8/4/2019 Into Wine_Wines of Long Island

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THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE AUTUMN 2011 ISSUE OF NUVO 2011 NUVO Magazine Ltd. www.nuvomagazine.com

New Yorks best-kept secret might be a sleeper play of Broadway, a newbistro in the Meatpacking District, or a hot club in Chelsea. Or it justmight be the vibrant wine region on Long Island, a two-hour driverom the city. I you can tear yoursel away rom the bright lights or acouple o days, you can enjoy wine tourism in a rural landscape thats150 kilometres and a million miles rom Manhattan.

Whats most striking about much o Long Island is how sparselypopulated and rural it is. Driving east, evidence o the city soon recedes,giving way to fields, arms, and villages. Much o the architecture isreminiscent o New England. Some o the oldest agricultural land inthe United States is on Long Island; Wickhams Fruit Farm works land

that has been continuously cultivated since 1661.The vineyards started growing on Long Island much more recently,

as the first was planted in the early 1970s. Most are located on theeast end, where the land splits into two orksroughly in the shapeo a lobster clawthat are separated by sheltered bays. The NorthFork is densely populated by dozens o wineries, while the South Fork,which is connected to the other by erry, has only three wineries soar. Regular visitors to Long Islandincluding those who spend theirsummers in the Hamptons, which is on the South Forkknow the

wineries and their wines well, but outsiders are usually surprised todiscover them.

What makes wine possible here is Long Islands long, warmsummersthe very summers that have attracted people to the east

end o Long Island or decades and made the Hamptons such a desir-able escape rom the city. The vineyards are never more than three orour kilometres rom the surrounding waters o Long Island Sound,the Atlantic Ocean, or the bays that separate the two orks. The water,relatively warm in winter and cool in summer, moderates the temper-atures on land throughout the year. The storms that oten bufet theEast Coast generally stay to the west or south, but enough rain allsso that theres seldom any need to irrigate the vineyards. During thesummer, the sunshine and warmth ripen the grapes, while cooling

winds promote crisp acidity.The result is a cool-climate region with a long growing season that

supports grape varieties that surprise many people. Although thevineyards grow a wide range o varieties, including many whites, thestress is on reds. Theres near-universal agreement that merlot is mak-ing Long Islands name as a wine region because it can be counted onto ripen every year, but other Bordeaux grapes like cabernet ranc andcabernet sauvignon also do well.

At Wlfer Estate, winemaker Roman Roth says that merlot does thebest as a varietal or a main part o a blend. It ripens consistently, andin a blend its more orgiving, he says. He makes several merlots andmerlot-dominant blends, including Christians Cuve, which is 90 percent merlot and sells or $100 (U.S.) a bottle. People said the ownershad lost their minds when the price was set or the first vintage in 2000,he saysbut they sold 1,200 bottles. The wine shows concentrated ruit

with breadth and depth, ripe tannins and well-calibrated acid, and thestyle is echoed through the other merlots in Wlfers portolio.

Merlot is the main component o many amous wines romBordeaux (think o Chteau Ptrus) and elsewhere. But theres a widespread sense that Sideways, the 2004 wine-themed movie saidto have given pinot noir a boost, side-swiped merlot with a coupleo pithy lines (I anyone orders merlot, Im leaving!). Pouring hisReserve Merlot, Adam Suprenant, winemaker at Ospreys Dominion

Vineyards, comments, This is my answer to Sideways. You need tohave cool-climate merlot. The merlots in the movie are rom a regionthat makes alcoholic ruit-bombs. The balance on these Long Island

wines is unbelievable.Theres no argument about his merlot, which shows ripe ruit com-

plexity and resh acidity. Merlot rom warm regions can oten be ruit yand flat, but when grown in cool, sunny conditions, it shows solid, lay-ered flavours and a rereshing textur e. Long Islands climate is close toideal in most years, and the reds rarely show any green, vegetal notes.Even in colder and wetter years, they deliver ripe and solid ruit romstart to finish. As or the acidity thats so necessary or ood-riendly

wines, Alexandra Macari o Macari Vineyards says, We love acidityat Macari, and other Long Island winemakers and owners embrace itas enthusiastically. Dos Aguas, Macaris merlot-dominant blend o fiveBordeaux varieties, is well structured and quite elegant, with a spineo bright, clean acidity.

