#anconas

Amy, who is 11 now, has been itching to catch our chickens. Her friends have tame chickens you can pick up and pet, and from what I can gather, Amy finds it very soothing.

So, itching. "Please can I just *try* and catch a chicken? PLEASE?"

And I kept saying no, because it seemed unfair to subject an old bird to new tricks, like enjoying human contact, and being held.

When we bought home the new hens, Amy was hopeful they would be tame enough to pat. Then she was disappointed when she realised she couldn't get them to immediately eat from her hands and enjoy her company.

Ever determined, she has been spending a lot of time with the chickens.

Yesterday, I told her it would be nice if she could catch our (skittish, mostly wild, probably uncatchable) bantams, and put them in the shed to learn things like "togetherness" and "not running away" and "lay in the motherfing shed, not all over the paddock for the dogs".

I did not hold out too much hope, but this is Amy we're talking about. She's clever, and resourceful, and utterly determined when she needs to be.

By bedtime last night, she had caught four of our bantam girls, and added them to the chicken flock.

(The rooster was VERY chuffed with new girls and immediately made sure they were his. With much ruffled feathers.)

I am so impressed with her. The last two hens might be a challenge - they're the smartest and most skittish, but to be honest, I'm not sure their pea sized scatterbrain can match the intensity of focus Amy has brought to being allowed to catch chickens.

Now I just need to work out how to keep them all together long enough that they learn to lay eggs in the freaking nesting boxes, rather than where ever they feel like it. (I have dummy eggs coming in the mail).

Lieb Family Cellars Merlot Blanc, 2010

       In the past few years, Long Island has become somewhat of a rebel in the world of fine wine production. Not only have they been growing the very grapes that everyone long suggested they’d never be able to grow (everything from Syrah to Riesling), but they’ve been experimenting with new blends, using new methods of production, and creating terroir-driven wines reminiscent of their Old World counter parts.

       A recent trend in winemaking experimentation that I’ve been able to especially appreciate is the production of white wine from red grapes--Blanc de Noir. Fact is, all red grapes can produce white wine. Well, almost all red grapes. There are a handful of atypical grape varietals that contain anthocyanin pigments in the flesh of the berries and therefore press red juice (grapes like Alicante Bouchet, Dunkel, and Pinot Tenturier) but these grapes are few and far between and not grown in the New World to my knowledge. However, all of the red grapes that we grow in abundance have the ability to produce both red and white wine but in the past it was incredibly rare to find them outside of their pigment extracted, tannin-rich form (save Méthode Champenoise).

       In any case, Long Island has been breaking this rule more and more and coming up with some very exciting efforts that might have other regions rethinking the realm of the red grape.

       In any case, this Blanc de Noir comes to us from Lieb Family Cellars on the North Fork of Long Island and it was produced with the Merlot grape, which in Long Island red wines tends to take on a distinctively earthy and pungent aroma. The 2010 vintage is the fourth bottling of white merlot produced by Lieb and in this particular vintage there were 654 cases produced.

       In the glass this wine showed bright as day radiating a watered down straw-like hues.

       On the nose it gives off light and fruity aromas of lemon, grapefruit, pear, and peach. Although the winemaker’s notes list some red fruit descriptors, these are completely absent for me, which is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. I have no reservations accepting a white Merlot as an entirely white wine.

       On the palette this wine shows up somewhere between a Sauvignon Blanc and an Albarino. This is a wine of structure, mouthwatering acidity, and all out white grape characteristic. There is nothing inherently ‘red’ about this bottling. In fact, I’m fairly certain that even the most acute blind taster would be hard pressed to pin this wine as a white Merlot. Congrats Lieb. You pulled off the Merlot Blanc. And not only that, but offered it to us at a really good value too.

       You’ve all heard my rants about drinking locally, yeah, well maybe this is a good place to start. Pair with L.I.S. oysters, snapper, striper, and anything else that comes out of that big old briny lake in our front yard.