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PH O ENIX W INE AN D FOOD SPECIALH om e Is W here The H eart Is (A nd The G rapes, And The Y east, A n d ...)BACA Downtown, home to the grassroots-sometimes-experimental Arts Society, was the location for the Phoenix tasting of some locally-made wines. Home winemakers John and Ann Given, Dr. Bo Hahn, John Esposito, Linda LaViolette, and Steve Siciliano gathered to taste each other%u2019s wine and trade information and secrets. The Phoenix provided the forum; the winemakers provided the wine; and everyone contributed their comments.BY TRACY GARRITYThese bottles are not available at your local liquor store. The five bottles of wine standing neck to neck at the BACA Downtown Gallery last week are of a very special vintage. Steeped in family tradition and aged by sentiment, three bottles of red and two bottles of white are waiting for the cork to pop on the fruits of this latjor. The homewinemakers had earlier given their opinions of New York State%u2019s finest vintage, and now were ready to offer similar comments on their own bottles, in a friendly wine-tasting.Park Slope winemaker Dr. Bo Hahn is one of a dying breed of winemakers. On the first cold day of autumn, he and his daughter head into their backyard to spend the morning wading in grape pulp.%u201cWe always end up with the sniffles,%u201d he says, alluding to both the temperature outside, as well as the coolness of the grapes. %u201cBut we wouldn%u2019t do it any other way.%u201dNext year his youngest daughter (who turned three this year) will add her toes to the pot.%u201cWe put her in a bucket of warm water this year to get her ready,%u201d says Dr. Hahn. %u201cShe had a great time splashing around.And the wine that came from that experience is really singing and dancing wine.%u201d Hahn%u2019s %u201cFatto A Piede,%u201d is actually a full-bodied red cabernet with grapes bought in New York State.%u201cI think that winemaking should be fun,%u201d he says, referring to the name of his wine (which literally means %u2018made from feet%u2019). %u201cDifferent people have different tastes, but it all comes from a long tradition of making wine in the home. If you like your own wine, that is all that matters.%u201dDr. Hahn%u2019s wine won high marks as an accompaniment to game or red meat.A NEIGHBORHOOD EFFORTSteve Siciliano%u2019s wine is a family tradition of another sort. %u201cMy grandfather made his own wine,%u201d he says. %u201cBut my parents lived in a small apartment, which makes it difficult to make wine. I thought about the tradition, and I wanted to continue it, so in 1982,1 began to work on that first bottle.%u201dHe joined forces with Mike Farrell, and created the first bottles of Sunset Hills wine, fermented in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.Siciliano%u2019s group of winemakers has grown to include Mary Kazmark, Carol Spinelli, and Dean and Barbara Dennermar, and the group has created a yearly tradition of buying the grapes together and topping off the pressing and casking with a meal.%u201cWe open a bottle of the previous year%u2019s wine and serve it with some fresh mozarella, and some sun dried tomatoes and salami. I%u2019m an Italian-American, and believe me, there is no better way to finish up making wine,%u201d he says.Siciliano%u2019s group of six travels to the Brooklyn Terminal Market in Canarsie on a weekend in late September or early October to buy the grapes. %u201cIt takes about 15 pounds to make a gallon of wine,%u201d says Siciliano, %u2022adding that for the amount of wine bottled by his group, 1,300 pounds are needed. %u201cI have a very patient wife,%u201d he adds. WANDER AROUND TASTING%u201cThere are about three or four huge trucks filled with grapes when we get there, and I like to use California grapes for my wine. We all go together and wander around tne iracior-irauers pulling a grape oi iwo out and trying to decide if it%u2019s right. We never agree,%u201d he says. %u201cSomeone will think it%u2019s too sweet, and someone else will say it%u2019s not sweet enough. Eventually, we come upH o m e w inem akers (le ft to right) John G iven, Linda L aV io lette and Dr. Bo H ahn, pose w ith ta s te r Jeanne M a th e w s , and th e ir em p tyb o ttle s of w ine. The w in e s w ere ta s te d at a Phoenix w inetasting at B AC A D ow ntow n , th at bro u g h t the h o m e w in e m ak ers to g e th e r w itha g ro up o f w in e ta sters to trad e in fo rm atio n and th e fru its of th e ir labor. (P h o en ix/G arrity P hoto)with the grapes we need, and we load them into the car.%u201dHe says buying the grapes is part of the lure of winemaking. %u201cYou%u2019ll go to this place %u2014 sometimes we%u2019ll drive up to Pleasantville to buy them %u2014 and there will be a lot of Italians buying their grapes there. The kind of people who have always made their own wines. The people selling them will be standing off in a comer bickering over the price. It really makes a nice scene.