Bedell Cellars First Crush Red Wine 2014

Bedell Cellars 'First Crush' Red Wine 2014

I first discovered Bedell Cellars during my visit to the North Fork Long Island, New York winery/cellar visits in the early winter of 2001. At the time, my cellar notes record that I tasted their Bordeaux varietal wines, 1997 Beddell Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and their 1999 vintage Chardonnay and Chardonnay Reserve.

We then tasted Bedell Cellars wines at Murray's Cheese Restaurant and wine bar on Bleeker Street in the Greenwich Village, one of Son Alec's favorite eateries in the City. Again, we tasted Bedell Bordeaux varietal wines there based on Cabernet Franc.

What a fun surprise to find this Bedell Cellars artist series Bordeaux varietal release in our local wine shop, Sav-Way in nearby Hinsdale, IL. I must admit, were it not for the catchy artsy Artist Series label, I may have missed it.

Bedell Cellars are the namesake winery and vineyards of founders Kip & Susan Bedell who planted their first grapevines on their acquired fifty acre former potato farm on eastern Long Island back in 1980. Kip's passion and dedicated work over the next two decades earned him the moniker ”Mr. Merlot” in Wine Spectator magazine.

Bedell cellars was bought in 2000 by Michael Lynne, a New York film executive and art collector. Continued investment in the property and brand propelled Bedell to one of the benchmark wineries in the eastern US producing the best wines of the Long Island appellation.

The acquisition of Bedell allowed Michael to combine lifelong passion for wine and food with his love of the theater, film and art. A graduate of Columbia Law School, he leads an entertainment law firm with a long running association with New Line Cinema one of the world's most successful independent film companies. Today he is Principal of Unique Features, a film production company and an esteemed contemporary art collector and Trustee of New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

That convergence of his love of art and wine are manifested in the Bedell Artist Series featuring specially commissioned works by world renowned contemporary artists on the labels of special release wines.

This label, Bedell Cellars First Crush Red Wine features the artwork of  Mickalene Thomas, an internationally renowned artist and filmmaker. Her work explores the intricacies of female beauty through painting and collage. Her installation 'Better Days' was featured at Art Basel and her documentary, 'Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman' premiered on HBO. She painted the official portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama for the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery.

For Bedell's First Crush labels Mickalene selected a collage from her 2014 series, Tête de Femme, portraying abstracted female faces constructed from abstracted geometric cutouts. In this work, Mickalene combines art-historical, political, and pop-cultural references to comment on notions of beauty and gender in the 21st century.

Is it coincidence or inspired that this label has similar design and color schemes of this legendary premium Italian label? In any event its a fun and interesting comparison in style and design between Mickalene Thomas' work and the Azienda Agricola Montevertine Le Pergole Torte Toscana IGT Italian Sangiovese.

First Crush is a red blend of young vine Merlot (75%) and Cabernet Franc (25%) fruits, aged in stainless steel. Dark garnet colored with purple hues, it is medium light bodied with initial aromas of damp wood, leather and dusty rose petals, gripping tannins are pervasive from the initial bright vibrant red berry and cranberry fruits through to the layer of spice, dusty rose and cedar with tones of green bell pepper and tangy black cherries on the lingering finish. The tangy notes of the fruit may be attributable to the youthful vines. The finishing floral aromatics are more desirable than the opening.

The bright tangy fruits go better with forward moderately spiced food.

At the release price of $30 there are better values out there, but at the 'street price' below $20, this provides good value QPR - quality price ratio. 

RM 87 points. Wine Enthusiast gave this 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2212217

https://store.bedellcellars.com/product/BEDELL-2014-FIRST-CRUSH-RED

Murrays Cheese - Ultimate Wine Cheese Experience

Cheese Murray Cheese - Ultimate Wine Cheese Experience

For the ultimate cheese and wine experience, Murray's Cheese Bar on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village offers an extensive cheese selection from Murray's Cheese shop a few doors down. Artisan cheeses are selected and served as learned and imaginative pairings with meats, beer, wine or even aperitifs- select your own or let their 'Cheesemonger' prepare a flight for you. Visiting son Alec for a NYC getaway weekend, he took us to Murray's, one of his favorite haunts for dinner.

Cheese and or meat selections are available ala carte, in pairs of three, four, five or eight different selections. All this in combination with an imaginative list of wines or craft beers, the cheese course can be the pre-dinner starter, the dinner main course, or the after dinner option. Tonight, thirty four cheeses and eight meats were available from which to choose on the daily menu.

