New Years Eve dinner @ the Frisky Oyster in Greenport, NY. The entire ceiling was covered in white and red helium-filled balloons!

Voss Viognier on the left and a “girlie martini” on the right. Dinner was excellent by the way…

Eric and I have been visiting Long Island wineries for as long as we’ve been together and we’ve seen many changes in the last ten years. While some wines have certainly increased in quality, one major negative is that all wineries now charge a pretty hefty fee to try their wine. Some places refund the tasting fee if you purchase wine, but others don’t. At least in Santa Ynez, California you get a complimentary wine glass, no such luck here in NY.

Roanoke Vineyards—By far our best experience, Rich Pisacano poured us some lovely wines, our favorites being the reserve Merlot from 2005 2004, Blend 1, and the 2006 Chardonnay. All these wines were lovely now, but would be even better after some decanting and cellar-time. The tasting fees were reasonable and happily waived after we bought two cases of wine. I would definitely recommend this winery for a pleasant tasting atmosphere of some nicely crafted wines.

Palmer Vineyards—One of the bigger wineries on Long Island, but their wines were solid. The three-flight tastes were generous, my favorite red was the Cabernet Franc. Eric liked the White Riesling best, followed closely by the Gewurztraminer. The two kids pouring the wine were personable but didn’t seem to know that much about the wines.

Martha Clara Vineyards—We really enjoyed ourselves here three years ago but along with the increase in building size came an increase in tasting fees and a decrease in quality. The pours were very tiny (they had those cut-off spouts that gave us about 1/2 oz pours) and the setting was impersonal. You have to walk through a large shop to get to the tasting room, which lets me know where their heads are. Disappointing at best. Their sparkling wines are decent.

Jamesport Vineyards—We ran into another baffling tasting fee here, there was an extra $2 charge for a shared tasting on top of the $6-$8 fee. In other words, to share the exact same pour with Eric I would be charged more. Are you kidding me? We bought the 2002 Riesling at the local wine shop which we really enjoyed but Eric had a very different opinion about the 2005. I thought the Pinot Noir was passable but the Merlot and Cab were sub-par.

Bedell Cellars Vineyards—On this visit we discovered that our favorite raspberry dessert wine will be discontinued after this batch is sold. Strangely, it is also bottled by their sister vineyard Corey Creek now. Bedell was also the only place that required we pay up front for tasting and then didn’t credit us the tasting when we bought four bottles of wine. Personally, I think if I buy $80 worth of your wine, the least you could do would be to credit me the $10 tasting fee for four small samples. This place was recommended for their ‘05 Merlots which were completely sold out. Figures.

pup in front of our lovely tree… Merry Christmas everyone!

Our drive up to Long Island was fairly uneventful in general, the weather cooperated for the most part, only a steady sprinkle through most of Maryland and New Jersey. We weighed several options in terms of times to leave and where we would miss major metropolitan areas during rush hour.

Unfortunately, Washington DC is never without horrible traffic and even though we timed it ‘perfectly’ we still sat in stop and go traffic for well over an hour in the middle of the afternoon. It could have been worse, I know… but it turned a 10 hour drive into an 11.5 hour drive and that is past my limit of car-time.

We arrived just after 9pm, so we enjoyed some chinese food and were able to relax a bit before heading to bed.

Nothing jump started the holidays better than my gram’s cookies. Every year she made copious amounts of russian teaballs and these buttery cookies with a half a pecan on top, delicious!

We haven’t had the joy of these cookies in a few years, so I searched through her old wooden recipe box and found the (surprisingly easy) directions. I think I did them justice. :)

Russian Teaballs

1 lb butter, softened
6 Tbsp granulated sugar
4 cups flour, sifted
1 lb grated almonds (I just grind them in a food processor until finely chopped)
powdered sugar for coating

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter in a stand mixer on medium speed, add granulated sugar. Gradually add sifted flour, you will probably have to scrape the sides of the mixer as you go. (I switched from the whisk to the paddle attachment about halfway through, but I think you could start with the paddle and save yourself some time.) Add the grated almonds and incorporate completely.

