More Than Drinkable

To take part in #openlocalwine all you need to do is: Get a bottle of local wine (or cider) and open it Saturday, April 10. Enjoy it with a nice meal – either home-cooked or takeout from your favorite local restaurant. Post picture(s) of the wine or wines online – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter – using hashtag #openlocalwine. And tell us why you picked that wine (or wines) and who you are sharing it with. Raise a glass to the winemaker who made it. Drink it and enjoy it with your family. Please also make sure that you @ mention the winery/winemaker as well as The Cork Report on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram (we are @ginashay1, @lennthompson, and @corkreportmedia on the latter two). That will help us see and then share your posts with the larger #openlocalwine community. Remember, ALL ARE WELCOME. We always want this event to be open to as many people as possible. That’s why we keep it easy to do and invite people from every corner of wine country to participate!

Paul and Shannon Brock, the husband and wife team behind Silver Thread Vineyard in the Finger Lakes, on the shift from extreme climate hybrid grape growing and winemaking to the European vinifera grape wines that now have come to dominate the fine wine trade of the Figner Lakes. Then we come full circle back to the subject of hybrids and the renaissance that those grapes are experiencing now and how they will play an important role toward the sustainable viticulture practices of the present and future. Note: Sorry for the double download if you download these automatically. The first version we published was missing an entire segment. It's fixed now.

Sommelier Brooks Fraser on up north recreation and the transition from living and working in New York City for 17 years to now running the bar program at Hotel Saranac, among the high peaks in the Adirondacks region.

A Northern Wine Music Odyssey: Finger Lakes winemaker Kelby Russell was primed for a career in performing arts management. He and host Paul Brady touch on their lives as musicians before finishing with some thoughts on the future of the Finger Lakes wine industry, and how the pandemic has unavoidably shaped the possible outcomes.

Finger Lakes grape grower extraordinaire Mike Colizzi joins host Paul Brady on A Northern Wine Odyssey for a chat about the second wave of hybrid grapes to hit the East Coast of the U.S. back in the early part of the 20th century. Colizzi grows riesling, cabernet franc, and blaufrankisch in his vineyard on the west side of Seneca Lake -- most of which goes to the highly regarded winery Hermann J. Wiemer -- but is also on the staff at the Cornell Agriculture Extension Station in Geneva, where he works in the grape breeding department helping to develop new hybrid varieties, making him the perfect person to have a finger on the pulse of modern cold and extreme climate growing.

Brittany Gibson, Executive Director of the Seneca Lake Wine Trail, joins host Paul Brady on A Northern Wine Odyssey to talk about a few Seneca Lake wineries who scored big at the New York Classic Competition, and about how you can use wine trails as a resource to help plan your New York wine country trip.

Talking "Nouveau" (like "Beaujolais Nouveau" but made in NY) with Finger Lakes' winemakers Lynne Fahy (Keuka Spring Vineyards) and Nathan Kendell (Nathan K Wines and Hickory Hollow Wine Cellars). Does the "Nouveau" marketing muscle have a future in NY? We think it does.

In this special Valentine's Day episode, friend and fellow sommelier Isabella Fitzgerald joins me as co-host for a chat with the best selling romance author Melanie Harlow, for a conversation on Michigan wine country as a setting in romance fiction.

Ode To The Catawba Grape!  In this episode, I speak with my friend Christy Frank who shares the story of her beginnings in wine (most useful content!) and we realize that there may need to be a part two to this Catawba story...

So you've got your home bar up and running and you're shaking drinks like it's 2021 -- oh wait, it is! And dry January is over!  In this episode host Paul Brady and sommelier and bartender Jad Kamal rap about how to take your home bartending skills to the next level: when to shake; when to stir; what's already in your pantry that can also be in your drinks; and more...

In this episode, I speak with Miguel de Leon, Beverage Director and General Manager of Pinch Chinese, in Manhattan New York. We get into the sommelier profession and how it existed in the pre-2008 recession, how it bounced back, and how the future might look for wine professionals and consumers in restaurants.