At Paumanok, winemaker Kareem Massoud (whose parentsounded the winery in the early 1980s) agrees th at merlot is the varietythat ripens most consistently. But he says that at Paumanok, whose

vineyards are located on a slightly warmer part o the island, urtherrom the influence o water, We believe cabernet sauvignon is king.Overall, it can produce top wine here. His Tuthills Lane Vineyardcabernet sauvignon delivers on the belie, and ofers ripe flavours and

juicy acidity, but Paumanoks merlots and Bordeaux blends show thesame character. This is what Massoud reers to as the Island style,and it is ensured by very careul and sparing use o oak so as not tointerere with the ruit flavours. Fellow winemaker Suprenant puts itgraphically: Oak in wine is like salt in cook-ing: once its in, you cant get it out.

It took a long time or anyone to appreci-ate Long Islands potential or wine, and sev-eral owners cite experiences similar to that oKareems ather, Charles, who started Paumanokwhen he let a career at IBM. They said, Have

you heard what Charles has done? Hes gonecrazy! says Kareem. But despite the young ageo its wine industry, Long Island quickly gainedocial appellation status. In the mid-1980s, it

was awarded two American Viticultural Area(AVA) designations, North Fork o Long Islandand the Hamptons, Long Island, and a separateLong Island appellation that covers the entireisland was granted in 2001.

Long Island winemakers are still learn-ing how to get the best rom their land, vines,and grapes. The winemaker at Bedell Cellars,Richard Olsen-Harbich, whos worked in LongIsland wineries since the 1980s, says the areais still in grade school as a region. He mightbe selling Long Island short: his own winesdeliver complexity, structure, and balance, and

his 2007 Reserve Merlot exemplifies the juicy style emerging as repre-sentative o the North Fork.

Over at Laurel Lake Vineyards, Chilean-born winemaker JuanSepulveda admits that he likes the challenge o working in a regionthat has less-consistent vintages than his homeland. In Chile, he says,the wines are bold and bigits tough to see diversity. On LongIsland, in contrast, every year is a new year. Here, my wines have

way diferent identities. One o his standout red blends, CredenceMeritage Limited Edition, is mainly cabernet sauvignon and merlot,and the 2005 vintage shows plush, maturing ruit and firm tannins,but retains Long Islands signature reshness ater six years.

There are also plenty o white wines that shine. At Peconic BayWinery on the North Fork, Greg Gove makes an aromatic riesling, while at Raphael, winemaker Leslie Howard produces a sauvignonblanc thats pungent and zesty. Meanwhile, back in the Hamptonson South Fork, Channing Daughters Winery includes a number ochardonnay varietals and blends in its ofbeat portolio. White wineslike these pair nicely with Long Islands cuisine, which is dominatedby seaood such as clams, crabs, lobster, flounder, and striped bass. Asor the red wines, most have the weight and style to complement theLong Island duck thats eatured on many menus.

Its taking time or New Yorks wine-lovers to realize that they havethis resource so close by. More than three-quarters o Long Islands

wine production is sold in the area where its made, in winery retailstores, local wine shops, and restaurants. The rest appears on wine listsand wine store shelves in the city and across the state. But althoughsome wineries sell in Vermont, Pennsylvania, and other states, and acouple o them export to Canada and Europe, Long Island remainspredominantly a wine destination.

Long Island wraps restul touring around the wineries, with aull spectrum o inns, bed and breakasts, and restaurants. WlferEstates Roman Roth describes the area as rustic, not too commer-cialwhere Napa was 20 years ago. Its definitely a contrast with thebright metropolis, and its an explorative wine getaway r om your nexturban trip to New York.