RICHARD FRISBIE :: New York Riesling Rules!

NEW DATE - Sept 12 & 13th 2009 at the Dutchess Co Fair site A GREAT EVENT!

All about the food and farm grown grape
products at the Hudson Valley Wine & Food Fest

There’s something about good food and wine that brings out the best in people. This season’s Hudson Valley Wine & Food Fest (HVW&FF) was no exception. Twenty thousand-plus genial people gathered at Dutchess County Fairgrounds to taste hundreds of wines from around the world and sample the best dishes the top chefs of the Hudson Valley have to offer. It was a weekend of great food and good fun tasting wonderful wines in the best and the worst of weather. Friday was a cool moonlit night. Saturday brought heavy downpours as the remnants of Hurricane Hanna blew through the Valley. Sunday was blue skies and sunny - a perfect “10” of a day.  But forget the forecast, everyday was perfect at the Hudson Valley Wine & Food Fest.


Sunday before the crowds got too bad
The festivities started with Friday night’s Grand Reserve Tasting Dinner, which at $80 a head benefited the Northern Dutchess Hospital Foundation. It was an incredible collection of top chefs and vintners presenting a sampling of their finest creations. In the culinary department there were eight stations of food tidbits artistically arranged on plates waiting to be tasted.

My favorites were, in no particular order:

Pamelas Traveling Feast -  Pamela Resch prepared three “Autumn Scallops”, (they’re slightly bigger than bay) on a bed of greens topped with a roasted garlic, onion and cranberry marmalade, then sprinkled with chopped cherry peppers. These were on a plate next to a green tea infused sushi rice patty under Szechuan duck confit, and topped with a roasted cumin & cauliflower puree and a ginger-mango relish. While I’m partial to the duck, and it was spectacular on that crispy rice, her scallop dish was the best, moist and savory-sweet with the marmalade.

Cosimo’s Trattoria's - Jason Cooperman served local lamb meatballs in a Hudson Valley foie gras sauce that was the perfect foil for the mild lamb flavor. Cosimo’s also offered a vegetarian treat - a potato, apple and cheddar cheese croquet topped with a gently spicy red pepper Crème fraîche. As much as I love lamb and foie gras, it was the memory of the taste of the croquet that haunted my tastebuds more than anything else I’d eaten that evening. 









Beekman Arms Hotel - offered a camembert crisp that cannot be excluded from this list. The Old Chatham cheese was topped with an apple/pear chutney, strong with cinnamon, as a sweet counterpart to the rich, buttery treat. In fact, everything I tasted was delicious, and both a culinary and visual work of art. We certainly are blessed with great food opportunities in the Hudson Valley.



As glamorous as this was, it is really just the appetizer of a weekend of entrées and desserts; of wines in all colors and flavors. The record number of attendees enjoyed shopping for fine arts, crafts and home accessories between the numerous wine seminars, cooking demonstrations and musical performances. This was an event where every member of the family could have fun in the best venue in the Hudson Valley!











The wine highlight of the event for me was a taste of Hazlitt 1852 Vineyard’s 2006 Homestead Reserve Riesling. It won Gold at the Riesling du Monde International Riesling Competition* in Strasbourg, France in February, and Double Gold at the 2007 Long Beach Grand Cru International Wine Competition in California. It also won the “Chairman’s Award Best of Class” there. According to the Hazlitt website, “This dryer style Riesling brings aromas of ripe pear and tropical fruit that lead to full citrus and mineral flavors that linger on the palate.” I tasted their wines aboard the MALABAR X sailboat they used to have on Seneca Lake, and again at the Fest. I can tell you that it had a strong fruity bouquet with a dry mouthful of taste hinting of lemon. At 17.99 a bottle you should buy some for now, and some to drink in 3-5 years.

“Once again, the Finger Lakes wine region continues to demonstrate its skill in crafting some of the finest Rieslings available” comments Doug Hazlitt, Vice-President of Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards.  “To be judged and awarded Gold by this international panel of experts confirms our ability to compete against and surpass winemakers from around the world – right here in New York State.” Tim Benedict, the winemaker at Hazlitt, said that “Finger Lakes Riesling has once again proved that it is the up and coming wine in this part of the world.”

In all, five wineries** in the Finger Lakes region earned Gold at the prestigious Riesling du Monde competition for their 2006 Rieslings. They are crisp and acidic, wonderfully smooth on the palate and worth searching out. 2006 was a great year for Finger Lakes Rieslings, with 2007 close behind.
You read it here first,  “New York Riesling Rules!”

ABOUT
*Riesling du Monde International Riesling Competition in Strasbourg, France:
The Riesling Du Monde is one of the premier international wine competitions focusing specifically on the Riesling varietal.  Its 2008 competition featured 514 Riesling submissions representing 300 wineries from 13 countries.  All submissions are tasted blindly under bailiff supervision.  The 230 international jury members were composed of oenologists, wine producers, wine merchants, restaurateurs, certified wine tasters and wine journalists.  (NOTE - any one of the gold winners would be worth tasting)
**Gold Winning Finger Lakes Rieslings
Chateau LaFayette Reneau
Dr. Konstantin Frank
Fox Run
Glenora Wine Cellars
Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards

Richard Frisbie, FOOD Correspondent:

RICHARD FRISBIE is published twice a month to Gather Essentials: Food. It is a food junkie's take on growing, raising, preparing and - above all else - eating food. Together we’ll explore the trends, addictions, equipment and regional specialties that make up the sometimes mundane and sometimes sublime cooking and dining experience. You can keep up with my other postings and Gather activity by joining my Gather network -- I look forward to hearing from you.

You can read all of my articles  http://rfrisbie.gather.com/ or find them with those of the other Food Correspondents, plus celebrity chef content and plenty of other Foodies at  http://foodtalk.gather.com

BIO - Richard Frisbie writes culinary travel articles, is a columnist for his local newspapers, and is a regular contributor to the many Hudson Valley, Catskill Mountain and other regional New York publications. Online, he writes frequent articles for EDGE publications, GoNomad and Travel Lady, as well as Gather.

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