Tag: Williamsburg

Orange Glou Wine Festival 2023

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On November 5th I attended the Orange Glou orange wine festival. The event was held at the Wythe Hotel at 80 Wythe Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

It featured 50+ wineries pouring over 100 renditions of orange wines from California, Italy, France, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Czech Republic, Georgia and Australia. It seems to have become a specially in the Balkan states which are always well represented at these type of wine tastings.

Orange wines are an unconventional niche in the wine industry, made by unconventional wine makers using such things like star charts, phases of the moon, etc., in their grape growing and wine making.

Normally white wine is made with the pulp of the fruit minus the skins, so you can make a white wine using red grapes. Red wine is red because the skins are macerated with the juice and the color is extracted from the skin contact. With respect to orange wines, a white grape varietal is used and the skin in allowed to macerate with the juice. which somehow turns the color of the wine into an orange hue.

The event was open to the consumer for two sessions. I attended the evening session, and it was a comparatively young crowd in attendance with more flannel shirts than suits and ties.

Donkey & Goat winery from California poured a nice selection of their orange wines with a couple of Pinot Gris and a couple of wines made with the Rhone varietals of Marsanne and Roussanne.

Some interesting wines from Klansjec Winery from the Friuli-Venezia-Guilia region of Italy pouring oranges wines made from Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Riesling and Ribolla Gialla.

Brooklyn Rum Fest 2023

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The fourth annual Brooklyn Rum Festival was held on August 12 and was held at the event space “The Monarch” located at 23 Meadow Street in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The event brought together rums from around the world to sample with the opportunity to ask questions from the brand ambassadors on hand.

Rum is a liquor made from distilled sugar cane molasses or sugar cane juice and comes in light, dark, aged and flavored versions. It made around the world but mostly concentrated in the Caribbean where the sugar cane was grown and processed.

It seemed like there were fewer vendors on hand this year than last, but they still had a nice selection of rums from big producers as well as from small, artisanal brands.

Bacardi had an interesting trio of 8yr rums aged in various types of barrels, Rolling Fork Single Cask had a rum from Barbados aged in four different barrels which made for an interesting side by side tasting. Appleton had a trio of 8, 12 and 15yr old rums, Barbancourt was well represented with its 8 and 15yr rums as well as another rum from Hati with a very artistic label. Plantation Rum poured their line of rums from various countries.

Other producers that I sampled from during the event included Rhum JM, Charman’s Reserve, Worthy Park, Myrtle Bank, Pere Labat, Dumas, Rum-Bar and Striped Lion.

CiderFeast Brooklyn 2019

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On Saturday afternoon, November 9th I attended the CiderFeast cider tasting festival which was one of the many cider-centric events held during the New York City Cider Week November 8-17.

The event was hosted by the folks at Food Karma Project and NYC based restauranteur, Jimmy Carbone which hold events throughout the year including the Pig Island BBQ fest in September.

The event which was held at Biba of Williamsburg, a waterfront pub/beer garden serving Polish and American food located at 110 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn.

The tasting showcased over 15 national and international cider producers with many from New York State. Also on hand were small bites including some very tasty “prosciutto” from Kentucky and live music by the JP Bowersock Band.

Hard Cider was once the primary alcoholic beverage and a staple of the early American diet in this country especially during the Colonial period in which according to Rebelseed.com, the early colonists drank about 35 gallons of cider a year.  Prohibition brought that all to an end.

There has been a resurgence of cider making in the United States with sales in 2014 at $2 billion and New York State is the 2nd largest grower of apples in the United States with about a billion pounds grown a year. The 2013 Farm Cideries’ Law made it easier to obtain a cidery license and gave tax incentives to cideries that exclusively use New York State crops. This has helped fuel substantial growth in the local industry.

At the event the local hipsters were able to sample a mix of the mass produced ciders alongside small artisanal producers who experiment with different types of yeast, aging vessels, apples and so forth. Even the big time producers such as Angry Orchard have a division that make unusual (and unusually named) small production ciders.

 

Some of what I sampled:

 

Angry Orchid: Thick as Thieves, Super Natural, Extra Terrestrial

Wayside Cider: The Catskill, The Skinny, The Half Wild, The Wild Select

Descendant Cider Co.: Dry hopped

Abandoned Cider Co.: Classic, Hopped, Barrel Aged

Downeast Cider House: Original Blend, Winter Blend

Urban Farm Fermentory: Super Dry, Hopped, Blueberry

Ommegang Project Cider: Dry, Rosé

Kings Highway: Singapore Sling, Gingersnap, Guavalicious

Original Sin: McIntosh

Aval: Classic, Rosé

Romilly Cidre: Extra Dry, Demi-Sec, Doux

Asturias Cider: Sparkling

Barrika: Basque Cider