%u201dSiciliano%u2019s contribution to the evening was another strong red %u2014 a mixture of Zinfandel and Gemache grapes. %u201cIt%u2019s really a robust wine,%u201d says Siciliano. %u201cI like to use grapes grown in a very hot climate, and the heat drives the sugar content up.%u201d A high sugar content makes for a higher alcohol content. His Zinfandel has a 13.5 percent alcohol, while most store-bought wines have alcohol at 11.5 percent or less.YEARS OF FAMILY TRADITIONJohn Esposito and Linda LaViolette%u2019s red wine is also culled from years of tradition, although a small apartment broke the tradition for several years. Now the LaViolette wine, made from Alicante grapes, is back in business. John Epstein used to make wine with his father, while Linda LaViolette helped her grandfather crush grapes and bottle the final project.%u201cWe just didn%u2019t have enough space,%u201d says Esposito. %u201cTo do it ourselves, we needed more than just an apartment in the city.%u201d The two bought some property upstate and truck their grapes to their %u201cwinery%u201d there. %u201cIt gives us the space we need for the wine,%u201d says Esposito.Next year, the two will uncork their first bottle of white wine, as they had been specializing in reds up to now. The LaViolette red got high marks at the tasting for both smoothness and flavor. It is a highly fruity, but not overly sweet wine that smells as good as it tastes. The wine is so popular that a spare bottle had to be opened (and emptied) before the tasters would be satisfied.COMPETITIVE WITH THE BESTAward-winning winemaker John Given,I just wish New Yorkers wouldrealize what a treasure theyhave in their backyard, Thesewines here are all very good.And I know that Bo makes aterrific Merlot, in addition tothis wine.who creates his prizewinning %u201cBrooklyn Home%u201d concoctions in his basement on - Bergen Street, brought two whites to the tasting, both of which were show-stoppers.- His Cayuga White was the first bottle tasted, and set the tone for the remainder of the evening. Homemade wines are not just the sort of drink you serve to good friends who don%u2019t know any better. They can easily be competitive with some of the best bottles you can buy at a local store.Given%u2019s second bottle %u2014 a chardonnay %u2014 was equally lauded, and had been honoredwith a red ribbon at the New York State Fair this year.%u201cPeople just don%u2019t realize that we have a gold mine in our backyard,%u201d says Given, who is partial to New York State grapes. Anybody can make a wine like this, and it%u2019s a shame that more people don%u2019t. I think they don%u2019t believe that their own wine could taste good. But it really can.%u201d The five wines at the tasting were testament to that fact.Given%u2019s basement is a series of casks, bottles and burets for tasting, testing and corking the final product. %u201cI am moYe scientific than a lot of winemakers,%u201d says Given, %u201cbut you don%u2019t have to be to make very good wine.%u201d He says the hardest part of winemaking is achieving a balance between the sugar arid the fruit, and the taste of the aging process.LIKE WATCHING CHILD GROW%u201cEvery bottle that you make might not be great,%u201d he says, adding that in his learning process he had several bottles that were ultimately used as cooking wine. %u201cBut most of them will be.%u201d He says it%u2019s not that difficult to make wine, although the aging process is similar to watching a child grow.%u201cI just wish that New Yorkers would realize what a treasure they have in their backyard. These wines here are all very good. And I know that Bo makes a terrific Merlot in addition to this wine.%u201d Given%u2019s homemade wine cheerleading is more than just talk. He serves as president of the American Wine Society, a group of home winemakers and tastes. %u201cWe get together Continued on Page 4Winemaker Peter Lenz And Wine Seller Leon Paley Toast A New State Law With A Ta e of Local WineBY MICHAEL TOMASKYLong Island most often bores its way into the consciousness of city dwellers as a wonderful place to go, and a miserable place to get to, on summer weekends. Given the island%u2019s position of transience in the lives of its visitors, those same people may perhaps be forgiven if they forget that, between the expressway and the seaside resorts, life does go on there. An recently Long Island came to Brooklyn.Peter Lenz is one person who is seeking to establish a more enduring identity for the island. Lenz is the proprietor of Lenz Winery, a 30-acre vineyard he established in 1978. Lenz%u2019 winery is one of eight now producing wine on Long Island, that, along with the 30 to 40 vineyards Lenz estimates are now operating on the island, is seeking to improve the rather sullied reputation of New York state wines.%u201cOur goal is to be a small, premiumwinery,\tasting at Leon Paley%u2019s Wines & Spirits in Park Slope, November 1. %u201cWe%u2019ve put a lot of effort into the winery. Our system, ourContinued on Page 5W in em aker P eter Lenz (left) poses w ith liq u o r store o w n er Leon P aley on th e occasionof a w inetasting at P aley's shop in early N ovem ber. (P h o en ix/C o llin s Photo)November 20, 1986, THE PH O EN IX, Section Two, Page 3