Brooklyn Winery blogs

A Bit About Our Upcoming "Sideways" Wine Class

Brooklyn Winery — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:48:08 +0000

"If anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!" That is, of course, what that twit Miles is remembered for saying in the film Sideways. What Miles (Paul Giamatti) is passionate about though, are those California Pinot Noirs, Syrahs, and Chardonnays -- as long as they don’t include, as Miles said, “too much oak and secondary malolactic fermentation.”

So what does this all mean? And why is Sideways, set near Santa Barbara, sometimes remembered as “the Pinot Noir movie?” Well, the Pacific Ocean does offer night breezes that cool the grapes down, making Santa Barbara County’s unique micro climate suitable for growing Pinot Noir. To find out more, you could book yourself a trip to Santa Barbara to take the “Sideways Tour.”

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Vote Brooklyn Winery for Metromix New York Best Wine Bar 2012

Brooklyn Winery — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:53:48 +0000

For the second year in a row, we've been nominated by Metromix for Best Wine Bar in the "Best of Metromix Awards"! We WON this category in 2011, so there's no reason why we can't win in 2012, right? In order to win, though, we need your help...

It's an election year, folks, so let's practice the democratic process by voting for Brooklyn Winery for Best Wine Bar! It's really easy and takes less than a minute of your time—all you have to do is click the big vote button on this blog post, then select the "Vote" button to the right of Brooklyn Winery on the voting page, enter your email address in the window that comes up, and click "submit your vote." Done!

The deadline to vote is Sunday, January 29 at 11:59pm EST.

Thanks in advance for all of your support. We really appreciate it!!

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A Truly Festive Start to 2012

Brooklyn Winery — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:02:23 +0000

We closed out 2011 in style with La Brooklyn Rouge Fête-- our chic, Moulin Rouge-inspired, absinthe-and-bubbly-fueled New Year's Eve party. And what a party it was. Our space transformed into a dark, smoky boîte filled with gussied-up revelers looking for a good time. Guests were treated to delicious absinthe and elderflower sparkling cocktails along with French wines both sparkling and still. Some adventurous folks even dressed up in 1890s period costumes to play along with the Belle Époque theme.

Sexy burlesque dancers Lulu Lollipop and D'Arcy D'Lux entertained the crowd with their seductive dancing -- both on stage and on top of the bar. Magician Eric from Le Scandal strolled around and amused guests with magic tricks and illusions. Of course we all counted down to midnight, then smooched and toasted to the new year. All the while, DJ Miss Bliss spun classic French tunes as well as modern music that got everyone to bust a move -- including the entire bar staff. Have a look at the photos in this post, taken by our own assistant manager/bartender/photographer Rima Campbell!

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Creative Wine Storage Solutions for Small Spaces

Brooklyn Winery — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:53:54 +0000

New Yorkers love their wine. New Yorkers also have very little space to store their wine. If you’re making your own wine at Brooklyn Winery you may be concerned about where you’re going to put all those bottles in your (likely) small apartment. Or maybe you’d like to start a wine collection but your only obstacle is a lack of space. There’s a great wine storage solutions company called Joseph & Curtis that can help you out. They create custom wine storage racks and cellars designed especially for your space, whether it’s a home or a commercial business. We recently spoke with owner Joseph Klein about his wine storage solutions and how they can create a space for you to store your budding (or existing) wine collection.

There are quite a few companies out there marketing wine storage systems. What has made your approach unique and ultimately beneficial to your clients? The fact we can build to any size or niche New York can throw at us! Our expertise in design and manufacturing allows us the unique opportunity to bring any dream to reality…as we all know, New York space is always limited but our creativity toward wine storage is not!

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On Finding Amazing West Coast Wines in NYC

Brooklyn Winery — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:25:53 +0000

We love wines made from California grapes! In fact, we source many of our winemaking grapes from high quality vineyards in California’s premiere winemaking regions. We’ve already released an elegant 2010 Pinot Noir (we call it “Brooklyn Noir”) produced with grapes from the Russian River Valley, and we are currently aging several other California varietals in our facility, which we will release in the future. In the meantime, if you’re looking to explore California wines like Chardonnay, Zinfandel, or Cabernet Sauvignon but don’t know where to start, California Wine Merchants can lend a helping hand.

This lower Manhattan wine shop has already narrowed their selection down to wines from (duh) the great state of California. If you’re in the mood for a California wine and find yourself unable to pop in to Brooklyn Winery for a glass of our lovely Brooklyn Noir, we recommend trying this wine shop. Their philosophy is very similar to ours; we agree that wine should not be an intimidating or exceedingly expensive beverage—it should be accessible to all. We recently spoke with Jennifer Frank from California Wine Merchants to get some advice on what to look for when shopping for wine.

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Nominate Our Winemaker Conor McCormack for a James Beard Foundation Award

Brooklyn Winery — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:15:51 +0000

If you're at all interested in the food and beverage business, you've probably heard of the James Beard Foundation Awards; they're kind of a big deal. The foundation is currently accepting nominations for their 2012 awards, and one of the categories is "Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional." We would be eternally grateful if you would please take just a minute of your time to nominate our outstanding winemaker, Conor McCormack, in this category. Submitting a nomination is very easy—just register, click on the "Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional" link, and then enter Conor's name.

Why should you nominate Conor? For starters, TWO of our first-ever wine vintages have already earned awards: our 2010 F.B. Riesling received a gold medal at the 2011 New York Wine & Food Classic, and our 2010 Batch 001 Chardonnay earned a double gold medal from the same organization! That's all thanks to Conor. And if you've ever tasted any of our housemade wines, you know just how good he is at crafting fantastic small batch wines.

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Brooklyn Winery Celebrates End of Harvest with Housemade "Brooklyn Nouveau"

Brooklyn Winery — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:00:44 +0000