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Researchers have discovered that drinking a nice Cabernet with your juicy steak at dinner protects your body from harmful toxins released during digestion. Red wine helps neutralize these toxins with antioxidants called polyphenols:

In a study on rats, scientists at Hebrew University in Jerusalem fed some of the animals ground meat, and fed others the same meat infused with red-wine extract. Subsequent tests revealed that the wine-dosed rats had lower levels of the fat-derived toxins.

“Diets high in fat and red meat are contributory risk factors,” the study’s authors write in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. But if you do indulge in a grilled porterhouse now and then, you can reduce the risk with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.

The study helps to explain the so-called French paradox—the relatively low heart-disease rate among wine-drinking Frenchmen and -women, despite diets high in cheese, butter, meat, and other forms of fat.

Wine, the antidote to a grilled steak [The Week]

Here’s Step 2 of my How to Make Wine Video series! In this second video I explain how to transfer your fermenting wine from a bucket and into a glass carboy with a siphon, also known as “racking” your wine.

Enjoy, and be sure to leave some comments and share with your friends. :)

I was recently asked to Judge the NYS Fair commercial Wine Competition last Saturday. This definitely was a day to remember - tasting and spitting; tasting and spitting, all day long. Of course, I had never experienced this before…usually I drink my wine. But seriously, there were some VERY good wines from all over the State. One thing I was thinking as I sampled the many different wines, “my own wines would win medals at this competition”. And I plan on entering some of them next year. Wish me luck:)

NEW YORK STATE FAIR COMMERCIAL WINE COMPETITION-2008

The committee was pleased to have 20 wineries entering for the first time.  There were 67 wineries entering a total of 437 wines.  On Saturday, June 21, 2008, twenty four judges from the east coast manned six panels to taste wines representing all seven wine producing regions of the Empire State.  The judges were selected on their knowledge of wines made from cold climate grapes.  The judging panels were representative of professionals in publishing, education, distributing, sales, restaurants, broadcasting, advertising, wine making, consulting and journalism.

Nearly every winery won an award.  There were 19 Double Gold awards given as well as 26 Gold, 133 Silver, and 161 Bronze.  The Best of Show “Blue Ribbon Award” went to Long Point Winery for their 2004 Long Point Cabernet Sauvignon.  This same wine took Best of Category-Red Wine.  In addition, Goose Watch Winery’s NV(non vintage) Snow Goose won Best of Category for White Wine.  The Best Sparkling Wine award went to Swedish Hill Winery for their NV Blanc de Blanc.  Hunt Country Vineyards won Best of Category Dessert Wine for their 2006 Vidal Blanc Ice Wine, Estate Bottled.  The Best of Category for Fortified Wine went to a first time entrant, Hudson-Chatham Winery for their NV Paperbirch Raspberry Fine Ruby. The Best of Category Fruit Wine was Torrey Ridge’s NV Scarlet Red.   Penguin Bay was awarded Best of Rosé/Blush with their 2007 Rosé of Chambourcin. As examples of consistency in winemaking, as well as judging, these last two wineries won the same awards in 2007.  A complete list of all the winners can be found online at www.nysfair.org/competitions.

A crew of 14 dedicated volunteers worked hard to keep up with the washing and polishing of glasses, pouring and serving the wines, and data entry of the wine scores, all while maintaining the integrity of a totally blind judging.  The State Fair Entry Department was notified of the results at the conclusion of the competition.

The committee was especially pleased with the 37 awards won by wineries that had entered for the first time.  Several judges commented on the high quality of wines entered this year.  We are excited that our competition continues to grow and improve.  We wish to express our thanks to all who participated and our congratulations go out to all the award winners.

Fairgoers can view the top award winning wines, which will be on display in the “Giant Wine Bottle” in the Horticulture building during the fair.  Samples of wines entered in the competition are available to fairgoers following most of presentations in the Demonstration Kitchen in the lower level of the Arts and Home Center.  Again, volunteers will be on hand to serve wine and answer questions.

I received a call today from Troy at NYS Assemblyman Bill Magee’s office. He said, ‘your bill passed the Assembly by a unanimous vote”. MY BILL?, I think. WOW! UNANIMOUS!

