Catching up on the reading, there’s lots out there about local wine:
NYT: At Local 111 in Philmont, NY, wine from nearby Hudson-Chatham winery is on the list
Eric Asimov of the New York Times joins the locavore/locapour debate this week with a well-reasoned piece about the reluctance of consumers to consider local wines even as they seek out local produce and meats to support regional farmers.
“Food authorities have argued convincingly that the public benefits politically, environmentally, ethically and culinarily from eating local ingredients and supporting local agriculture,” Asimov writes. “But where does that leave wine, a peculiar example that is surely both a food and an agricultural product but does not fit neatly into any category?”
He lists what differentiates wine from local produce – it’s not fresh, it is portable and can travel, and of course it is limited. “If New York City were to drink nothing but Long Island wine, it might consumer the region’s annual production in a week,” he points out.
But he’s clearly in favor of local wine, as long as the quality is there. He focuses almost exclusively on New York, though he gives a nod to Colorado, where DrinkLocalWine.com recently held its 2012 conference. The Times over the years has been very good to local (ie., New York) wines, with Howard Goldberg providing extensive coverage in its local editions. But Asimov’s recent attention to New York, with a feature last summer on the Finger Lakes and now his essay on local wine in general, gives the issue prominent national exposure. Now if we could just get Jay McInerny to wax poetic about a Michigan pinot blanc …
Joe Roberts, the Internet’s darling blogger at 1WineDude.com, details his experiences at DLW in Denver, with a post about the panel discussion I chaired on “Why Local Wine and Local Food Hate Each Other.” (Spoiler alert – we covered a lot of the same material Asimov did, although he wasn’t at the conference. Next year, Eric!) Joe also posted his thoughts on how Colorado has the potential to produce some world-class wines. He goes on a bit about the bad ones he tasted – no self-respecting writer would rave unconditionally about a new wine region, after all – but hey, California produces some crappy wines, too. He features the almost unanimous favorite of the Twitter Taste-Off: the Guy Drew Pinot Gris 2010. Yum!
And California blogger Mike Dunne travels out of state – at least through his corkscrew – to discover wines from The Other 47. Dunne offers an interesting perspective from someone who lives in the center of it all as he experiences something new.
Cheers!
Dave McIntyre's WineLine 