Poughkeepsie, NY , April 29, 2008: Brook in Waterland in Rhinebeck New York was the setting Saturday, April 26th for the 4th Annual Hudson Valley Wine Competition. This competition highlights the Hudson Valley Regions wines and the growing interest the public has for them. The competition was open to all commercial wineries in the Hudson Valley AVA using New York State fruit, but more exclusively, Hudson Valley fruit.:

Seventy nine wines made in the Hudson Valley were entered in the competition. Overall the wines from the 18 wineries that entered scored higher than in the past three competitions, suggesting to all present, a continuing improvement in winemaking for the area.

The winners of the 4th Annual Hudson Valley Wine Competition by class and variety are:

Sparkling:
Brotherhood Winery NV Blanc de Blanc –Silver Medal, Best Sparkling Wine
Clinton Vineyards NV Sparkling Seyval Peach – Bronze Medal
Applewood Winery Stonefence 2006 Hard Cider– Bronze Medal

White Hybrid:
Benmarl Winery 2006 Seyval—Gold Medal, Best in Class and Best White Hybrid
Magnanini Winery 2006 Bianco Amable (Seyval) — Silver Medal
Brotherhood Winery 2006 Seyval Blanc—Bronze Medal
Bashakill Winery 2006 Whitetail (Cayuga) –Gold Medal, Best in Class
Brimstone Hill Vineyards 2007 Cayuga – Silver Medal
Adair Vineyards 2007 Cayuga—Bronze Medal
Whitecliff Vineyards 2007 Awosting White (Seyval/Vignoles)–Silver Medal, Best Hudson Heritage
Benmarl Winery 2007 Traminette – Bronze Medal

White Vinifera:
Millbrook Vineyards 2007 Tokai Fruilano – Gold Medal, Best in Class, Best White Vinifera
Millbrook Vineyards 2006 Chardonnay –Gold Medal
Benmarl Winery 2007 Riesling – Bronze Medal
Brotherhood Winery 2005 Riesling—Bronze Medal

Labrusca (Native) Grape:
Hudson-Chatham Lindenwald White Niagara/Diamond—Silver Medal, Best in Class

Red Hybrid:
Benmarl Winery 2006 Baco Noir—Gold Medal, Best Red Hybrid
Benmarl Winery 2006 Frontenac—Silver Medal
Bashakill Winery 2006 Blue Heron (Chancellor)—Bronze Medal

Red Vinifera:
Millbrook Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Franc –Gold Medal, Best in Class, Best in Show, Best HV Wine
Millbrook Vineyards 2006 Cabernet Franc Block 3—Gold Medal
Applewood Winery 2006 Cabernet Franc – Bronze Medal
Oak Summit Vineyards 2006 Pinot Noir – Silver Medal, Best in Category
Millbrook Vineyards 2005 Pinot Noir—Silver Medal
Bashakill Winery 2006 Copperhead (Pinot Noir)—Bronze Medal
Brotherhood Winery 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon—Silver Medal
Hudson-Chatham 2005 Merlot—Silver Medal, Best in Category
Baldwin 2006 Merlot—Bronze Medal

Grape Sweet Wine:
Bashakill Winery 2007 Osprey (Vignoles)—Silver Medal, Best in Class
Bashakill Winery 2007 Whitetail (Cayuga)—Bronze Medal
Bashakill Winery 2006 Osprey (Vignoles)—Bronze Medal

Fruit Wine:
Brookview Station 2007 Pomona (Apple/Pear) – Gold Medal, Best in Category, Best in Class
Adair Vineyards 2007 Peche –Gold Medal, Best in Category

Dessert Wines:
Clinton Vineyards NV Cassis – Gold Medal, Best in Category, Best in Class, Best Dessert Wine Warwick Valley Winery NV Pear Liquior –Gold Medal, Best in Category
Warwick Valley Winery NV Black Currant—Silver Medal
Palaia Winery NV Mead—Bronze Medal

Port:
Brotherhood Winery NV Ruby Port—Gold Medal, Best in Class
Hudson Chatham Winery Paperbirch Raspberry Port—Silver Medal

For more information on the Hudson Valley Wine & Grape Association visit www.hvwga.com
Video of the competition can be seen here.