For close to a year I have been trying to get legal permission to do in New York State what has been legalized by the Federal Government for probably 7 years. And now it’s finally here folks: permission for people to make their own wine at a Licensed Winery. The following are the exact words of BILL #7194:

Section 76 of the alcoholic beverage control law is amended by adding a new subdivision 7 is added to read as follows:

7. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a winery licensed pursuant to this section may engage in custom crush wine production allowing individuals to assist in the production of wine for sale for personal or family use provided, however, that (a) the wine must be purchased by the individual assisting in the production of such wine and (b) the owner, employee or agent of such winery shall be present at all times.

But, this is only one hurdle. A more difficult task is approval by the State Senate, in particular Senator John DeFrancisco, who is co-sponsoring this bill. Please give him a call at (315) 428-7632 and tell him how much you want Bill #7194 passed. They will be recessing for the Summer I think next week, so don’t put off your call.

In the mean time, you can continue to make your own wine as a privilege of membership to our FREE wine making club.

Andy

p.s. There is another bill in the works that will allow people to make wine at a facility NOT licensed by the State Liquor Board. They would be able to get a separate license just for that purpose from the State Department of Agriculture and Market. The wheels turn slowly in government…but they do turn.

A few weeks ago, our wine club the Syracuse Wine Meetup Group caravaned into the Finger Lakes Region of Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. Using designated drivers, we stopped at several different wineries, some very ostentatious looking buildings having mediocre wine. Our last stop was this little ‘hole in the wall’, and our group was blow away by their wines. Silver Springs Winery only had a small number of red wines, but we agreed they were the best reds we had that whole day.

I’m coming from a history of not liking wines until only a few years ago (I’m 53 now). As one liquor store owner told me last week: “The taste of 95% of our wines aren’t worth selling”. I had the unfortunate experience of not tasting wines before I purchased them. All that has changed since I began making wine at Lakeland Winery. Because of the thousand’s of different wines (and the tastes change EVERY year) being produced,  my advice to new wine drinkers is take the recommendation of a trusted source. Than, as your experience and tastes grow, trust yourself. I’m still not to the point where I appreciate the driest wines, but who cares. I’m having fun along the way:)

This came from the most recent Uncork New York publication. Thought you should know…hopefully Lakeland Winery’s wines will be able to compete in the future. Always keep in mind, even if it’s “Best of Show” doesn’t mean you need to like them. It just means every single judge felt it deserved a gold medal, and more. And never feel ashamed you can’t taste the difference between what you like and what other so called experts like, because your preference is personal. That’s one thing I’ve learned: You may love it but the person standing next to you will make a face that sends a different message! Please be patient, your appreciation of different wines will change as you explore a larger variety of wines.

NEW YORK GOLD keeps flowing in, most recently from the International Eastern Wine Competition, one of the country’s oldest and largest judgings, this year with 2,250 entries. New York won a total of 245 medals, topped by the Casa Larga 2005 Vidal Ice Wine (Best of Show Dessert Wine), Rooster Hill 2006 Semi-Dry Riesling (Best of Class), and the Peterson family-owned triad of Goose Watch, Penguin Bay and Swedish Hill racking up 3 Double Golds, 5 Golds, 16 Silvers and 14 Bronzes. Their Double Golds were Goose Watch 2007 Traminette, Penguin Bay 2007 Pinot Grigio and Swedish Hill Blanc de Blanc, accompanied by Golds for Goose Watch 2007 Viognier, Penguin Bay 2007 Gewurtztraminer and Percussion, and Swedish Hill Blue Waters Riesling and 2007 Cayuga White. Other New York Double Golds went to Cayuga Ridge 2006 Cayuga White, Dr. Frank 2005 Merlot, Eagle Crest 2006 Cayuga White, Earle Estates Apple Enchantment, and Sheldrake Point 2007 Riesling Ice Wine. Other Golds went to Brookview Station 2007 Whistle Stop White (Apple Wine), Jamesport 2005 Pinot Noir, Keuka Spring 2006 Crooked Lake Red, Lieb 2006 Pinot Blanc, Lucas 2007 Dry Dock, Peconic Bay 2005 Chardonnay, Red Tail Ridge 2006 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay, and Ventosa Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Franc and Tocai Friulano. Perhaps most significant, out of 250 New York wines entered, 245 won medals (only five did not), reflecting the “quality revolution” in New York across the Board in terms regions and varietals.

