From a young age I came to understand that three of the key components to my happiness involve great food, great wine and great music. That holy trinity was born within my family’s kitchen, on many an evening spent with my father cooking dinner, sipping on whatever wine he chose and listening to the music he taught me to love. I came to fall in love with the world of food and wine on many separate occasions thereafter, but the seed was planted there.
Our connection to wine was rooted more deeply than just an admiration. My Great Uncle Ben had had a vineyard in the Hudson Valley of New York since 1976. We grew up regularly visiting the vineyard, frolicking in the vines, learning about each year’s new creations and helping with the occasional harvest. Here in the tasting room of Clinton Vineyards (named after its location in Clinton Corners, NY) I learned about how wine was made, about the méthode champenoise that my uncle used on our Sparkling Seyval and consequently why it couldn’t be called Champagne and about the wonderful experiment that turned into our famous award winning Cassis. My father still likes to brag that our Cassis “beat the pants off of France” and naturally we mock him for telling everyone that. Joking aside, it is truly delicious.
