I was surprised with our visit to the Red Hook Winery in Brooklyn because I did not know that we had a winery in the city. I thought that they were all in Long Island and upstate New York. Red Hook winery compared to other wineries that I’ve visited such as Millbrook winery in Long Island and Moet and Chandon winery in France as well as the research I did on winemaking and wine blending many of the things that Mr. Foley mentioned were familiar to me and expected. Such as the procedures after harvest, the way its stored and aged and the different procedures taken to perfect the wine whether its blending with other wines or transferring from one barrel to another to give it another flavor before the finished product is bottled. However, the one thing that did caught my attention was when Mr. Foley said a drop of milk in the wine could fix its bitterness. It was something that I did not come across during my research and I would have never imagined milk being used as a tool to improve the wine. Furthermore, during my research one of my sources stated that white wines are not good for blending however, Red Hook winery had a beautiful blend of Riesling and Chardonnay sweet and buttery to the palate. Learning at the winery is always so much better then learning through research because with just doing research questions are left unanswered and every winemaker has a personal touch that makes their wine unique.
The base wines we tasted were Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, two Chardonnay’s (one aged in stainless steel and the other in oak), Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. My favorite wine is German Riesling, but at this winery their version of Riesling wasn’t my favorite. It was dry and I felt tannin on the palate. It’s appearance was greenish yellow possibly from the grape skins, but its aroma is true to its kind. Nothing compared to the German Riesling close to opposites. Also the Chardonnay aged in stainless steel was very pleasant. It was sweet and moist, but high in acidity. I think it was perfectly aged and one of the best base wines I had. After a while of tasting so many wines they all started to taste the same. In addition, I’m not a fan of red wine, but I did like tannin levels of the red wines we had. They weren’t as strong as other wines that we’ve tried in class. The red wine with the least tannin was Cabernet Sauvignon and it was slightly lower in alcohol compared to the other red wines. I enjoyed this wine most from the reds and its something that could be enjoyed with duck fillet.
