December 7, 2009

Palmberg-Terrassen: A Photo Journey

The Palmberg Terrassen is a completely unknown, roughly 5-hectare vineyard that is more than farmed by the Stein family; it is loved by the family. There's a devotion here, a connection to the land that is humbling. Ulli Stein's 87-year-old father has been making wine here since the early 1960s and he still visits the site almost daily, tending to his vines and drinking the wines of the vineyard as often as he can. Ulli Stein's 2008 Palmberg-Terrassen is dense and saturating, darn-near glossy with extract - lime zest, razor-sharp citrus, wild green herbs. The 2008 Stein Palmberg-Terrassen is likely the greatest Riesling value on earth.

Click the button below to see our real-time online inventory of Stein's 2008 St. Aldegunder Palmberg Terrassen Spatlese Trocken:

Roses dot the vineyard here and small sheds provide respite. Due to the severity of the incline, obviously working this site is extremely difficult and tiring. Many acres of the site have gone fallow, overrun by the wilderness. At this point, to the best of our knowledge, the Steins are the only serious producers within the vineyard, farming 1.3 hectares of the site and producing a scant 2 Füders worth of juice - that's only about 230 cases. The 2007 is THE FIRST bottling to be imported into the U.S.!

The shrine that Ulli Stein's father built within the vineyard. To this day, at 87-years-old, Herr Stein still visits his vineyard almost daily. In this picture you also see the "Terrassen," or terraces, that largely define the landscape of the Lower Mosel.

Here you get a real sense of just how very steep this vineyard is.

Another, slightly more panoramic view of the Palmberg-Terrassen vineyard.

Click the button below to see our real-time online inventory of Stein's 2008 St. Aldegunder Palmberg Terrassen Spatlese Trocken:

Posted by Joe Salamone at 10:45 AM | TrackBack

September 10, 2009

Invite: MADCrush Wine Bar Returns!

MADCrush
Special Encore Presentation
THURSDAY - SEPTEMBER 17TH
6:00 - 10:30 pm

@ the Museum of Arts and Design
Crush pairs wines to dishes from NYCs top chefs!

Next Thursday evening, we're excited to revive our MADCrush "pop-up" wine bar for a special encore presentation. The full details (along with some surprises) to come, but we have confirmed that Daniel Boulud's rising star chef, Damian Sansonetti, Executive Chef of Bar Boulud, will be in house!

Please join us as we continue to showcase our award-winning selections, as well as some of our favorite 'off the beaten path' favorites by the taste, glass, and bottle in recyclable govino glasses.

Our selections are chosen specifically to accompany menus of small plates from a roster of New York’s best chefs. Past chefs have included Mark Ladner of Del Posto, Scott Conant of Scarpetta, George Mendes of Aldea, and Cesare Casella of Salumeria Rossi. | Read More

Posted by Bob Schagrin at 1:49 PM | TrackBack

August 18, 2009

Niederberg Helden Vineyard

Get to know the Niederberg Helden Vineyard in the village of Lieser, courtesy of your friends at Crush.

Why did Thomas Haag, the eldest son and scion to the Fritz Haag estate, pack up his bags, leave the family estate and invest himself completely, pocketbooks, elbow grease, soul and all, into the crumbling Schloss Lieser (castle of Lieser) estate?

When I asked Thomas this last March over lunch (see schnitzel, below), he sort of just shrugged his shoulders. If I had to guess, I'd say one thing: Potential.

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Posted by Stephen Bitterolf at 9:36 AM | TrackBack

August 12, 2009

Joe's Sangria Blanco Recipe to Defend Yourself Against August Malaise

Ingredients
- 4 bottles Gazela!
- 3/4 cup gin
- 1 cup Cointreau
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 bunch seedless white grapes
- 3 sliced lemons
- 3 sliced white peaches
- 1 sliced honeydew melon
- 1 liter club soda or seltzer

Directions
1) Mix the Gazela, gin and Cointreau together; then drop in the smorgasbord of fruit. Let this concoction steep for a few hours.

2) When you're ready to serve, add the seltzer water and plenty of ice to make it cold, cold, cold.

If you're feeling wild, buy some extra white grapes to freeze and use as ice when you serve.

3) Serve and beat the August heat!

Posted by Joe Salamone at 12:12 PM | TrackBack

July 16, 2009

Coconut Water Comparison via Blind Tasting

When he's not tasting wine or making deals, you can find Crush GM Tom Stephenson running or biking around NYC for exercise. When he's thirsty and he needs something even more crisp than muscadet, he goes for clean and refreshing coconut water to replenish his electrolytes and stay hydrated.

Recently while shopping for sports drinks, Tom noticed that his favorite brand of coconut water, O.N.E., was priced significantly higher than some other brands available on the market. Was O.N.E. really worth the higher premium? As the leader of a crew of sharp palates, the solution was simple:

The Coconut Water Blind Tasting at Crush

Bounding into the store earlier this week, Tom announced his plan to the tasting room denizens, but Molly Sider, the laid-back West Coaster advised that the cheapest and freshest coconut water comes straight from the coconut, not some package. And so the stage was set: a blind tasting of coconut water from brown coconuts, young coconuts and four different kinds of packaged juice.

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Posted by McRae Petrey at 12:11 PM | TrackBack

June 25, 2009

2008 Germany - A Very "Important" Vintage

Do you just want to read about the individual growers and their wines? Scroll down...

It's a ludicrous title for a vintage report, I know.

Still, I'm sticking with this title because it's stuck with me, ever since I shook Oliver Haag's hand goodbye and left my first tasting appointment of the 2008 vintage in Germany. (That was, by the way, April 18th, 2009, just to give you some context).

Let me try and explain what I mean by the word "important." The 2008 vintage presents, for the first time in some years, an authentic snapshot of what we used to mean by the words "Kabinett" and "Spatlese." If the last few years have turned the stage over to the Baroque masterpieces, the epics with layer after dripping layer, in 2008 we find something more intimate, smaller...2008 is less Wagnerian Opera and more Chamber music. Less the expansiveness of Jackson Pollock and more the detailed, tight, etched spaces of Albrecht Durer. For those of you who know sports, enter some sports analogy here. 2008 is concise and sharp.

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Posted by Stephen Bitterolf at 2:38 PM | TrackBack