Form little balls (about 2 Tbsp dough per ball) and place on ungreased baking sheets, about 20 to a sheet. The idea is to end up with round cookies, so I freeze the dough balls on the cookie sheets for about 10 minutes before putting them in the oven so they don’t flatten out when baked.

Bake for 16 minutes, flipping the cookies over after 8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes, this will allow the cookies to firm up a bit, they are very crumbly when hot. While still warm, gently roll in a dish of powdered sugar to coat. I store these in layers with wax paper in between, but wait until completely cooled to box them up.

Makes about 80 cookies.

Part of our Christmas tradition includes watching some of our favorite Christmas movies, so last night we had some friends over to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. A stupid movie, yes, but one that still makes us laugh. It’s hard to believe that we watched this movie in South Africa just one year ago! I hope they’ve forgiven us by now :)

Somehow, Leandra has never seen It’s a Wonderful Life, and while we’ll eventually watch it, I’m not in a big rush to see it again.

There are two other movies that we try to see each Christmas season: A Christmas Story and A Wish for Wings that Work (which ties in with our Opus n’ Bill ornaments). Oddly enough, I was introduced to A Wish… in my high school chorus class, where we spent the last class before Christmas watching it. 12+ years later I still like this movie.

It has been uncharacteristically warm here for the last few weeks, which means more fun times at the dog park…

That is two happy dogs right there.

We are also happy that she has been interacting more playfully with dogs on the same side of the fence. When we head up to NY for Christmas there will be three dogs in the house, Riesling, Jeter (yorkie) and Holly (cockapoo). Should be interesting!

The weekend of our visit was decided before we knew that a wine tour weekend was taking place. Fortunately it was centered around Seneca Lake and we were going to be visiting Keuka Lake wineries, so we avoided most of the crowds. :)

Fox Run Vineyards—Overall we thought the wine was average, but the biggest problem was the fact that the pourer we had knew nothing about the wine. For example, I asked her what the percentage of grapes was in one blend and she had to ask someone, who then told her it’s always on the bottle. “Good to know,” she said. (sigh.)

Anthony Road Wine Company—This winery on the north west side of Seneca Lake was also jammed with people, however, the wines were better than at Fox Run but still only one, the semi-dry Riesling, was interesting.

Keuka Spring Vineyards—We drove right past this place, but turned around when we noticed the view and admired the general look of the vineyard. We essentially had a private tasting as we had lost the partying-weekend-tasters with our route through Penn Yan along the eastern side of Keuka Lake. This family run winery had some great wines, my favorite was the Miller’s Cove Red blend, lots of cinnamon and pepper. Eric liked the 2005 Riesling.

Rooster Hill Winery—Just a few minutes down the road from Keuka Springs, this place had a friendly atmosphere and some decent wine. Overall, I think the wines were a little too weak for our taste.

McGregor Winery—This place was jam-packed with people in the Clan Club visiting for the winery’s barrel tasting… and I have no earthly idea why. The only drinkable wine was the dry Riesling.

Dr. Frank Konstantin Winery—By far the most well-known of the wineries we visited, it was also the best. Bill, our pourer, was a wealth of knowledge about the wines and the dual-tasting approach (tasting two similar wines jointly), made the whole experience educational and fun. Each couple ordered a case and unfortunately, we wound up with each other’s wine. However, a quick call to the winery and they shipped out the correct cases the next day.

The view on my way home tonite.

We were recently saddened to find out that Restaurant Starlu, our favorite local restaurant, is closing before Christmas, so we decided to stop in for one last meal. I got my last taste of the amazing arancini appetizer, and of course we split a chocolate plate for dessert. Since Chef Sam is selling off the back of the wine list, Leandra got an early Christmas present in the form of a 1992 Phelps Insignia to be enjoyed at a later date.

In honor of one of Eric’s favorite signature burgers, Leandra made a double Boca burger layered with sharp cheddar cheese and wrapped in a puff pastry for dinner this evening.

Thanks for the great meals Sam, and we’re hoping you make a reappearance sooner rather then later…