Tag Archives: City Winery

City Winery Hosts Grand Barrel Tasting at Classic Car Club in Manhattan

Posted on by NYC Intern

Last week City Winery brought a taste of wine country to Manhattan’s Classic Car Club for an evening of food, wine, cars and live music. The event brought Car Club members together with City Winery barrel owners to taste the latest vintages of their wines.

Wine Samples included a Zinfandel from Dry Creek Sonoma, a Sauvignon Blanc from Lake County CA, and a few of City Winery’s most recent 2012 crop from Russian River Valley, just to name a few.

City Winery hosts 4 Grand Barrel Tastings throughout the year, and with partnering with the Classic Car Club, this proved to be the most successful event yet with over 150 guests in attendance! Fine wine and fine cars make for quite the party in downtown New York!

Jerry Seinfeld opens first of 5 sold out performances of French comedian Gad Elmaleh.

Posted on by Allison

To open a five night, sold out performance of French comedian Gad Elmaleh, City Winery received a very special surprise guest appearance from New York comedic icon Jerry Seinfeld. Gad Elmaleh and Jerry have been friends for several years and share a similar bandwidth of popularity and fan adoration in their respected countries. In fact, last year Jerry did his first-ever show in Paris and Gad made a similar opening address to the French-American audience. The two also share a connection over the voice-over work from DreamWorks Animation’s Bee Movie.

Gad Elmaleh has received a very warm welcome by his New York fans and City Winery is honored to host his first ever appearance on our stage. We look forward to last two sold out performances!

 

The Beast – Our New Press

Posted on by Hank Smeal

As mentioned previously, our first shipment of grapes this fall was accompanied by our new 12hl (317 gal) press, affectionately known as the Beast. Well, last week we let her loose. She is more than double the capacity of our old press, and with the ability to be programmed, the operator is now free to press more grapes, rather than buttons. Pressing grapes is actually a complex, multi-step process. It must be done very slowly, building up pressure gradually so that juice extraction is maximized. With each stage of the pressing, there is an interval of relief to allow juice to flow through open channels in the pomace. Without this, the channels would close and much of the juice would be trapped in pockets. Our current process builds up hydraulic pressure in 10 bar increments (one bar equals one atmosphere, or 14.7 psi). We go up to about 90 bar this way. This is actually the pressure of the hydraulic fluid, not that on the pomace, which tops out at around 4.5 bar.

The first step is to bleed juice from the tanks beginning the day before, so that when the door is opened, there is not a gushing flood. The wet pomace is then shoveled out of the tank into half-ton bins that can be moved by pallet jack to the loading dock. The empty press basket is removed from the press by forklift and placed just below the loading dock to be filled. After pressing is complete, the process is reversed: the dry “cake” is removed from the basket and shoveled for a third time into composting bins. The pressed wine is divided into two parts: light press and hard press. Usually, only the light press is aged in oak barrels. If you look in our barrel cellar, most of the wine from each vineyard is marked as “FR” for free run (the wine which freely flows out of the fermenter during the bleed) and “LP” for light press. The hard press is stored in stainless steel kegs and used for a variety of purposes.

Use of the Press Wine

As you might expect, the press wine is rich, dense and as Robert Parker might say, “backward”. It lacks the aromatic complexity of the free run and is fairly harsh and unbalanced all by itself. It is also slightly sweeter than the free run. Some of the sugars locked up in the pulp are released by pressing, and often the press wine will resume alcoholic fermentation until this residual sugar is consumed. The dried pomace has some alcohol left in it as well: this can be distilled into Grappa or the french l’eau de vie de marc most notably. As our wines are aged in oak, they are constantly evolving. Our head winemaker, David Lecomte, monitors each wine assiduously in barrel right up to bottling. Sometimes press wine is added to the free run if he wants to add a bit more depth or structure. Various combinations are tried until his palate is satisfied with the final result. Care must be exercised because adding too much of the press wine could produce harsh tannins and reduce acidity. This is where a winemaker’s talents play a critical role. Only after many years of experience can a winemaker taste a immature barrel sample and know what needs to be done in order to achieve a final result that is worthy.

Check out the gallery below for illustrations of the various steps mentioned above:

 

Our Big Crush Last Weekend

Posted on by Hank Smeal

Close to one-quarter of our entire fall harvest arrived last Saturday. Needless to say, it was a long day for us, but it was also filled with high expectations. We were not disappointed. The grapes arrived in top condition ready to fill our hungry tanks. In the Pinot Noir department, we received grapes from the Bien Nacido vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley and the Bacigalupi vineyards in the Russian River. Petite Syrah and Zinfandel arrived from Lodi as well.

