funk settles down a little bit, enough to get to the other aromas. It is very rich, starting with finely ground espresso and pure unsweetened chocolate. Blackcurrants and blackberrries show up late, way behind the darker aromas.

This is very young and tight, quite tannic. Lots of acid, sour cherry and blueberry on the attack. Some coffee appears on the mid-palate, followed by chocolate. The finish is long and tart.

Night Two

The nose is a little lighter on Night Two, more black fruit, less funk. Now blackcurrants, blackberries and tomato leaf make up the nose.

The palate is still tight, though not so tight as on Night One. Blackberry is the primary fruit on the attack, plus some tobacco leaf. Blackcurrant and plum skins, followed by a very light touch of vanilla and fresh roasted coffee beans, make up the mid-palate. Tannins and acid are both strong but balance each other out well. This has real promise as it all integrates with time in the cellar.





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2006 Waters Crest Cabernet Franc Private Reserve

Vintage: 2006
Type: Red
Producer: Waters Crest
Variety: Cabernet Franc
Designation: Private Reserve
Country: USA
Region: New York
SubRegion: Long Island
Appellation: North Fork
Disclosure This was received as an unsolicited free sample.



Night One

This needs a lot of time, in the decanter, the cellar, or both. If you "pop-n-pour" you will be terribly disappointed- it starts out tight, thin, and sour. But give it a couple of hours in the glass and it changes completely. A little tobacco leaf forms the background against a mix of red and black fruit. Raspberries and blackberries together make up the base aroma, tart cranberry and rich blackcurrant float over the top.

This is a medium-bodied wine, offering a thinner mouth-feeel and more acid than Cabernet Sauvignon, just as you would expect from a Cabernet Franc. The same black and red fruit from the nose make up the attack. Cocoa makes an appearance on the mid-palate. The finish is long.

On Night One this wine shows promise, but it is very tight, even after some decanter time. It is a strong candidate for Nigt Two improvement.

Night Two

The nose has loads of tobacco and tomato leaf, some blackberry and blackcurrant, plus a bit of cranberry.

There is also leafiness on the palate, along with black fruit and a bit of red fruit. The black fruit is blackberry, plus a little blackcurrant. The red fruit is cranberry, offering a clean tarntess more than a fruity flavor. This is a pretty classic Cab Franc, medium-bodied, black fruit and a little red fruit, clean and less tannic than Cabernet Sauvignon. I suspect it would benefit from more time in the cellar.

Waters Crest has been a real eye-opener for me. I have long been an afficianado of French wines, California wines, wines from Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, and even the Finger Lakes region in New York, but when people mentioned Long Island, my thoughts went to a girl I used to know, the most amazing 'ugly duckling to beautiful swan' story I ever saw, not to the noble grape. Now I have something else to think about. I wonder if I can find her again and perhaps we can share a bottle or two.





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2005 Waters Crest Campania Rosso

Type Red
Producer Waters Crest
Variety Red Bordeaux Blend (73% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 12% Cabernet Sauvignon)
Designation Campania Rosso
Country USA
Region New York
SubRegion Long Island
Appellation North Fork
Disclosure This was received as an unsolicited free sample.



The Little Wooden Guy dances a little jig for a nice surprise from Long Island.

Night One

The nose on this wine is quite pleasant. The opening aromas speak more of Bordeaux than California or Australia, more restrained than jammy, with layers of scent rather than an oak bucket full of jelly dumped on your head. It opens with a bit of tobacco (from the Cab Franc) and unsweetened chocolate, followed by raspberry, some blackberry, then a whole bunch of eucalyptus and a bit of peppermint.

The palate has cherries and raspberries, blackcurrants, tobacco leaf and black pepper. Some red cherry licorice and vanilla are on the mid-palate. Tannins are smooth and quite sweet. The finish is surprisingly long.

Night Two

Interesting. The nose lacks the complexity of Night One. Cherries and some blackcurrant are there, but the tobacco, raspberry, chocolate, and most of all eucalyptus, are all missing. There is, instead of all that, just a bit of vanilla.

On the palate, too, complexity is gone. On Night One this wine sang "Bordeaux" from the glass. On Night Two, though, the song is "Cal-i-fornia Here I Come." Cherries, plum and plum skin lead the attack. Cedar and vanilla, followed by brown sugar, follow on the mid-palate, with the tiniest background echo of tobacco from the Cabernet Franc. Mouth feel remains silky. Tannins are still very sweet. The finish is sweet and long. Drink this one soon. It is ready now, not years from now.

This wine really caught me by surprise. I admit, the Waters Crest wines are the first I ever had from Long Island, and I was not optimistic. Of course, the fact that they sent their wines to The Wooden Guys to review, rather than a site that only posts positive reviews, should have been a hint. On the other hand, wine is more than just juice, and every bottle is the winemaker's baby, and who looks at their own kid and says "she really ain't that cute"? Well let me tell you something, people, she's pretty darned cute. Will anybody confuse this for a 1982 first growth? No, of course not. But line it up blind with a 2001 third growth and darned near anything from Napa in the last ten years, and it will come in, at worst, second. Indeed, I would bet you most people would guess "two from Bordeaux, one from California." I think the mail order retail is under $40, and given the brown sugar and molasses mess you get in so many Cabernets in that price range, this is pretty darned good stuff.






