Kontokosta 01 May Pick Up

 

It is time for a May pickup at the excellent long island winery Kontokosta.

Kontokosta selected three wines for their club this quarter, an incredible tri color selection.  First up was the 2016 Cabernet Franc Reserve. The 2016 season was dry through most of the spring and early summer, but the season finished with quite a bit of rainfall.  The Fruit ripened well by mid-October and remained well balanced but with a slightly lower Brix(sugar level) than other seasons.  The wine fermented in steel and barrel, with about six months in new oak and six months in used Hungarian oak barrels.  The Franc was bottled in July of 2018 and then rested till its release in mid-2020.  The nose is intense Tobacco and some old leather.  The wine has a full-body mouth feel with clear black cherry and anisette notes as it lingers on the palate. This wine is a refined expression of a Long Island Cabernet Franc.  By all means, enjoy now.  Next up is the 2019 field blend, a Meritage of Sauvignon Blanc(36%), Chardonnay(36%), and Riesling(28%).  The 2019 season was one of the better ones, with the Fruit coming in ripe, slightly above average Brix, and crisp well-balanced acid levels.  The grapes harvested in October of 2019, cold fermented without a secondary Mall-Lactic fermentation, produced a crisp wine.  It is the Malo-Lactic fermentation that gives Chardonnay that buttery popcorn aroma and taste.  Sorry folks, I like popcorn swimming in butter but not buttered popcorn flavored wine.  The Alcohol is about 13%, which seems a bit low given the slightly higher Brix, but one can taste just the slightest bit of residual sugar in the wine but balanced by the acid.  The wine was bottled in early 2020 and released in mid-2020 in time for the summer fun.  The aroma, for me, is dominated by honeysuckle, an apparent influence of the Riesling grape. The taste was new world North American Sauvignon Blanc with clear notes of apple and pineapples.  A fine wine to serve well chilled with blue point oysters on a warm spring day like today.  Of course, the trio would not be complete without a rose. It is a young blend harvested in 2020 and released in 2021. Again pandemics notwithstanding, the 2020 season was outstanding for Long Island.  The Fruit came off the vine rich in flavor and reasonably well balanced.  This is a complex blend of Cabernet Franc(40%), Cabernet Sauvignon(35%), Syrah(20%), and Merlot(5%).  All the Fruit was fermented together except the Syrah, which was done standalone and blended after.  The skin contact was light, resulting in the pale rosé color of the final wine.  Alcohol is very moderate at 12.5%.  The result is a well-balanced rose aroma of watermelon and cherries.  Light on the mouthfeel with notes of strawberry and raspberry in a short finish.  A fine sunny day outside deck wine. 

KONTOKOSTA MAY 2021 CLUB PICKUP