Assistant Winemaker Bill Anton delivered pallet after pallet of grapes to the loading dock where Sikou Nakate and his trusty pallet jack were waiting to lift and pull each one-ton stack to the loading station. In the case of the Petite Syrah, whose clusters tend to run somewhat large compared to other varieties, the stems had to be snipped into smaller pieces so that they would go through the destemmer properly. Working in shifts, the sorting table was kept busy all day long, with only short interruptions in order to move from one tank to the next. Purple hands and sticky fingers were in abundance.

With our second crush of the season now finished, three-quarters of our fermenters are already full.  It is now up to the hard-working yeast cells to transform all that sugary must into wine. We tend to them day and night making sure they complete their important task on schedule. This means regular pump overs, punch downs and temperature regulation. Our lab technicians are busy monitoring the progress and if all goes well, we will start to press and barrel down during the next two weeks. As you can see, timing will be very important so that tanks are available for more crop as it comes in. We are excited about breaking in our new press that will make this process more manageable. Stay tuned for updates.

 

 

World’s Fastest Winery

Posted on by Hank Smeal

Last Saturday we had one of our largest crushes ever — 20 tons of grapes! Thanks to our dedicated members, staff and friends, it was processed in record time without a hitch. In fact, they managed to sort the grapes with such precision and care that David’s high standards of winemaking were held in the highest regard. In the time lapse video below, you will see most of the day’s effort compressed into two and a half minutes.

 

The World’s Fastest Winery from Hank S on Vimeo.

 

First Crush of the Season: 2012 Carneros Vineyards

Posted on by Hank Smeal

This past Sunday we arrived in the pre-dawn hours for our first crop of the season: 6 tons of Pinot Noir grapes from Carneros. Within the Carneros AVA, these grapes were harvested from two vineyards: Poseidon and Beckstoffer. They were in excellent condition and the sweet aromas made us feel like a part of each vineyard came with them! As a matter of fact, if you closed your eyes on this quiet Sunday morning and felt the warm, bright sun shining on the pallets loaded high with moist grapes, you might have thought you were in the middle of a vineyard.

This delivery was more than just grapes, however. It included our new 5-ton press: we call it the Beast. It will allow us to dramatically increase the amount of grapes we can press in one day. Pressing is actually one of the most time consuming and labor intensive procedures. With our old press, which was quite a bit smaller and not programmable, it would take much longer to press a tank than to fill it with the crush. Below you will find our gallery of photos from the day.

 

The Grapes are Coming! The Grapes are Coming!!

Posted on by Hank Smeal

Poseidon Vineyard-Pinot Noir 2012

 

As I sit here at my keyboard in Soho, our first crop of the season is being hand harvested at the Poseidon Vineyard in Napa. These luscious Pinot Noir grapes have reached the point of optimal ripeness and will soon be on their way to City Winery. The small yellow bins that you see above will be stacked high in a refrigerated tractor trailer and covered with a protective blanket of argon gas to retard oxidation. If all goes as planned we will have them in our hands this Sunday! Six tons are expected and will make for a gentle opening to our fall crush (We have been known to crush as many as twenty tons in one day!).

The Poseidon Vineyard, situated in the Carneros AVA at the northern end of San Francisco Bay, was first planted by the Molnar family in 1973 where the cooling winds from the Pacific temper the summer heat. This maritime climate is ideal for growing Pinot Noir grapes so that they ripen slowly and develop phenolic ripeness at the same time as sugar ripeness. Phenolics are a vast group of organic compounds that are responsible for the color, tannins and complex flavors found in wine. Over the years, the quality of this vineyard has been so remarkable that many of the big names in Napa purchase grapes from it, including Joseph Phelps, Heitz Cellars, Sterling, Pride Mountain, Acacia, and Mumm (The PinotFile, Volume 9, Issue 11, September 11, 2012).

Those of you who read my last post know how busy we have been preparing the winery for the biggest crush of the year. Time is of the essence so that when the grapes arrive they are crushed and placed into fermentation tanks without delay. Today we finished cleaning and reassembling our conveyors and made sure the tanks are fully cleaned and sanitized. As you can see below, these are big tanks (6,500 liters or 1,717 gallons) and require a person to actually get inside to do the job thoroughly.