In week's episode,  I spoke to my friend and former colleague from the trenches of New York City wine bars, Sagan Schultz. Sagan is a medical doctor and has an MBA both from NYU. He’s also a sommelier, certified nutritionist, and personal trainer – perfect for the subject of dry January, and health and wellness in the wine industry in general. This podcast is presented by Cork Report Media (http://thecorkreport.us/)

In this episode of his Northern Wine Odyssey podcast, host Paul Brady talks to his friend Amber Rill, who is the assistant beverage director at Corkbuzz Wine Studio in Manhattan NY, where she also oversees consumer and private wine classes. Corkbuzz is an amazing venue for wine education, and recently Amber and I were able to join a seminar on New York wines moderated by Kevin Zraly, who is the author of the No. 1 selling wine book in the world, Windows On the World. Kevin was also the sommelier at the restaurant Windows On The World at The World Trade Center in Manhattan up until September 11, 2001, and luckily for all, he was not there on that tragic day. Kevin is also a celebrated wine educator having taught his classes to thousands in the New York City area throughout his career. So this is Amber and I shooting the shit on Christmas eve, of 2020, reflecting on Kevin’s seminar, wine education, jobs in the wine education sphere, and New York wines.

We’re back on the subject of going after jobs in the wine industry this week, with our guest New York City-based sommelier-turned-full-time writer, Courtney Schiessl. Courtney has been published in SevenFifty Daily, Wine Enthusiast, VinePair, Forbes.com, The SOMM Journal, The Tasting Panel Magazine, Beverage Media, Wine-Searcher.com, ESPN, and more.  This chat sincerely inspired me, as I realized that I've pretty much been able to watch Courtney grow into the professional that she is today almost from the beginning, which genuinely warmed my heart, and these days we all need a bit of that. If you know anyone in the restaurant industry who is currently unemployed and has wine expertise, we hope you’ll share this series with them and also check in with us for more content on wine journalism, trade and consumer education, and industry jobs. This podcast is presented by Cork Report Media (http://thecorkreport.us/)

For this episode of the Nothern Wine Odyssey, we say goodbye to one of the great New York City jazz clubs, The Jazz Standard, which had a fantastic program for domestic wines including those from New York and my home state of Michigan.  Guests: Grant Gardner, sommelier and longtime manager of the club, and jazz saxophonist and a frequent performer at the club, Jon Irabagon. This podcast is presented by Cork Report Media (http://thecorkreport.us/)

For this episode of "Press Fraction" Lenn Thompson provides a short introduction and then you can hear the audio replay of a virtual tasting he hosted for the New York Wine & Grape Foundation on sparkling wines.  The full video is also available -- along with a lot of other seminars -- on the NYWGF's YouTube Channel.  This podcast is presented by Cork Report Media (http://thecorkreport.us/)

For this episode of the Nothern Wine Odyssey podcast, Cork Report contributor Paul Brady speaks with Gina Shay who works in Business Development at Tonnellerie Cadus oak barrels and serves as the Vice President of the Michigan Wine Collaborative, on the subject of going after jobs in the wine industry. This podcast is presented by Cork Report Media (http://thecorkreport.us/)

For the debut episode of the Nothern Wine Odyssey podcast, Cork Report contributor Paul Brady speaks to Beverage Journalist and Washington State Wine Commission Director of Marketing David Flaherty on the subject of "the opening process," as Brady works to open a New York heavy wine shop and bar in Beacon, NY. This podcast is presented by Cork Report Media (http://thecorkreport.us/)

In this second, not-all-that-controversial MOaF (my opinion as fact) episode, I talk about how you can help your local wineries right now and help announce the first-ever "Open That Bottle of Local Wine Night." A real episode is coming. I promise. 

Episode 1 of season 1 of the new "More Than Drinkable" podcast is coming soon. Seriously. In the meantime, I'm going to record some shorter-form episodes to share some news and opinions – and frankly to practice audio editing.  Welcome to the first edition of MOaF – My Opinion as Fact – where I share an opinion as though it's 100% true. Which it is.