Straight Outta Corning -- Highlights of #WBC15 Finger Lakes Part III

SATURDAY--
Ageability of Finger Lakes Wines
I learned a lot in the session led by Brandon Seagar who was funny and engaging and the wines he selected for the tasting supported his points well. The best thing about WBC in recent years have been the educational sessions devoted to aspects of the wines from the particular region. Last year in Santa Barbara, the Syrah panel comes to mind, and in Finger Lakes this session was top notch.

Three Birds Cornerstone Dinner
I’m always honored to be invited to the Cornerstone dinner and Craig Camp’s Cornerstone wines are a pleasure no matter where in the world you are. This year the dinner was held at Three Birds in downtown Corning. The food was quite good and a well suited to showcase Craig’s wines.

Wine Blog Awards Corning Museum of Glass 
What is with the two Allan’s/Alan’s -- Alan Kropf and Allan Wright? They have a special kind of bromance for sure for Allan to get Alan to delay his honeymoon to present the Wine Blog Awards.

Alan Krop pulls out all the stops for his annual awards show

I find the Wine Blog categories are still a bit weird, but I’m sure if I ever won one I’d be knocking people aside to get mine and singing their praise in a heartbeat. Plus that handmade glass trophy??? Whoa, that beauty should win a wine blog award for best wine blog award.

WBC16 Announcement
Drum roll please for the worst kept secret ....

WBC16--We’re going to LODI!!!

Yay, We’re going to Lodi!

SUNDAY--
After the last two sessions we had, in my opinion, one of the best WBC meals by far: chicken spedinis, salt potatoes and fresh husked corn, a Hudson style repast prepared by Sommelier/Winemaker/Chef extraordinaire--Christopher Bates. Mr. Bates deserves some kind of medal for the work he put in over a hot grill keeping hundreds of hungry bloggers fed. What the heck was in that secret sauce? It was the best chicken, actually the best anything on a skewer, I’ve ever tasted. Yeah, it was way too hot outside, yeah, it was way too long a line to get food, but yeah, it was incredibly delicious.

Corning Museum of Glass Tour
You will need at least all day, if not two days, to explore this amazing collection. The new wing of the museum is a work of art in its own right with soaring spaces, undulating lines, and an abundance of natural light to showcase the exhibits.

Celestial Scat at the Corning Museum of Glass

By the way if you find yourself in front of this exhibit shown above at the Corning Museum of Glass and see the term “celestial scat” in a placard describing the work, you can thank me. Huge thanks to Kimberly Ford for the Museum tour and especially for taking the time to escort Regine Rousseau and me through the 100 Years of Pyrex exhibit. It was a true blast from the past.

Thanks Finger Lakes!
Big shout out to Ann Crook, Director of Aviation at Elmira Corning Regional Airport for coordinating blogger shuttles to the airport. That was greatly appreciated and of course enormous thanks to all the sponsors and especially to Laury Poland and her entire team at Finger Lakes Wine Tourism for hosting a memorable and engaging Wine Bloggers Conference.  I’ll be back!

But first I had to try and leave....

Last Chopper out of Corning
After all the flight delays, lost bags and missed connections; WBC15 may go down as the conference you check in to, but can never leave. Cue Hotel California... But if you have to get waylaid in an airport, getting stuck with fellow wine peeps makes it much more tolerable. And if those peeps include the Canadian Delegation...all the better.

After a two hour flight delay getting out of Corning, I was re-routed from ORD to PDX then to SFO the following day.

Last call for Peter Rabbit

While waiting In ORD with April Yap-Hennig for our (delayed, of course) flight to PDX I heard the announcement:

“Last call for Peter Rabbit, Peter Rabbit, gate 27 last call.”

I looked at April and said, “It’s a little early for Easter jokes don’t ya think?”
April gave me a long withering look -- “It’s last call for Cedar Rapids, Marcy, not Peter Rabbit!” Oh...well it sure sounded like Peter Rabbit to my exhausted ears.

Finally made it home, a DAY later!

I got home on Monday, 18 hours after I was originally scheduled to arrive.

I am so looking forward to DRIVING to Lodi! See you all in 2016.

LINKS and RESOURCES
Cornerstone Cellars
Corning Museum of Glass
Lodi -- WBC 2016

Related Links:
Straight Outta Corning -- Highlights of #WBC15 Part I
Straight Outta Corning -- Highlights of #WBC15 Part II

Rhone Rangers 2015: Sipping On the Dock of the Bay

This past Saturday, March 28th, the Annual Rhone Rangers Weekend took place dockside at the Craneway Conference Center in Richmond. This is the second year the event has been in Richmond, but it was my first time there. What a venue! Bight and spacious with outstanding views of the bay.

My favorite part of the Rhone Rangers events are the seminars. I always come away from them with a greater perspective and deeper understanding regarding the many aspects of winemaking. This year the morning seminar topics were on Roses Made from Rhone Varieties and the Age-ability of American Rhones. Both were excellent.

TAKE THE QUIZ!
Below is the list of the panelists and the host with quotes from the Rosé seminar. Can you match up who said what about Rose? This may prove easy for true wine geeks, and challenging for others. But give it a try.  {ANSWERS BELOW}

1. Patrick Comisky, Wines & Spirits Magazine
2. Randall Grahm, Bonny Doon Vineyards
3. Larry Schaffer, Tercero Wines
4. Ranko Anderson, Kale
5. Herb Quady, Quady North
6. John MacCready, Sierra Vista
7. Craig Camp, Cornerstone Cellars
8. Jason Robinson, Field Stone
9. Steve Anglim, Anglim Winery

A: “It started out as a way to concentrate the Reds, but evolved to a become a Rosé.”

B: “Rosé not something you really want to talk about, you just want to drink it. Talking about Rosé is like discussing the semantics of Scooby-Doo.”

C: “I am in search of getting to the ‘truthiness’ of the wine Rosé.”

D: “I make it to please my wife, to capture a happy memory.”

E: “We planted the vines specifically for Rosé. It was a marketing objective. The magic loss leader we put in front of buyers, Somms, and Wine Directors. Our grape is obscure but it has a high geek factor.”

F: “I want to approach all our wines, Red, White, and Rosé with equal respect and serious consideration to making them the best possible.”

G: “Our first Rosé started out as a Red but I did not think it was good enough as a full Red, so we made a Rosé and the customers have loved it ever since.”

H: I don’t think there is just one wine that can be called a true Rosé. There is no such thing as a true Rosé  My focus is on food wines and the acidity of Rosé pairs so well with food.

I: “Rosé --it's part of our line up!”

The line up of Rosés included:
Anglim 2014 Rose: Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Viognier
Bonny Doon Vineyard 2012 Vin Gris de Cigare Reserve En Bonbonne: Mourvedre, Grenache, Cinsaut
Cornerstone Cellars 2014 Corallina Rose Artist Series Rosé: 100% Syrah
Field Stone Winery 2014 “Heritage Block”Rosé: 100% Petite Sirah
Kale Wines Sonoma County Rosé: 85% Whole Cluster Pressed Grenache, 15% Saignée of Syrah
Quady North Rose Applegate (OR) Rosé: 80 % Counoise, 20% Syrah
Sierra Vista 2014 Rosé of Grenache
Tercero Wines 2014 Rosé of Mourvedre

{ANSWERS: 1B, 2C, 3H, 4A, 5E, 6G, 7F, 8I, 9D}

Stay tuned for next post on findings from the second seminar on the age worthiness of American Rhone wines.