Andy

Step 1: Starting the process of making wine from a juice concentrate kit. Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

We’re in the process of putting together a mission statement that will outline how the winery will continue to provide exceptional winemaking services and wine products in the years to come.

One principle we stand for is involvement equals commitment. Because our customers are so important to us, we want to involve everyone in the process of writing Lakeland Winery’s mission statement.

So, we have three simple questions that we’d love for you to respond to using the comments form below. It would be great to see some discussion on this! You can contact me directly if you feel more comfortable:

1. What should Lakeland Winery continue doing in the future?
2. What should Lakeland Winery stop doing in the future?
3. What should Lakeland Winery start doing in the future?

As soon as we can put a Mission Statement draft together, we’ll post it here to my Wine Blog.

—Andy

I received this e-mail on February 25, 2008

Andy,

My name is Ryan Scarafile and I am originally from the Syracuse area. I have been looking for a place in the area that allows people to make their own wine. I have recently reocated to the Baltimore Maryland area, but I still have family in the Syracuse area. Anyway, I am going to be asking my girlfriend of 12 years to marry me within the next few months and I thought since we are both very much into wine that I could pop the question by first making our own bottle together, and then secondly attaching a label that asks her to marry me. I am not sure if I can even pull this off or if this would be something we could even do together. Either way we would love to come in and make our own wine. Can you please let me know if this idea would work or any other information I might need to get this in the works? Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Ryan Scarafile

The same day, I responded:

You’re a clever man with a nice imagination Ryan. I like your idea and will help make it happen for you. The wine making process takes 6 or 7 weeks. Here’s how it might work: You come in the first week to taste wines; pick a favorite and then make your wine. The wines come in batches of 27-30 bottles. Each bottle will cost between $5 and $8 each. When the wine is ready you both can come again to bottle, cork, label and decorate your bottles. They may take 3 days to a year (depending on the kind of wine you make) to age perfectly.

I can slip you one label to put on one of the bottles that day. It eill be different than all the other labels. If you put it into the box with all the rest, she won’t notice until you pull it out when you’re ready.

You can visit our Winery on Saturday afternoon, or any evening by appointment with the idea that you will just be doing a free wine tasting. Then suggest to her that you make a batch together. I could take photos for you to share later if you like.

On May 18, 2008, Ryan wrote:

Andy,

Last night I proposed to Leah, using the bottle you made for me with the ring tied around the stem of the bottle. It was perfect. She loved it. The bottle was everything I imagined it would be. I just wanted to thank you again for acommodating me, and all my requests, during this whole process. You certainly helped my idea and dream come true. You will be seeing us again to make more wine. Thank you again Andy!

Sincerely,

Ryan Scarafile

After many months of planning and a couple weeks of preparation, I along with a little help from some faithful volunteers succeeded in planting 94 Riesling vines from Hermann Wiemer’s nursery behind the Winery. Now I feel almost legitimate. “Shouldn’t all wineries have a vineyard”, I thought to myself last year. The reason I chose Riesling grapes from that particular vineyard was because they are beginning to develop world class notoriety from gold metal awards won at some international wine tasting competitions. What could be nicer than a gold metal from the Taster’s Guild International competition, won by Lakeland Winery! “It would put
Lakeland on the map”, I dream to myself. My neighbor, the owner of Lakeland Car Wash wants me to plant vines on his property too, but I’m undecided because it’s so much hard work. If I do, it will probably be Riesling vines because they are a hearty breed that weather the cold
Syracuse winters. The little I have planted will take 5 to 7 years to fully develop. After that I should be able to produce maybe 3 gallons per vine or about 280 gallons (47 carboys). I’ll have large stainless steel primary fermenting tanks by then. Following the primary fermentation in large tanks, I would rack it to glass carboys and personalize it to your own taste. That’s what we call ‘adopt a jug’ at Lakeland Winery. You might prefer a handcrafted wine that has more or less sweetness, french or American oak flavor, maybe even a slight hint of elder flowers. Whatever fragrant aroma you want. I’m sorry, I don’t anticapate having enough grapes to sell directly to customers but I might be able to supply you with a few vines to grow yourself. Then, I would hope you would enter a competition and win a gold for yourself.