Murray's Cheese, name for founder Murray Greenberg, has been a fixture on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village since 1940. In the early ‘90s, Rob Kaufelt bought Murray’s and transformed the downtown flagship store into a destination for food lovers. He sourced rare cheeses from around the world, built cheese caves to age and ripen them, and started cheese classes for foodies and professional alike in Murray's own classroom.  

Today,  Murray’s ships cheese across the nation to chefs and supermarkets through an extensive wholesale business. In 2012, Murray’s Cheese Bar opened nearby serving brunch, lunch, and dinner featuring the broad selection of cheeses from the cheese caves beneath Bleecker Street. 

On this evening, two flights of meat and cheese, paired with two wines, a white and a red, were our dinner, if you add in a bowl of the tomato bisque soup. We also had their Burrata Crispy artichoke & grilled bread plate.

For the wines, since we're in New York, I selected a New York State, Long Island wine, Cabernet Franc from Bedell Cellars. For the white, we had a Loire Valley Sancerre Chenin Blanc. In retrospect the white was too timid to stand up to some of the hearty cheeses and meats so next time, I'll select a heavier more robust expressive white wine - Vionier, Chardonnay, an Alsatian, or even a Riesling.

We selected two 4X4 flights (shown) - two plates of four meats and four cheeses, each accompanied by a garnish highlight such as a pistachio nut paste, a blueberry compote, natural honey paste, or cranberry glaze. Of the eight cheeses we selected, five were notable and worth repeating: my favorites were:

La Tur, from the notable Italian wine region of Piemonte, described by Murray's as "a dense, creamy blend of pasteurized cow, goat and sheep milk. Runny and oozing around the perimeter with a moist, cakey, palette-coating paste, its flavor is earthy and full, with a lingering lactic tang."

From the Vermont Cellars of Jasper Hill comes 'bacony and creamy Bayley Hazen Blue, (below right) named for a Revolutionary War road in Vermont’s Northeast Region, a raw milk, farmhouse blue. Produced by the Kehler brothers, this is a like an English Stilton with its 'dry yet dense paste, full of balanced chocolate, hazelnut, and licorice flavors".


From France comes Selles-sur-Cher (left, leftmost) goat cheese. While traditionally, fresh cheeses were dusted in wood ash to encourage the development of a molded rind with patches of blue and gray mold, Murray's imports unaged rounds so they can control the development of a perfect rind: thin and cohesive in their own aging cave. The result is "a tiny, oozing creamline atop a fluffy interior paste with the pleasant texture of damp clay. The rind delivers insistent mineral notes, while the center is all briny, goaty tang and new-mown grass."

Another French cheese, La Tremblaye Persille de Rambouillet, "an incredibly smooth, creamy goat’s milk blue from La Tremblaye dairy in the countryside surrounding Paris. Originally a grain farm, it now boasts a herd of 150 cows and 600 Alpine goats and is located on picturesque farmland, surrounded by ponds and fields, lying adjacent to Rambouillet forest. From its ashy exterior to its “parsley veined” interior, the cheese’s supple texture melts on the tongue and fully coats the mouth with nuanced, terroir-driven flavors like clean lactic notes, white pepper and sweet cream. Simple companions, such as walnuts and honey add complementary and contrasting textures".

Lastly, St Stephen from New York Hudson Valley creamery/producer, Four Fat Fowl, a cow cheese named for the "colonial rental fee charged by the last landlord of Rensselaerswyck (what’s now Rensselaer county”), which amounted to a day’s labor, including ten to twenty bushels of wheat. Their small, bloomy rounds are delicately buttery, with hints of sun-dried wheat and sweet cream beneath its pillowy rind, making St. Stephen a true expression of local terroir." This was served with local, NY honey and fresh berry compote. 


Bedell Cellars North Fork Long Island Cabernet Franc 2013

Bedell Cellars produce a range of hand-crafted wines that get the most out of the unique North Fork maritime terroir - sandy soil, warm summers moderated by sea breeze cooled nights. I visited Bedell Cellars back in 2001 and thought they were one of the highest quality producers in the area, especially of red wines.

Slight opaque ruby colored, medium bodied, smokey, slightly earthy black cherry fruits with a hint of leather and cigar box on a slightly astringent tangy finish.

RM 87 points.



https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1984796

http://www.bedellcellars.com/



http://www.murrayscheesebar.com/ 

http://www.murrayscheese.com/