Information on the wine competition contact Debbie Gioquindo 914.474.7780

Toddlers on the Trail – Wildflowers and Critter Walk.
Monday, May 19th, 10am-12noon.
Join Debbie Biltonen, a local naturalist, and her toddler son and explore the forest searching for wildflowers and critters. Ages 2-6 are welcome, accompanied by an adult. Children need to be able to walk or be in a carrier; jogging strollers cannot be used. Reservations are not required. Meet at the Coxing Trailhead. Walks average 1.5 miles and move at a toddler’s pace.

Take this opportunity to spend some time with the little ones. Enjoy the forest and savor the looks of amazement and excitement as your toddler discovers the wonders of the woodland.

You can get details at the Mohonk Preserve website.

I have a few favorite viewing places of my own. The view from Olana is one of my favorites. You can see the Hudson River and a good deal more including the Catskill Mountains off in the distance.

From just behind the Vanderbilt Mansion there is a great view of the river,, Ulster County, and the distant Catskill Mountains.

The riverfront at Newburgh Landing gives you a dramatic view of the Hudson River as it cuts through the Hudson Valley Highlands with Storm King Mountain on the right and Breakneck on the left.

The southern view of the Highlands and river is just as eye pleasing when viewed from riverside in the village of Cold Spring.

Climb up to the lighthouse at Stony Point and enjoy a super view of the Hudson expanding out into Haverstraw Bay. Whatever your pleasure, there are countless spots along the river where you can access a great view.

For those who are capable of multitasking their passions for Hudson River views, there are many places along the Hudson River where one can dine to a river view, tour the river, balloon over the river, or find a restfull inn alongside the river. If you need help getting started take a look at this mapped out “Passion for Hudson River Views”.

Five sites in New York’s 19th Congressional District are listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund National Priority List, a designation of the nation’s most severely polluted locations:
• Hopewell Precision site in Hopewell Junction
• Brewster Well Field in the Village of Brewster
• Carroll and Dubies Sewage Disposal in Deer Park
• Nepera Chemical Company site in the Town of Hamptonburgh
• Shenandoah Road Groundwater Contamination Superfund Site in the Town of East Fishkill

Because of the serious challenge of cleaning up water pollution, I’ve asked the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment to come to East Fishkill for a special Field Hearing this Friday. The Field Hearing, “Water Resources Contamination and Environmental Cleanup in the Hudson Valley,” will be held Friday, April 11th at 9:30am in the East Fishkill Town Hall.

The hearing is open to the public.

The hearing will examine how the EPA is currently working with the State of New York, local governments, and private groups. I want the hearing to spur the federal government to redouble its commitment to water clean up in the Hudson Valley.

Sincerely,

Thanks for the boost John. You’re still the one!

For those of you who adhere to tradition and seek real butter on your popcorn there is very little choice these days. Therefore, I’ll let you in on one of the Sojourner’s little secrets. You can still get real butter on your popcorn in the Hudson Valley.

Aside from a great array of alternative and classic films, Upstate Films in Rhinebeck still serves popcorn in its classic form. With real butter. Yes, it is an option, but you can get it.

You can check out their film schedule at http://www.upstatefilms.org/. You will have to go there in person to get your popcorn buttered.

Make sure to get there early and take in a bit of Rhinebeck. Upstate Films is located right in the middle of the village so you can walk out of their door and right into a classic Hudson Valley short walk village. It’s a well preserved village with lots of shops and history.

By attending this very important hearing you will show EPA and everyone else that YOU WANT THIS FIXED NOW, NOT LATER!

There will be reporters there that you can talk with and tell how living in this situation has affected you and your family. This is a rare opportunity to be heard and to help move this very important and long standing issue along.

East Fishkill Town Hall: 330 Route 376, Hopewell Junction
Informtion: http://www.hopewell-junction-citizens-for-clean-water.org/

Anyway, a thing of beauty is a thing of beauty no matter how it finds you.

