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The Cayuga Lake Wine Trail

We had a lovely Saturday this past week tasting wines along the west side of Cayuga Lake. Our tour, organized by Christine's high school friend Lisa, was a part of a promotional weekend that included hors d'ouevres at each stop and a chance to win prizes (I ended up taking home a free bottle of Riesling.).

We also had the benefit of a small tour bus, so no need to worry about designated drivers and so on. Still, I did the best I could to taste only the wines I was interested in and dumping my surplus wine. Judging from the 5PM wooziness of some of my companions, this strategy really paid off.

Here are some notes and recollections from the eight wineries we visited:

Six Mile Creek Vineyard

Pleasant, laid-back atmosphere, knowledgeable staff and a decent Pinot Noir and Reserve Chardonnay. A good start to the day.

Americana Vineyards

I had been here before on a wine tour about nine years ago and was not looking forward to this stop, but I was pleasantly surprised. They've definitely raised the quality of their wines and seem to be putting more of their energy into the vinifera varietals than I remember. Plus, Max the dog was a cutey-pie.

Lucas Vineyards

Our least favorite stop. I don't think anyone on the bus bought anything here. They had only five or six different wines to sample and the sommeliers (really, they were just wine-pourers...) were less than enthusiastic about it.

Sheldrake Point Vineyard

A friendly, pleasant stop. They make a fine Pinot Gris and a Cabernet Franc that Kari especially liked.

Cayuga Ridge Estate Winery

Another good stop where we enjoyed the Reserve Chancellor, a French grape with its own unique character.

Thirsty Owl Wine Company

At this stop, right next door to Cayuga Ridge, we tasted perhaps the best red blend of the day, Lot 99.

Goose Watch Winery

This winery had a kind of split personality. Upstairs, the wine-pourers were terse and unfriendly, describing the wines as if reading from a script. However, downstairs we enjoyed the company of an enthusiastic and knowledgeable sommelier. He was honest enough to point out that the Cabernet Sauvignon was good, but only if you forget how good the California Cabs can be. He also introduced another new grape to us, Lemberger, which flourishes in the cooler climates of Alsace, Oregon, and New York.

Knapp Vineyards

It may be because it was our last stop and everything tasted good by this time, but this was still our favorite winery of the day. We enjoyed a wide variety of wines including a port, grappa, and a grappa/lemon liqueur that would make a delicious mixer for margaritas or martinis.

Overall, the winter seems to have been especially kind to the red varietals of the 2001 and 2002 vintages. The Pinot Noirs and Cabernet Francs were consistently good, although still not on par with anything coming out of California or Chile. As usual, the Rieslings (especially the Dry Rieslings) are world-class and the Chardonnays are gaining ground on other regions. The Finger Lakes wine growers are beginning to get the hang of oaking their wines, something that was apparent in many of the reserve wines that we tasted.

Oh, and if you're ever in Ithaca and you're looking for a fun bar-and-grill kind of place with a great menu, you couldn't do much better than the BoatYard Grill.

England's Least Popular Referee

OK, so he's obviously a world-class referee, but he's no Pierluigi Collina. And for the English, Urs Meier has at this point supplanted Diego Maradona as the most hated man in soccer.

England was in a state of shock today following the national team's loss to Portugal in the quarterfinals of the Euro 2004 tournament. A questionable call by Meier disallowing a dramatic goal in the 89th minute of play by England's Sol Campbell set the stage for overtime and an eventual Portugese victory on penalty kicks.

English tabloids have been ranting about being robbed and cheated out of the win. Even supposedly respectable papers have been conducting personal attacks on the referee. The backlash has even caused Meier to close down his website to avoid the wrath of English fans.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world looks on in disgust or pity while the bitter truth remains that despite being outplayed by the Portugese, England had every opportunity to win the match, referee notwithstanding.

World's Most Popular Referee

Buh whuh? popular referee?

That's right. Pierluigi Collina, the bald-pated Italian soccer referee has his own international following.

I began watching Collina at about the same time I started watching soccer, starting with the Italian Serie A matches in the early '90's. Even then even I could tell that this was a quality referee. In the Italian league with all their whinging and diving and cheap-shot play, Collina stood out as a referee who not only made the correct calls, but managed the players with a rare blend of firmness and amicability.

In 1995 he began refereeing international matches, including the 1998 and 2002 World Cup. He achieved perhaps his highest honor when he was chosen to referee the Germany-Brazil World Cup Final in 2002. Unfortunately, as an Italian, there were many high profile matches he was barred from refereeing because of the Italian national team's success. In order to avoid favoritism, FIFA prevents referees from participating in tournament play where their home country is involved.

Euro 2004 is the last international tournament Collina will participate in as he will reach the mandatory international retirement age of 45 next year. The soccer world will not be the same without him.

World Cup Light

The four year period between World Cups can be a sore trial for soccer aficionados living in the United States. Luckily, there is MLS and (especially for Rochesterians) the A-League to dull the pain. But those looking for world class soccer are forced to endure the World Cup interregnum cruising the minor cable channels in search of the chance Premiership game or an oddly scheduled tape delay telecasts of Champions Cup finals. If you understand Spanish, there are the additional opportunities provided by Univision or Telemundo.

