As tough as this winter has been, between icicles and snowdrifts, the East End’s wine and music fanciers have had numerous alluring opportunities to enjoy a wide variety of concerts during “Winterfest: Live on the Vine,” which kicked off last month. Now in its ninth season, this collaborative effort between East End Arts, Long Island Wine Council and Long Island Convention & Visitors Bureau—with support from Suffolk County and title sponsor, Suffolk County National Bank—has expanded its offerings to include jazz, blues, world, singer-songwriter, soul, bluegrass, jam and country music.
This weekend is Winterfest’s last. Barring an unwarranted rogue blizzard, you may choose from concerts at eight wineries on Saturday and six on Sunday, with others at venues ranging from Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor and the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead to A Lure restaurant in Southold and Jason’s Vineyard in Jamesport. Wouldn’t David Clark’s tribute to Billy Joel go nicely with a fine glass of merlot at Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue? How about rollicking good music from everyone’s favorite, Gene Casey, at Coffee Pot Cellars in Cutchogue? While you’re there, pick up honeyed treats made by Blossom Meadow’s beekeeper, Laura Klahre.
All of Winterfest’s events are posted on its website at liwinterfest.com.
If you are unmotivated to move, but still seek entertainment, check out one of my favorite websites, winebusiness.com. Not interested in the business of wine, you say? Ah, but this site has links to so much more than the dull announcements of who’s been promoted at Demptos, or who’s got used tanks for sale. Let’s explore a few stories, shall we?
There’s a photo of a guy funneling feed down the throat of a goose with the headline, “Animal rights groups can sue Napa restaurant over foie gras.” After California passed a law prohibiting the manufacture, or sale, of foie gras in 2012, the chef/managing partner Ken Frank of La Toque restaurant protested the ruling by serving the delicacy “for free” as part of an $80 tasting menu. So, the Animal Legal Defense Fund sent a spy to dine there three times, then sued to halt the servings. The chef claims he’s “protesting the law, not breaking it,” and described his menu choice as “my way of dumping tea in the harbor.”
In another report, we learn that Modesto-based E.&J. Gallo Winery wants to settle out of court with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, which has charged Gallo of “intentional or negligent disposal of hazardous waste,” failure to properly label waste storage containers, failure to adequately train staff in waste management, and failure to “adequately notify” the DTSC about six fires and explosions at the facility between 2006 and 2011.
Less explosively, bud break was reported to be three weeks premature in parts of California in early March, leaving tender shoots susceptible to spring frosts. Growers have sprinklers, smudge pots and fans ready, but have seen some vines “fried” by frost. Bud break on Long Island is usually the first week of May.
In England, wine critic Tim Atkin has taken Bordeaux producers to task for showing raw, unfinished wines to the market “en primeur.” He criticizes the traditional practice as “ridiculous” and “out of touch,” recommending producers wait five years before marketing such “backward” barrels.
In Australia, wine critic “Champagne Jayne” has been sued for copyright infringement by the CIVC—the Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne—claiming she writes about sparkling wines other than champagne. Really, Jayne, what were you thinking?
Also Champagne-related, one of the top salesmen at giant wine and “booze” distributor Southern Wine & Spirits in Syosett dumped out bottles of Laurent Perrier Rose at the Hustler’s Club in Manhattan as a stripper clutched his crotch. He was protesting the brand’s abandoning his company for another distributor, The Winebow Group.
Who knew champagne was such a hot topic?
Trying to make its own brand of wine “more hip,” Split Rail Winery in Garden City, Idaho, is bottling its wine in beer cans. They call their new product “Strange Folk.”
Portland, Oregon, has no shortage of either litigious or strange folk. There, a woman is suing Enzo’s Caffe italiano, asking $100,000 for “rude service.” She had reserved a table for two on Valentine’s Day, but showed up alone, explaining that her husband “decided not to go because he was still full from lunch.” When the busy restaurant staff asked her to move to the bar, she exited in a huff without paying for the two glasses of wine she had consumed. So “devastated she cried for a day,” she wants a public apology, along with her $100,000.
See? There’s plenty of entertainment in the wine world. Even without cat videos.
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