Sikou Nakate preparing to clean one of the 6500 liter fermenters

 

Cleaning a stainless steel fermenter in preparation for Sunday's crush

 

Work schedules are being drawn up and provisions made to have the fermenting juice, pulp, and skins, aka the must, attended every day from early morning to late at night. For the next two weeks or so, it will be like incubating very precious farm eggs: keeping the temperature just right, making sure there is proper ventilation (or circulation in this case), and constantly monitoring the development. And this is only the beginning of what we hope will be our most phenomenal harvest to date!

 

ALL HANDS ON DECK! Preparing for the 2012 Fall Crush

Posted on by Hank Smeal

As August draws to a close here at City Winery, word is arriving that our fall crop is going to be extraordinary this year. The growing season in California has been nearly ideal so we are expecting to have our fermenters filled to capacity in the next few weeks. Crushing up to one hundred tons of grapes takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears so we reach out to many of our staff, members and friends to pitch in. In other words: ALL HANDS ON DECK!

The work itself is quite exhilarating for those who appreciate the art of winemaking. Seeing the freshly picked grapes as they arrive opens a new window into the enjoyment of wine. Suddenly you make a direct connection between these luscious, aromatic fruit and the flavors that make wine such a distinct and delightful experience. Tasting a Pinot Noir grape and comparing that to a fresh Cabernet Sauvignon grape immediately reveals the source of their differences. The Pinot Noir’s bracing acidity and crispness contrasts with the thicker-skinned Cabernet Sauvignon grape that is rich and chewy.

But the real miracle is to witness the transformation from juice to wine. The combination of crushed grapes and juice, known as the must, begins it’s metamorphosis as a beautifully sweet and intensely flavored mixture. As the yeasts begin their work, the sugars are replaced with a complex variety of compounds that add a wide range of new tastes and aromas. Gradually the must becomes more wine-like over the roughly two-week fermentation process. During this period, the must is tasted and analyzed twice a day in our lab. Adjustments are made in order to insure the best possible outcome.

The preparations for the crush are moving into high gear. The fermenters need to be thoroughly inspected and cleaned, as do all the conveyors, destemming machine and sorting tables. Pumps, hoses and fittings are being put in order for managing the must. New barrels are being acquired and must be tested for leaks and other imperfections. Existing barrels are undergoing a thorough inspection, then washed and set in racks for receiving new wine. Our basket press will be taken out of storage and similarly prepped. Once a crush begins, there are no timeouts, so everything must be in near perfect working order. In the event of an equipment failure, we review our backup procedures. As they say, “Hope for the best and prepare for the worst” is the order of the day.

The winery is a hub of great activity and anticipation as we strive to improve every aspect of vinification each harvest. David Lecomte, our head winemaker, is never satisfied with just maintaining the status quo, no matter how diligent. We have been upgrading and intensifying our laboratory analyses with new staff and protocols. This will allow David to prevent or more quickly correct any must issues before they cause a wine fault. A week ago we received a new bottling machine that will allow us to substantially increase our capacity. This is important for the harvest because it will free up barrels and rack space as the aged wine can be put into bottles more quickly.

September marks a new beginning for City Winery with its sister facility in Chicago now open and ready for its first harvest. Together we watch the ripening grapes in California, Oregon, Washington and elsewhere with renewed excitement. With our combined knowledge and experience, this fall offers us an opportunity to make the best City Winery vintage yet.

CHEERS!

City Winery Stage Sign Goes Up

Posted on by Nathan

The stage has been poured with concrete and the wood cover is going on now.  Amazing to see floor plugs for electricity, microphone and speaker plugs being done in such a neat way.   Sound panels on the ceiling and walls installed, lighting grids and Meyer Sound equipment arriving in next few days for installation.   Already, the main performance space sounds great acoustically, looks really cool, and it is clear how nice a show will be in this space.

The main curtain wall, 30 feet tall, 120 feet deep has been framed and is being installed with more glass every few hours–this is a huge wall.  The building then will be fully buttoned up and we then turn on our air-conditioning.  Painting, wood trim, lighting fixtures, we are in the final push to complete and still very much on target to finished on August 1st and ready for our first show on August 15th.  Inside the new wood floors, bars are being sanded, and various coats of stain, sealer, and other smells permeate throughout the place.

We are starting to see the arrival of furniture, tables, chairs, kitchen equipment, and lots of cardboard boxes.  We have ordered a few extra dumpsters for just the wrapping material on the 600 chairs, there really is a lot waste with all of that stuff coming.  But it feels like a big birthday party starting to happen with the unwrapping.  Another week of this and we starting putting it all into place.

Check out the latest photos from City Winery Chicago including one of the City Winery exterior signs, taken by our neighbor, The Breakfast Queen, Ina Pinkney, of Ina’s across the street from City Winery!

