This month has been all about the fruit of the vine. We started it out by participating in our first urban grape harvest at Rooftop Reds Vineyard in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They are the world’s first commercially operational rooftop vineyard. Their rooftop grapes are turned into a high-end Bordeaux blend cuvée. They also make a while blend, rosé and several other bottlings from various Finger Lakes vineyards in the name of promoting NY grapes. We carry their elegant white blend up at The Press Lounge, which makes for an ideal matchup of rooftop views and rooftop wine.
I helped out trimming from the various raised bed boxes everything from Petit Verdot to Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. All in all, with the group effort the process was short and sweet. In about an hour, all the bunches were in their labeled containers and ready to be driven up to the Finger Lakes to the production facility to be sorted, crushed, fermented, and put in barrels. The only challenging aspect was waving off the bees from the ripe and juicy grapes enjoying their own pre-harvest cuvée 🙂
Next we will be focusing on a grape strictly of the edible variety at the Greenmarket NYC’s Concord Crush Happy Hour. It will take place at their Project Farmhouse event space on October 26th from 6-8 p.m. They will be hosting chefs and bartenders serving up cocktails, savory bites and sweets revolving around the region’s iconic grape variety. Pastry Chef Amy Hess is going to make a delectable concord crumble pie. We will be pairing it with a rendition of the Boulavardier cocktail using fresh concord puree, Uccelli Aperitivo and Van Brundt Stillhouse White Rye Whiskey. Join us and help us crush it!
