November 13, 2007
Staten Wineland?
A group of influential paisans from Staten Island, drunk on the idea of starting the first vineyard in contemporary New York City, have been on a wine-tasting tour of Tuscany, researching vineyards to figure out the best way to bring their brain-child back to their home borough. Yes, you read that correctly – according to today’s Times, you’ll soon be able to step off the Staten Island Ferry and pick up a bottle of Fresh Kills Cabernet. (We’re imagining a brawny bouquet with notes of coffee grinds and banana peels, and a bold, sooty finish.)
Work on the vineyard – which one member of the group wants to name Verrazano Vineyards – will start in the spring on two acres of land at the Staten Island Botanical Garden. Experts in viticulture at Cornell University are helping to determine which Italian grape varieties will be best suited for the area's rather damp climate. Ultimately the vineyard will be used for educational programs conducted with Cornell University's Wine Research Program. That’s right kids, Cornell offers a degree in wine, and yet a baccalaureate in beer bongs is still treated with derision.
Piergiorgio Castellani, a winemaker from the small Tuscan town of Crespina, will come to New York in February to serve as a technical advisor to the project. As a gesture of thanks, Staten Island has accepted the town’s offer to become a “sister city” to Crespina, which makes sense considering that Staten Island has a higher percentage of Italian Americans – 38% – than any other county in America. Of course, Staten Island oenophiles needn’t wait for Verrazano Vineyards to participate in wine-making. The Staten Island Winery School offers various hands-on – or, rather, feet-on – workshops that let participants make their own wine, albeit with lesser California grapes.
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A higher percentage of Italians, or do you mean a higher percentage of Italian-Americans? There is a difference.
Coming soon: Wu-Wine. Made with authentic Shaolin Grapes.
this could be really interesting if it inspires r&d for vertical agriculture...two acres ain't real wide, but it sure could be tall...
Shimmy shimmy ya shimmy yeah chardonnay- Chateau ODB
Cotes du Dump.
Hey, I know! Let's trash Staten Island! Hahah! What a bunch of loser working-class douches. I mean, no Bruni-starred restaurants, galleries or hip bars. What a bunch of B&T trash!
What the terroir of the island - vinnie boombatz?
Actually #6, noone's mentioned any such thing. I'd pat your back to console you, but that chip on your shoulder's taking up too much room.
Wine tasting notes:
- hints of diaper & hot garbage
- chinatown on a hot late afternoon
Wow, Bushwickers & WBurgites trashing Staten Island. I am so shocked.
/ sarcasm off...
Wow, Bushwickers & WBurgites trashing Staten Island.
I am shocked.
[sarcasm off...]
Can't wait for the 2015 taste-off between Staten Island and Queens wines.
http://gothamist.com/2007/05/23/queens_grapes_m.php
If any of you would actually bother to go further than Bay Street when you get off the Ferry, you'd realize that this little borough holds more magic and beauty in it than all the others combined. Get over the dump, people. Staten Island's a place of geological importance, a place of rich cultural diversity, an island of great drama and sorrow, true, but also an environment that offers people the opportunity to have a decent, civilized life amidst the chaos that is New York City - and still have a place for their animlas to roam through the woods and along the shore and up our hills and across fields overlooking the Raritan Bay. It's about time somebody opened up a vineyard of sorts out here. New York State, and the Fingerlake Region in particular, where Cornell University is located, produces some amazing wines. I've seen vineyards next to railroad tracks in Italy. How do you know the wine you drink wasn't produced within proximity of an Italian or Spanish or French or Chilean or South African landfill?