Malbec Crush Video: May 10, 2012

Posted on by Hank Smeal

 

This was a very exciting day for all of us here at City Winery. We reached out to many of our good friends and staff to mobilize for the arrival of twenty tons of Malbec grapes from Argentina. This is the most labor intensive aspect of winemaking, and it was “all hands on deck.” Even those not directly involved in the effort came to watch and photograph. It seems that there is something alluring, almost mysterious about seeing fresh grapes transformed from a simple ripe fruit into a product that many regard as a work of art. The draw is even more intense because of the location: right in the heart of New York City!

In this video, you will see the tractor-trailer arrive with its precious cargo, followed by David Lecomte, our head winemaker, doing a quick inspection before the first pallet is removed by forklift. Some of the pallets had to be restacked for greater stability. Once they are placed inside the winery, the grapes are unboxed and loaded onto a conveyor to the destemming machine. There is some interesting slow-motion footage of the destemmer in action. From there the grapes travel onto the sorting table and any remaining pieces of leaves and stems are removed. You will see the whole process taking place for both the kosher and non-kosher wines.

Finally, as the grapes begin to ferment in stainless steel tanks, there is the first of many “punchdowns” of the cap after about four days to ensure an adequate extraction of flavor and color from the grape skins. The fermenting juice and skins, called the “must”, undergoes a schedule of multiple “pump overs” every day to further aid extraction, mixing and to aerate the yeasts that need oxygen to thrive. It is no wonder that the making of a fine Malbec, or any wine for that matter, requires intense labor and attentive nurturing.

Note:  For the highest quality video, please view on YouTube and select 1080p from the settings menu (gear icon)

 

 

 

Legendary Soul Man: Sam Moore on Good Day NY

Posted on by Allison

Legendary R&B singer Sam Moore was recently featured on Good Day NY where he talked about his special, upcoming show at City Winery on July 17th.

On Monday, July 16th, Dave Price and guest co-host Bethenny Frankel spoke to Sam about his new found health, nerves before performing and his upcoming show at City Winery.  They discussed City Winery’s intimate vibe, which Moore really enjoys, as well as the delicious food and wine served during the shows.

Bethenny Frankel, a neighbor to City Winery also enjoys visiting and hopes to come to the show on Tuesday.

New York News | New York Breaking News | NYC Headlines

 

For tickets to see the “Original Soul Man” at City Winery on 7/27: click here

6:00pm SEATING/8:00pm START

For other Sam Moore tickets, visit his website: click here

 

Winemaking Topics: Topping Barrels

Posted on by Hank Smeal

Most of the wine produced at City Winery is aged in oak barrels for periods ranging from six months to over two years. When first placed into the barrel, some of the new wine is absorbed into the wood, especially if it is new. Gradually, air will be drawn into the barrel as this happens. Since wood is not an airtight container, some wine is also lost to evaporation. To prevent oxidation the barrels must periodically be “topped” with additional wine to eliminate any air space. The following video is a tongue-in-cheek look at topping barrels, meant to be entertaining as well as informative. Shot entirely on-location at City Winery.

Intro:  A lone cellar intern contends with wine barrels that need topping. The consequences of letting the wine oxidize lead to an out-of-control chemical reaction that has everyone running for cover.

 

Ronnie Spector on Good Day NY

Posted on by Allison

City Winery is very pleased to host the Ronnie Spector residency throughout the month of July.

Ronnie will be doing a live performance with her full band and sharing personal stories, photos and video.

To purchase tickets visit our website.

See Ronnie live on Good Day New York with Rossana Scotto and Dave Price.

 

 
New York News | New York Breaking News | NYC Headlines

“Say Cheese”

Posted on by Amanda Len

Today, we had the pleasure of taking a little field trip over to our favorite cheese maker in town, Murray’s! Located on Bleecker Street, a quick walk from City Winery, Murray’s has been bringing people some of the tastiest cheeses since 1940. In case you didn’t already know, City Winery is proud to have Murray’s as our exclusive cheese and charcuterie provider. Because after all, what pairs better with wine than cheese and meat? Needless to say, during our visit, we learned and ate A LOT!

Jason, a cheese expert from Murray’s, gave us an extensive tour throughout Murray’s shop and into its cheese caves to teach us about cheeses from all over the world. The first thing we learned worth sharing is that most cheeses, after aging for at least 48 hours, lose their lactose. So that’s good news for all of you who are lactose intolerant!