You can see it on his blog at:
http://www.userscape.com/blog/index.php/site/comments/sunrise/

Enjoy it.

As you may know there has been a longstanding campaign in the Poughkeepsie area to revitalize the old Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge. To fix it up and make it usable for both strolling and cycling. The idea is to make it a Hudson Valley tourist attraction and thereby not only revitalize the bridge but maybe the local economy surrounding it.

A good idea I guess, but I’m not sure if it’s my personal cup of tea. I have been an admirer of the bridge for much longer than the Walkway Across the Hudson people have been trying to save it. For me the admiration does not lie in the bridge’s mildly historic value or even its status as a technological artifact.

It’s in the mystery for me. Not being able to walk over it is more exciting for me than doing so. It plays on the senses and stimulates my imagination. The distancing, the inability to feel it under my feet is what makes it exciting for me. It’s like a present that is sitting there that you can’t open. You work up emotions and conjure up thoughts of the precious gift hidden in the box only to find that the anticipation was much more fun and certainly more exciting than the reality.

There is also a great deal of nagging doubt. Revitalizing the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge is going to cost a great deal of money and the cost will be recurring. The fine State of New York has promised millions to kick start the project. But that’s the state, and what is ultimately found in hand may not coincide with what was had in mind.

The plan calls for the walkway to be turned over to the Department of Parks upon completion. I’m sure that they would do a great job managing the property. But that would place the bridge in the realm of public funding yet again, and I’m not entirely convinced that the public needs to shoulder more than it already carries.

Don’t misunderstand, I do appreciate the benefits of a revitalized bridge but I also appreciate the fact that in tough times there are often tough decisions that need to be made.

Commerce in New York is crying for state funded incentives to help crank up their businesses. The state is being petitioned from all quarters and by all groups who also have causes and  agendas that aim to serve or benefit the public.

I just can’t help thinking that for every person that cycles across the Walkway there is another person who sits alone at home for lack of a wheelchair or services that the state could not help with. That for every person who strolls the bridge there will be several homeless Veterans who lay in dismal darkness doing combat with their own minds and with no chance of winning.

Yes, these are tough times and tough decisions.

I grew up in a cultural melting pot dominated by a mix of European immigrants. Just as mixed and varied were the pungent aromas that emanated from the stacks of homemade sausage, and the salami and wurst that hung drying from the walls and rafters of every local butcher shop and deli.

Real delis! Not places where you went for a bologna or a chicken salad sandwich on white bread. Just asking for these would get you thrown out of the store to the accompaniment of generically understand German, Italian, Polish, or Yiddish utterances. Actually they were not utterances. They were quite audible and extremely targeted. These were mom and pop operations where product and pride meant the same thing.

Needless to say I developed quite a liking for Italian sausage, German wurst, Polish kielbasi, and a good frankfurter, with casing please. As much as my expanded waistline complains of this fetish, I have not been able to break myself of this cultural addiction. Calling it “cultural” helps to justify it you see. I just practice moderation these days. Partly because I no longer have the metabolism of a 17 year old and partly because these wondrous delicacies are becoming ever more difficult to find in their native form.

Sure, I can get my hands and mouth on all types of pseudo-stuff. Taste-alike products from the supermarket rack that I call white bread wurst, hardly hot dogs, and so so sausage. But the real goods, the crafted stuff, the stuff that smells and tastes like your memories, those things are getting harder and harder to find.

The only plus in this scarcity is that I can now use it as an excuse to go traipsing through the Hudson Valley on yet another quest, and there is nothing the Sojourner likes better than a good quest for tasty delights. These taste delights still exist. They need only be sniffed out and enjoyed.

If your palate and mine are kindred spirits then you may want to undertake a quest of your own. You can start by checking out some of the places on this list:
http://dir.hudsonvalleysojourner.com/Meat_,038_Poultry/

They have information on state parks in the Hudson Valley and all over the State of New York.
Check it out at: http://nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/