In case it hasn’t been clear yet, let the record stand: I LOVE wine. Love it. It pairs amazingly with my favorite indulgence, cheese, while also providing surprising and complex flavors that a Diet Coke would just never be able to impart. As such, if there’s a wine tasting going on at a reasonable price, you can basically expect me to be there. So when HowAboutWe for Couples was offering admission to the NY Drinks NY Grand Tasting for a mere 30 bucks per couple, you know that I was one of the first to sign up.
NY Drinks NY is a great event that takes the locavore craze to the wine scene, highlighting only wines that were made from grapes grown in NY State. With everything from cabernet francs to dry and semi-dry rieslings to even an American-grown Malbec, the Grand Tasting event offered wine lovers a sampling of over 200 kinds of wine from the great New York state.
In addition to the variety of wines came a buffet of cheeses, fruit, and other charcuterie that paired wonderfully with the liquid supplements. My personal favorite was a fennel salad on baguette toast that paired deliciously with the variety of sweet rieslings offered by the wineries at the event.
In terms of the actual wine, the standouts for me include a Traminette from Hudson-Chatham Winery, which offered an aroma like that of a lychee fruit with a similar sweetness, as well as the Baco Noir and basically every Cabernet Franc from the participating wineries. I found the Cabe Francs of most of the participating wineries to be a fantastic complement to any kind of food, as the blend of reds made a great pairing to everything from creamy to hard cheeses to salamis to pork. Overall, thanks to the NY Drinks NY Grand Tasting, I was able to find a variety of ~$15 bottles that I will definitely be purchasing in the near future. It certainly made for a perfect antithesis to the snowy weather going on outside, and a reasonable excuse for skipping the gym. Check out the NY Drinks NY website for more tasting events going on through the end of March – you’ll be sure to find your next favorite bottle of wine.
