Hudson River Valley Wineries

This blog is dedicated to news, events, profiles and reviews of fine food and wine in the Hudson River Valley. We especially feature and spotlight the burgeoning wineries of the Hudson River Region. We accept and will relay information about releases, events, festivals and any toher happening related to food and wine in the Hudson River Valley. Send pertitnent information to hudsonriverwine@yahoo.com

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Location: Catskill, NY, United States

Carlo DeVito has traveled around the US, France, Spain, Chile, Canada, and Italy. He has been a publishing executive for more than 20 years. He shepherded the wine book program of Wine Spectator as well as worked with Kevin Zraly, Oz Clarke, Matt Kramer, Tom Stevenson, Evan Dawson, Greg Moore, Howard Goldberg, and many other wine writers. He has also published Salvatore Calabrese, Jim Meehan, Clay Risen, and Paul Knorr. He has also publisher such writers as Stephen Hawking, E. O Wilson, Philip Caputo, Gilbert King, James McPherson, Michael Lewis, David Margolick, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., John Edgar Wideman, Stanley Crouch, Dan Rather, Dee Brown, and Eleanor Clift. He is also the founder of Hudson-Chatham Winery, co-founder of the Hudson Berkshire Beverage Trail, and former president of the Hudson Valley Wine Country. His the author of more than 20 books including The New Single Malt Whiskey, Big Whiskey, and the forthcoming The Spirit of Rye. https://carlodevito.wordpress.com/

Sunday, August 01, 2010

El Paso Winery's Rusty Nail Red and Merlot

So, this review is way late, so firstly, my sincerest apologies to the owner, the lovely and always accommodating Mary Vogel.

OK, now that that's out of the way, when I was at the Spring Crafts Show at Rhinebeck I went to say hello to Mary, and I tasted a few of her wines. The one I really liked was a nice table red called Rusty Nail.


In 1998 Mary and her husband purchased the winery that was founded 21 years before by Felipe Beltra, an "old-world" Spanish winemaker from Uruguay, SA. He purchased the land and the old barn of a 125 year old farmstead and planted his grapes. He then went about converting the barn into his "tasting room". Today, Mary still blends his sweet wine recipes from long ago and has expanded the selection of fine New York wines to include wonderful dry reds -- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot Noir. They make two Rieslings! Their White Riesling is a classic -- sweet, flowery and fragrant. They also make an elegant, clean, crisp dry Riesling.

Mary did not give me a history of the name Rusty Nail, though, as a layman there are several I know of. Regardless, the wine was a complete surprise.

Medium bodied, a nice garnet color, with vanilla, spice, and some essence of smoke. It has a smokiness to it. But it was lovely. Nice fruit up front, cherry and blackberry, and a lovely dry finish. A very, very nice table wine. Great with grilled foods, pizza, pasta. A very lovely wine.



The Merlot was lovely as well, filled with cherry and raspberry, and a hint of vailla. A complex wine with lots of flavor. A big, dry, delicious wine.

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