LIWINEDAD

  Lenz Winery is the second stop of six on our early June expedition.  In keeping with our road trip plan, Jo kept the car running and cool while I ran in for a quick grab and go.  You enter through an arched gateway into an expansive gravel paved courtyard (Fig 01).  The tasting room is on the north and resembles a rustic old tavern.  The Lenz club is very flexible and allows you to fully customize the quarterly selection, which we took full advantage resulting in us exceeding our club commitment again.  For Jo were two bottles of the Lenz 2021 Sauvignon Blanc, and to round out the six-pack, we added 2 2015 Old Vines Merlot and 2 2015 Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon (Fig 02).  The old vines reds remain one of my favorite Long Island wines.  The Sauvignon Blanc is a unique wine and a remarkable complex flavor that stems partly from the add Stabulation (spelling correct – new wine-making process).  The details on this wine are in the attached tasting note from Lenz (Fig 03).  The 2015 old

  Summer is officially here, and it is time for the next wine club pickups and deliveries.   The summer pickup was structured as if we were on a ‘mission from God’(FIG 10).  The pickup runs covered six wineries, 152 miles in about 5 hours, retrieving fifty-four bottles of wine, including ten bottles for friends with some clubs in common with us.  First, of course, we needed the SUV to fit everything, so Jo became the designated driver, and I did the tuck and roll at each winery to dart in, grab the wine, and go.  We made stops at Pellegrini Vineyards (Fig 01), Lenz Winery (Fig 02), Sparkling Pointe (Fig 03), Sannino Vineyards (Fig 04), Terra Vite Winery & Vineyard (Fig 05), and Roanoke Vineyards (Fig 06).   Deliveries from Kontokosta Winery (Fig 07), Raphael Winery (Fig 08), and W ö lffer Estate Vineyard (Fig 09) round out the early June 2022 Clubs.   Each club selection will be covered in a separate posting and the late June pickups. #longislandwineries #vineyardviews #wineryvib

  Searching the cellar for a white wine to pair with a home-cooked seafood dinner, we found a Lenz Winery - 2015 White Label Chardonnay .   The Chardonnay has been resting a bit longer than average, but it was well chilled, so we expected to be okay, and it was.   Part of the bottle went into the cooking and the remainder into a glass to accompany dinner. In the glass, the color was a denser deeper shimmering gold with notes of an orchard and vanilla (Figure 1).   The palate is mild acid with apple notes and a hint of apricot and finishing with pear and a hit of oak.   For dinner, we whipped up some homemade Zoodles.   On top of the Zoodles was a sautéed mixture of Salmon, Swordfish tidbits, Calamari, and Shrimp, all done in a zesty Chardonnay-Garlic sauce (Figure 2). The Lenz 2015 Chardonnay was a perfect match to the seafood medley and a fine base wine for the sauce.      FIG 1 - LENZ 2015 CHARDONNAY 08 MAR 2022   FIG 2 - SEAFOOD OVER ZOODLES 08 MAR 2022

  The Lenz winery winter pick-up is a fantastic pick-up event.  A tasting of four wines paired with a small plate’s meal created an outstanding experience.  Today’s tasting consisted of two reds, a sparkling rose, and a white.  Starting with the 2021 Firefly P é tillant Naturel , Sparkling Ro s é, the Pet Nat is built from Lenz’s delicate red fruit and wild yeast.  Bright pink, crisp Acid, fine bubbles with a touch of creaminess, and beautiful floral notes are the hallmark of this wine (Figure 1).  Next up is the 2015 Gold Chardonnay .  The Chardonnay presents a bright shimmering gold color with slender legs in the glass.  The mouthfeel is creamy with well-balanced Acid and well-defined notes of green apple (Figure 2).  First, transitioning to the reds is the 2016 Merlot , a fine daily wine (Figure 3).  Dark color, medium legs, bursting with red cherry and plum.  The tannins are well represented, and the Acid is balanced.  Overall, very good as a daily wine, but Lenz’s Old Vines Merlo