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2007 Waters Crest Chardonnay Private Reserve

Vintage 2007
Type White
Producer Waters Crest
Variety Chardonnay
Designation Private Reserve
Country USA
Region New York
SubRegion Long Island
Appellation North Fork
Disclosure This was received as an unsolicited free sample.



Night One

I wrestled with the nose for at least thirty minutes before admitting what I was smelling-flat Blue Moon with a lime slice floating atop it, with a toasted toothpick stuck through the lime. But, and this will seem truly weird, in a good way.

The palate is equally odd, and quite similar to the nose. Age flat Blue Moon in heavily toasted French oak (lots of toasty wood, but not vanilla or butter, so not American oak) for 18 months, add a slice of lime, and you will know what this wine tastes like.

Night Two

The nose is not significantly different from Night One. It has the same flat-beer and toasted wood aroma, though the toast is stronger. There is also a little ginger.

The palate is also similar to Night One. The lime is gone, replaced by ginger, but flat beer aged in very heavily toasted oak remains the lead flavor. If you really hunt for it you can find a bit of apple, but not much.

Varietal characteristics show up, not in the flavor, but in the mouth-feel. This is incredibly creamy, mouth-filling, and smooth.

I realize my description does not sound like a great wine, but that would not be fair. Let me tell you what I did. I took this to one my "wine guy," one of the two best palates (IMHO) in Indiana to get his opinion, because this was just so different. On the nose he asked, "Australia?," but no guess on varietal. He picked up chardonnay on the creamy mid-palate, not the flavor. Then he picked up the phone, called the winery, and asked if he could be their exclusive carrier in the State. This is really interesting wine, and you could blind taste-test 100 sommeliers in a row, and if 1 says "Long Island" without cheating, I'll buy you another bottle. The wine guy, by the way, is going to market this as "Cigar Chard," for cigar lovers who prefer white to red, because its mouth-filling toastiness has the body to complement a good smoke.





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2007 Dr. Konstantin Frank Johannisberg Riesling Dry

Type White
Producer Dr. Konstantin Frank
Variety Johannisberg Riesling
Designation Dry
Country USA
Region New York
SubRegion Finger Lakes
Appellation Finger Lakes
Alcohol 12%
Price $19.99



The Bit Wooden Guy does the "Sun Salutation" to welcome a lovely white on the first warm day of the year.

Night One

The color is very pale but the light catches flashes of bright gold.

The nose is very soft and aromatic, starting with pears and honeysuckle, their sweetness tempered by a tiny grating of fresh lemon zest.

Mouth feel is lightly oily and smooth, a full mouth-feel. The initial attack is a bit more tart than suggested by the nose, leading with fresh-cut tangy-sweet pineapple. The mid-palate is softer and sweeter, with pears and honey. At the very end, just as it goes down, there is some nutmeg and a quick flash of Reisling-true petrol. The finish is mid-length.

Night Two

The nose opens softer than on night one, think sliced pears on a thin layer of smashed banana. Put a Ginger Snap three plates over, and you will know the smell of this wine. It is quite pleasant, actually.

The palate opens with tart half-baked apples and some starfruit. The ginger snap from a few plates down pops up on the mid-palate. A flash of petrol quickly appears and disappears at the finish, which then lingers with citrusy starfruit.

This is la lovely bottle of wine. It has just enough sweetnes to line up perfectly against spicy food, and is sunny and smooth enough to sip outside on a sunny afternoon.

WBW #48 Manischewitz Concord Grape N/V

11% alcohol
51% or more Concord Grape wine

From the bottle:

A specially sweetened kosher wine containing not less than 51% concord.

Today is the fourth anniversary of Wine Blogging Wednesday, and the topic is back to your roots:

We're all wine lovers, but we have gotten where we are today in a variety of ways on a variety of paths. These long, windy paths are littered with wines the world over. I just want you to pick one of the wines from the beginning of your journey, taste it again for the first time in a while, and tell us about it.

Maybe you remember the very first wine you ever tasted. Try it again.

Okay. I did.

Manischewitz Concord Grape was part of every ceremony, from simple Shabbot dinners to Passover, from Hannukah to weddings. I don't remember it, but I tasted it for the first time when I was a mere 8 days old, when a mohel dipped a cloth in some and let me suck on it, a very traditional anasthetic for the act to follow.

As a child I got a tiny little glass, a liquor glass, that looked like a miniature version of my parents' wine glasses. My sisters could not stand the stuff. They took the tiniest sips, making one glass last through the evening, usually with leftovers. I, on the other hand, drained it whenever somebody said "drink" (or, more likely, "Ba-ruch a-tah, A-do-nai, E-lo-hei-nu me-lech ha-o-lam, bo-rei p'ri ha-ga-fen. Amen."). Manischewitz, or its counterpart Mogen David Concord Grape, were the first wines I ever tasted, and likely the only ones I tasted for my first 15 years or more. Oh, one more thing. We would drink the same bottle until it was gone. At Passover it was grape jelly and sugar. By Hannukah, though, it was as oxidized as could be. Tonight I will be reviewing the Hannukah version:

The nose is pure oxidized wine, bruised plums and port. On the palate, imagine putting one cup of port in a blender, add one cup of sugar, and blend. Then sip. Once. I can't call what follows a "finish," but there is definitely an aftertaste.