Another fun fact we learned on our tour, was that the reason some cheeses have such a stinky smell is because the bacteria in those cheeses is the same bacteria that causes our armpits and feet to smell. Ok, so maybe that fact wasn’t so fun, but it definitely caught our attention.

We also took away some valuable information about serving cheeses, which may come in handy for you too! Some nice complements to cheese include: almonds, olives, dried fruits, seasonal fruits, chutney, fruit pastes and charcuterie. Cheese is best served on wood or marble stone boards surrounded by grapes, nuts, bread, and of course, wine. Choose 3-5 cheeses for each course and arrange clockwise on the board with the first cheese placed at midnight.

The final and most important thing we took away from our tour was, no matter how smelly or how much lactose cheeses contain (or don’t contain), they all taste delicious!

Click here to view Murray’s website.

June Event Recap

Posted on by Amanda Len

With so many events under our belt it’s definitely hard to keep up sometimes. From cocktail receptions to fundraisers, we host them all. Here we summarize a few of the events that were held at City Winery during the month of June.

Our first main event was held on Tuesday, June 5th. The Fragrance Foundation hosted its annual Pop Your Cork Fragrance event. This year’s Pop Your Cork event was named Price, Perception & Pleasure. The three and a half hour long event, which hosted 150 guests, asked each guest to participate in a blind tasting of wines coupled with a four course tasting menu. The concept behind the blind tasting was to see if the guests were able to discern which wine was the higher price point selection and which one was the lower price point selection. The fragrance portion of the event maintained the same theme as the blind tasting. Each guest was asked to sniff various different scents to see whether or not they could detect which one was a high-end fragrance and which one was a low-end fragrance. Here is a link to some coverage on Cosmetic World.

On Thursday, June 7th, we hosted a fundraising event for Animal Haven. Animal Haven is a non-profit organization that finds homes for abandoned cats and dogs throughout the Tri-State Area. If you would like to read more about this event, see our other blog post.

Our last event, which garnered major press, was held on Thursday, June 14th. The Evelyn Douglin Center for Serving People In Need, Inc. (EDCSPIN) is a nonprofit agency “dedicated to meeting the needs of individuals and families of all backgrounds who are intellectually disabled and have other developmental disabilities.” EDCSPIN held its annual Vision & Voice Gala fundraising event here at City Winery, which included 240 guests. Anthony Anderson, of The Departed fame, emceed the three and a half hour long event, which honored Merrith Hockmeyer, Ph.D., MHH Clinical Services (Leadership Award), Cititech Solutions (Corporate Award), and Majestic Foods, Inc. (Community Award) for their services and dedication to the EDCSPIN mission. Proceeds from the event went directly to EDCSPIN’s Respite Program, “which provides family members of people with developmental disabilities “respite” – where they enjoy a night out to see a movie, or attend a wedding, while EDCSPIN provides care for their loved ones.”

Keep checking back for posts about our events coming up in July and August!

Love is Love

Posted on by Amanda Len

14 Stories, the country’s first firm to specialize in planning legal LGBT weddings, was created by Bernadette Smith, a strong advocate of same-sex marriage. 14 Stories’ mission is “to ensure that all LGBT couples have the most positive, supportive experience while planning their wedding.” She is extremely passionate about providing the support and quality service that every client deserves to receive during one of the most important times in their lives.

As an advocate of gay rights, she travels the country speaking on behalf of gay rights and same-sex marriage. On Wednesday June 13th, the City Winery Events Team had the pleasure of attending one of WeDo’s Educational Workshops titled, “Gay Weddings are Good for Business.” The workshop featured Bernadette herself, who spoke to our team and other attendees on LGBT weddings and how to market these weddings to same-sex couples. The hour and a half long presentation covered all of the necessary information marketers and event planners need to bear in mind when reaching out to this clientele and we came back with some new and useful information!

Some highlights of the evening included:
• The difference between a straight wedding and a gay wedding
• How to market to LGBT couples without losing one’s straight client base
• How to include gender-neutral alternatives to contract forms, marketing materials etc.
• The best ways in which to handle “delicate” questions
Whether you are planning to start marketing towards the LGBT community or simply becoming an advocate of same-sex marriage, the key note to remember is to be respectful and be willing to keep an open mind.If you would like to learn more about how to market to the LGBT community, Bernadette Smith, and 14 Stories, click here to visit 14 Stories’ website.

And, this past weekend, City Winery had the honor of hosting our first same sex marriage. It truly was a very special day. Be sure to read more about Bill and Michael here.

Also, be sure to visit  WeDo’s Facebook Page! City Winery is a proud member of WeDo and will be hosting one of their events this coming August!