News and Notes

Standing Stone Vineyards, our neighbors directly across the lake, have had several of their wines rated highly in the November 30 issue of Wine Spectator magazine. Check out the
details here. Standing Stone is one of our favorite places to visit. They have great wines and a fabulous view and they are always very friendly and welcoming.

Wine Spectator also has a good article on the Finger Lakes area from their June 15 issue. You have to sign up for their free 3-day pass to read archived articles.

If you are interested in wine history, Civinous is a blog devoted to wine history and wine education. Very thorough, detailed, and well-researched, this blog is basically an online encyclopedia of wine information.

Here is an article in the New York Times updating progress (or lack of it) on New Yorks efforts to enable shipping of wine from other states (requires free registration). It seems that a major roadblock is that the major carriers, Fedex & UPS, have yet to be approved as shippers of wine from out of state in to New York state. And the extra paperwork that shippers will be required to fill out when delivering wine seems to be holding things up. But there seems to be conflicting thoughts on why the new law has yet to yield the intended effects. The jury still seems to be out on what impact the new law allowing direct shipping of wines from other states into New York state will have on Finger Lakes wineries. But, it should be a wash, because New York wineries will be able to ship their wines to other states. Of course, I hear that other states are setting up hoops that New York wineries must jump through to get approved for shipping. The wrangling continues between the interests of wineries, wholesalers, retailers, consumers, and state governments. Hopefully, it will all settle out to the advantage of the consumer.