I have a few things to mention!

My sister’s wedding shower went very well. I think everyone had a good time save for the tiredness of being out until 2am+ for the bachelorette party the night before. Note to brides: do not do activities in this order. The experience of hanging out with my sister and her friends at various bars and clubs in downtown Chicago was fun and I am so glad I drank water for pretty much the whole night. :)

Also, our wine site turns one years old today. We’ve been keeping up with wine dinners, tastings and events for 12 straight months at about 22 posts a month… a little more posting than this blog has seen, I’m afraid.

I have been very busy with client work over these past few weeks (a good thing!) and we have decided to stick with posting about our travels and food/restaurant reviews here as most of our other escapades are available on Facebook and Twitter and I just don’t have the time to double post things.

We are planning three international trips for this fall, so things are going to get pretty busy around here soon… stay tuned!

Shouldn’t the Problem Event Name be BlueScreenOfDeath?

It’s been a year and a half since the last time we went wine tasting on the North Fork but the weather was great over the 4th of July weekend, so we decided to chance the crowds on Saturday and celebrate a sunny day with some wine.

Roanoke Vineyards—One of our favorite wineries on Long Island and my in-laws know the owner well, so it’s always a treat to visit here. Predictably, Eric tried the white flight and I went with the red flight. We both enjoyed the Provence-style ’08 rose which felt very summery, fairly dry and tropical – a good value at $16/bottle. We also picked up some of the ’07 Chardonnay, which seems consistently good here, and two bottles of the ’06 Cabernet Sauvignon (violets on nose, long finish with hints of caramel) which is drinking well even now. Since there was no rush, we took advantage of the $5 glasses of Chardonnay special and sat out on the patio overlooking the vineyards before making our way to the next vineyard. We also got to see the label of the new wine named after Gabby… it’s not released yet so we didn’t get to try it, but I’m sure it’ll be very nice.

Roanoke vineyards under a beautiful blue sky

Shinn Estate Vineyards—When we arrived, Panda, the resident border collie, was taking a power nap, but don’t let that fool you because about 10 minutes later she was playing fetch with Eric for the rest of our tasting with whatever stick she could find.

Each of us tried a variety of wine but the standouts were the ’08 “Anomaly,” a white pinot noir (nice cinnamon and cardamom with a touch of grass) and the ’06 “Wild Boar Doe” a blend of Merlot, Cab, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Cab Franc (meaty with lots of spice and black pepper). I also picked up a bottle of the ’06 Estate Merlot which was toasted, smoky and smooth. We all thought the ’08 Rose was nice but liked the Roanoke version better for the same price.

the Shinn Estates tasting room, cozy but nice

Lenz Winery—Our tasting here went so well that decided to enroll in the wine club which gives us access to purchase wines from their Old Vines collection. Jeff, our host, did a lovely job of combining the Estate and Premium tastings so we could try similar wines in series to really appreciate the aging process. I would definitely recommend this type of tasting as it’s interesting to see how, for example, the ’05 White Label Chardonnay, ’06 Gold Label Chardonnay and ’05 Old Vines Chardonnay compare to one another. Another plus is that their wines are very reasonably priced and there’s a good range from $12 to $55. The winemaker likes to hold onto wines until they are drinking well, which explains why they still have an ’01 Estate Merlot available, so you’ll notice right off the bat that the reds can be enjoyed the same day you bring home the bottle.

Our favorites were the ’05 White Label Chardonnay (tropical and clean, great value at $12), ’02 Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon (big with fruit splash on finish), ’05 Old Vines Chardonnay (burgundy style with pear/apple) and the ’01 Estate Selection Merlot (cherry, cocoa and caramel).

the Lenz tasting room

eric’s note:
We ended up storing the wine we bought in my parents basement until we drive up for Christmas. Hands off mom and dad :)

Thanks to some creative driving by my fearless father-in-law and the separate security line for AA Gold status passengers at JFK, we made it onto our flight this afternoon with just a few minutes to spare. Whew!

So, we are now home with a very happy (and relaxed) schnauzer…

The weather was sunny and we had a great time this weekend: visited with several family members, did a bit of wine tasting and ate some tasty pizza in NYC.

I will be posting more about the three wineries we visited later in the week once I get my notes in order and catch my breath from running through the entire length of JFK’s Terminal 8.

You know you are seasoned traveler when you get a text message that your flight is canceled and your first reaction is “Aw, man, we just parked in the airport’s daily lot and with RDU’s new policy as of yesterday we are going to have to pay $2 to rebook our flight.”

Thankfully our Gold status allowed us to line jump and get booked on the next available flight which happened to be crazy-early tomorrow morning. And because we didn’t want to land in NYC then turn around and leave the next day, we asked to be moved to a Sunday return flight instead of the late Saturday flight we had originally booked. Luckily, the gate agent was game, so now it’s an early-Fri to mid-Sun trip as opposed to a mid-Thurs to late-Sat trip. Considering that itinerary would have cost over twice as much as the one we booked, it’s a wash.

But I still want my $2 back.