My 2006 NiagaraCool Picnic Report

Here it is!

The 2006 NiagaraCool Picnic in North Tonawanda, New York

Great report, Paul. Glad everyone had a great time. Looks like Howie did another great job (any pics of the food?) and the wine photos are mouth watering as well.

Great report Paul!
The "Morgan Estate" is home made by Jerry Morgan, who attended with his wife April. I've become good friends with them over the past year, as their niece is marrying my son this October. He makes a lot of wine, most of it from kits, which he does a pretty good job with, but he does get fresh juice from the Finger Lakes every Fall. Since much of his wine is from kits, he puts the bottling dates on his labels, as kits have no vintage. His wife, April makes the labels.
I brought my camera, but was so busy cooking and tasting Riesling that I never took a picture, but I have a few from Warm Lake on Saturday, which I will post in my report in a day or so.

Great report, Paul.
I took no notes but my recollection was that wine 1 was the Trius made by the three NY wineries, but I cannot remember wine 3, except that it was NY, it was one of my top three, and it was one of the three bottles completely consumed by the end of the tasting, as were two of the Michigan rieslings, Brian Ulbrich's dry riesling, a serious wine under the not so serious label of Left Foot Charley, and his semi-sweet 2002 under the Peninsula Cellars label, which was best white wine at the San Francisco Int'l a few years ago, and best Riesling at the East Coast Int'l the same year. Deservedly so. Still going strong. I also liked the Stone Church, the Kentucky wine you picture with the crappy blue label, and ... hell, I liked a lot of them. The new Hillebrand was a bit of a disappointment, but Dave Gimbel's vertical of 1990, 91 and 92 Hillebrand dry riesling was spectacular, of course. Somehow I missed Robin's Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese, but did get a taste of the 1976 Rheingau.
And, of course, there were a few reds. One cannot live by white wine alone. I loved Paulo's Barbaresco, and a couple of my favorites that accompanied me from Michigan.
And plenty of "new" tastes for me from Dan's wine, yours, and Howies.
Thanks to all for their contributions.

Here it is!

The 2006 NiagaraCool Picnic in North Tonawanda, New York

Great report, great pictures, and great to meet you and the others, too! I had a blast!

but I cannot remember wine 3

I believe that was the '05 Treleaven (Dry). It won Best Riesling and Best White at the International Eastern this year. The surprise isn't that it's from the Finger Lakes, but from where in the Finger Lakes: the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake. Not too many wineries there and definitely not part of the Banana Belt.

Nice meeting you O W

[James Roscoe]

Now that I've read Paul's report, and Robin's report, and seen Paulo's pictures, I want to come! Can we doe this again next weekend? I have a "98 brunello!

Thanks Paul B for the great write-up and all your thoughts and impressions. Keep that flag flying high. Gonna have another glass of Sovereign Opal and toast you and chef Howie.

If we do it again next weekend, some else is cooking! Hope you can make it next year when we tour the Finger Lakes.

Everyone's comments are much appreciated here, and Howie, you really outdid yourself. Again, thanks to you for making this another smashing success.

Just the mention of the Finger Lakes trip next year has me all perked up. I will definitely want to sign up for that. It sounds amazing and I already can't wait for it!

I grew up in Tonawanda and spent the summer of '69 building a road between Penn Yan and Dundee (14A), with many forays to the West shore of Keuka Lake.

spent the summer of '69 building a road between Penn Yan and Dundee (14A)

Thanks for your efforts Charley. I've travelled that road many times getting juice in the Fall. At the time you are talking about there were quite a few small operators who sold juice as a sideline. One was a Dr. Dinginni - that's not the right spelling- in Dundee. He had Riesling before it was widely available. Most of those guys are gone now, replaced by a few larger juice plants that serve a much bigger market (and do a good job).

Do come to NiagaraCool. It's a diverse and friendly group. Howie's food is as good as advertised. The soup this year had me coming back for more. The wines of course are a treat. Everyone brings the ones they like or want the group to try. I find my own tastes becoming better refined.

I believe that was the '05 Treleaven (Dry). It won Best Riesling and Best White at the International Eastern this year. The surprise isn't that it's from the Finger Lakes, but from where in the Finger Lakes: the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake. Not too many wineries there and definitely not part of the Banana Belt.

Thanks. That was certainly it, and my recollection is that that bottle was drained by the appreciative crowd.

Dan, I got distracted by the riesling taste-off and didn't get the opportunity to a) tell you how much I enjoyed your wines, and b) to thank you for bringing them. I look forward to seeing you again.

[Jenise]

Nice notes, Paul; sounds like you had a grand time. Did you ID everyone who appeared in the pix? I saw some names associated, but not all.

Charley Hood - 'bout time you made it over here.
Glad to "see" you.

Jenise, I'm not really sure about IDing all the folks in the pics ... although I wrote captions into the pics in my article. Upon reviewing my photos at home, I found that I really didn't get all that many participants in them after all. Paulo's photos seemed to have done that a little better.

BTW ... I was the guy in shorts and the Mennonite hat ...

BTW ... I was the guy in shorts and the Mennonite hat

And Nancy and I are next to him.

I didn't care much for the Netscape board. Glad this one is back up. It just took me a while to discover it, apparently. Looking forward to some good wine dialogue once again.

How's your golf game?

Great notes, Paul! Between those and the accounts of the food, I'm thinking I need to book reservations for next year.....


Mike

[Jenise]

Paul said:

I was the guy in shorts and the Mennonite hat ...

Ha! I knew it. You look just like you should.

[Jenise]

Dan said:

And Nancy and I are next to him.

Great, another face to go with a name! Now, whose the guy behind Howie at the barbie?

The gentleman behind Howie at the grill is Steve Guattery.

BTW I am the guy in the first picture on the left sitting at the farthest seat on the right on the benches in the blue sweatshirt.

My pictures are still on Joss' camera and I haven't been able to get them from him yet. I have most of the tasting notes (the coherent and incoherent) and a few other things written up already. Just waiting on the pics!

Great, another face to go with a name! Now, whose the guy behind Howie at the barbie?

In the third picture down? That's me on my way home to have dinner with my mother. I was thinking hard about having one of those nice sausages, but I figured Mom wouldn't be too happy if I spoiled my dinner (some things never change ).

By the way, the captions don't show up in Mozilla on my office machine (a Sun workstation), but they do if I mouse over the pictures when I bring the page up in Internet Explorer. Software. Bah.

Ha! I knew it. You look just like you should.

'Cept that I forgot my suspenders ...