All the channel surfing and tv-schedule perusing is especially galling during the other every-four-year tournament, the UEFA European Championship. This tournament pits the top 16 teams (determined through qualifying tournaments) on the European continent against each other in a month-long spectacle of soccer. Euro 2004 is right now in the middle of the second leg of the opening round and there have already been some exciting matches. Unfortunately, in this country, only those able (or willing) to shell out $200 for Pay-Per-View access have been able to fully appreciate it.

The Euro 2004 site does have some links for audio and video highlights, but for some reason, they don't seem to be compatible with my Mac. That leaves one source (that I know of) for tournament coverage: the beeb. Now, I know, some of you are thinking, "The only thing that could be more boring than watching soccer is listening to it via the internet." If you think that, well you should hear some of the goals that have been scored during the tournament. Listen to those announcers, listen to those crowds and tell me you don't get goosebumps.

Mr. Schickele is Always Ready

There are plenty of different kinds of buffs in the world, civil war buffs, wine buffs, baseball buffs, and buffing buffs to name just a few.

But what if you want to become a music buff? Well, here is no better place to start than with Schickele Mix, a weekly program distributed by PRI and available on public radio stations across the country.

Every week, Peter Schickele focuses on a single topic or theme (this past week was syncopation) and plays several musical pieces to illustrate his points. His hour-long show is irreverent, fun, and informative all at once. You may in fact already know the host without realizing it. In addition to his radio gig, Mr. Schickele is also the creative (mad) genius behind P.D.Q. Bach.

Unfortunately, he is no longer producing new shows, but PRI is still distributing Schickele Mix in rerun. If you don't get it in your area, you can listen on the internet. Many public stations stream their content and it can be surprisingly easy to find a time that suits your schedule.

In Full Swing

After the first weekend, I can personally declare the Rochester Jazz Fest a success. I've attended at least a portion of 11 shows over the past 5 days (already justifying my purchase of the multi-venue Club Pass) with 4 more days of music left.

This year's festival is benefitting from the addition of an outdoor stage that is free and open to the public. They've closed off Gibbs St. and turned it into Rochester's equivalent of Bourbon St. That is, the street's smaller, the food not so spicy, the weather colder (except for last night), but the live music is just as good.

I've been mildly disappointed by a only couple of shows, the rest have been mostly mind-blowing. Inevitably, the best performances come out at Bob Sneider's late night jam sessions, where the players have the chance to get out from behind their bandleaders and just play.

My Claw Technique is Superior

I've been pretty active in the kitchen for the past ten years or so and have developed a somewhat snobby attitude toward culinary preparation, usually eschewing the use of food processors and salad-shooters in favor of a solid cutting board and my trusty chef's knife.

So it was with great dismay and shame that I showed up to my family's Memorial Day get-together with a big white bandage wrapped around my thumb after trying to hack it off halfway down the nail earlier that morning. I had been chopping bacon for the German potato salad. I was in a rush and distracted with pots on the stove and dogs underfoot, and I started chopping indiscriminately at the bacon (and thumb).

Fortunately, it wasn't too serious and we deemed it too close to the nail to bother with getting stitches, but keyboard shortcuts like command-C and command-V have been a pain in the, um..., thumb all week.

So here's a tip: learn the "claw" technique. Place your non-chopping hand on top of the food to be chopped with your four fingers pointing down and curved slightly under like a claw. Tuck your thumb behind the fingers. Now chop using the knuckles of the non-chopping hand to guide the blade. Do not be tempted to move your thumb out from behind your fingers. Do not adjust the position of the target while you're still chopping (this is what got me into trouble).

Check out the excellent pictures here that demonstrate the technique. There are other sites offer advice on chopping and cutting that may help you prevent a trip to the ER.

Now, if you want to cut your garden hose with a kitchen knife (ahem, Kay...), you'll have to figure out your own technique for that.

Seeking Oblivion

Oblivion, the highly anticipated (by me, at least) collection of short stories by David Foster Wallace has just been released. Many of the brief snippets of reviews that I've seen (I've been reading them with just one eye, trying not to have too many plot points spoiled) make a big deal of Wallace's quirky, stream-of-consciousness writing style, but pan many of the stories themselves as lacking substance.

I suspect that reviewers often confuse the narrator's point-of-view with Wallace's and thus miss out one of the key features of his writing: readers are forced to contribute to the story. Wallace unflichingly faces the complex and troubling (and sometimes nightmarish) nature of his characters, evincing the human element from each so that readers may be allowed to form their own judgments. One must approach Wallace's characters with suspicion: can I trust this narrator's point-of-view? is he trustworthy? delusional? which version of the story is real?

This positive review by someone who obviously "gets it," provides enough detail to allow potential readers to judge Wallace on his merits. Obviously, I'm biased since I'm saying all of this before I've even been able to get my hands on a copy of a book... Needless to say, I'll have more blather to post about this book later.