  A few weeks ago, we enjoyed a Wölffer Estate 2020 Antonov Sauvignon Blanc that was rich, complex, and very enjoyable.   A commentary on the Wölffer is posted and today the Lenz Winery 2019 Sauvignon Blanc will be contrasted to the Wölffer 2020 Antonov Sauvignon Blanc.   The color in the glass is bright yellow and very clear with just some little legs (Figure 1).   The nose fills the glass with Gooseberry , Honeydew Melon, and Herbaceous (think cut Grass, Green Bell Peppers) notes.   The Lenz's nose perfectly juxtaposes the Wölffer, which has more herbaceous notes followed by the fruit.   The Lenz Winery 2019 Sauvignon Blanc is much crisper, closer to a New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, and did not show any of the creaminess from oak as the Wölffer did.   The acid was more notable but still very well balanced with less fulness in the mouth.   The Lenz Sauvignon Blanc is a fine wine to pair with Bluepoint oysters with a slight preference to pair the richer Wölffer with

As our followers have noticed, this blog has been still for many months; nothing was wrong; the redoing of the front of our home kept us preoccupied and from wine country from the mid-summer till this week.  We are back on the road again, making the pick-up enjoying a few glasses of wine in the vineyards, and filling out the wine cellar for the coming holidays.  Good this Christmas day is at our home this year.  We had so many clubs and past club selections that we needed to do pick-ups on two separate trips.  Between the fall and winter club selection, we brought home over 100 bottles.  The first run on 19 Nov had us bringing home 44 bottles (Figure 1), and the 08 DEC run fetched 55 bottles from 9 wineries (Figure 2).  1 - 19 NOV 2021 WINE PICK-UP 2 - DEC 2021 WINE PICK-UP We still have Channing Daughters Winery and Wölffer Estate Vineyard for one more run before Christmas and delivery from Jamesport before we close out the year.  To balance all this fine Long Island wine, we also h

As we come out of our bunkers from the covid winter, this was one of our first real pickups; stop, taste, enjoy not just a drive-by grab of the Lenz Winery quarterly wine. We had a chance to enjoy what turned out to be an actual lunch with our sit-down tasting in the courtyard under the vine arbors. The food was not the traditional nosh but a selection of salads, sandwiches, and wraps, one better than the next. This quarter is consisting of 6 bottles, including two of my favorites. The favorites are the old vines Merlot and old vines Cabernet Sauvignon followed by two different roses and last but not least, a sauvignon blanc. The background in the pickup picture is some of the wine racks in the cellar, soon to be an actual wine cellar courtesy of Selective Homes. The 2013 Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon is a classic as 2013 was a good year for the fruit. It is, in many ways, close to a left bank Bordeaux as they added a bit of Merlot, Malbec, and Franc to the final blend. The result

  Last week we did a pickup run from two of the winery clubs we are currently in and brought home eleven different wines (15 bottles total).  Now ahead lies the task of trying each one.  First up is the Lenz Estate Selection Sauvignon Blanc 2019.  We chilled the wine to about 58 degrees and paired it with dinner, consisting of grilled shrimp with a light creamy shrimp and cheese sauce accompanied by a small side salad and Caesar dressing.  The wine was allowed to breathe a bit before tasting with about 5 oz in a universal stemmed glass.  The color is a light to almost pale gold with minimal legs in the glass.  The nose was medium primarily with herbaceous, green grass, crisp green apple, and a very slight hint of stone fruit.  On the palate, the wine is quite dry with high acid but not as intense as a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.  Both the body and the alcohol were medium, and the flavor intensity medium to light.  The flavor was much more pear, lime with a bit of minerality.  All of t

  Friday (12 Feb 2021) was a cold bright day perfect to do a quick pick up run to several of the wineries where we are club members.  The trip was an express pickup run with no tasting and only 15 minutes allocated for each stop.  I was the driver, Jo the copilot, and navigator for this run. We headed out at about 9:30, making the first stop at Kontokosta around 11:15 AM.  As this is the offseason outside, the winery was still, except for the wind turbine's gentle whoosh in the background. The tasting room's view was serene across the snow-covered field leading down to the bluff overlooking the sound.  We picked up a 2016 Merlot, 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon and a 2018 Sauvignon Blanc Barrel select. As my son is a member also, we picked up his quarterly club selection. From there, it was on to Lenz by 11:34 AM. Lenz has a fine selection of wines, and they allow you to customize your quarterly club selections, which always means that I add to the suggested list to fill out a case.