First Class
BRAND OF BROTHERS
Brotherhood Winery celebrates 170 years as a functioning winery.
This year marks the 170th anniversary of Brotherhood Winery
in Washingtonville, N. Y., the
nation’s oldest continuously
run winery. 2009 may be nearly
over, but the anniversary celebration continues with weekly
Thanksgiving-themed cooking
demonstrations that o;er both
menu and wine-pairing ideas for
the holidays.
The Hudson Valley winery
was founded in 1839 by a family
of Huguenots and has had only
a handful of di;erent owners
since. In its infancy, Brotherhood
became known for its earthy pinot
noir, and it managed to evade
Prohibition by supplying regional
churches with sacramental wines.
Tours are conducted daily,
often led by owner and winemas-ter Cesar Baeza, who is usually
found in the cavernous tasting
room, pouring samples of Blanc
de Blancs Champagne and Brotherhood’s award-winning Riesling,
which was the American white
wine of choice, selected for
White House functions by Bill
and Hillary Clinton.
A native of Santiago, Chile,
Baeza preserves the legacy with
touches such as aging his wine in
barrels crafted from French oak
trees, and replacing them every
Season’s Libations
WINDOW INTO WINE
One of the best-selling books
on wine is about to celebrate
its 25th anniversary—and it’s
gotten the once-over inside
and out. Windows on the
World Complete Wine Course
($24.95) has sold more than
2. 5 million copies already,
and there’s a reason for that.
Author Kevin Zraly, who was
the wine director of Windows
on the World from 1976 to
2001, explains wine, its
regions and how to pair it in
a simple, down-to-earth way.
For the 25th anniversary edition of the book, he visited 80
wine regions in more than 20
countries, tasted more than
4,000 wines and met with 500
winery owners, winemakers
and vineyardists.
The book teaches readers the fundamentals of basic wine regions, grapes and pairing, and also includes six new sections on great wine- producing countries, including Austria, Canada, Greece, Hun- gary, New Zealand and South Africa, and more details about Argentina, Australia, Chile, Italy, Spain, and Oregon and Washington. The new edition also has recommendations for more than 1,000 wines, looks at how the wine world has
changed since the book was
first published in 1985, and
explores how each region’s
wines and wine culture have
transformed over time.
The book’s new edition
would make a great holiday
THE BEERS
OF THE BALL
gift for anyone. A favorite
comment on amazon.com
reads, “Once you read this
book you will know more
about wine than most people
who work in a package store.”
windowswineschool.com
With all this talk about wine, you
might think beer’s getting short
shift. Not at Domaine Hudson in
Wilmington, Del. This restaurant, known for its wine dinners
and wine tastings, is now giving
craft beer its due. Owner Tom
Hudson is stocking 40 di;erent
beers from 11 countries, including
a couple of local favorites, Dogfish Head and Tröegs, both from
Pennsylvania. And he’s treating
the beer with the same respect
he gives to his 2,050-bottle wine
cellar. Just as he serves sparkling
wines at 40 degrees, whites at 52
and reds at 62, he’s serving his
wheat beers at 40 degrees, ales
