As a sommelier and San Francisco wine bar owner, I try to turn every vacation into a wine trip. Trips to Europe easily fit the bill. On a recent excursion to Vancouver Island, I discovered the shockingly delicious German-style wines produced in the region. Countless journeys down into Mexico’s Guadalupe Valley have introduced me to the underwhelming-but-promising wine industry in Baja.
However, I was a bit hesitant to transform my most recent trip into a wine tasting expedition — I was venturing to Long Island.
Courtesy of the Long Island Wine Council.
Sure, I’ve read the articles claiming Long Island is an AVA worth taking seriously. Lettie Teague’s pieces in the Wall Street Journal have intrigued me no less than the next adventurous sommelier. I have even poured a Long Island Riesling in my bar — while mostly met with shrugs, there were also a few surprised compliments.
Regardless of these biases and low expectations, I made my way to The Hamptons with enough room in my luggage for at least 12 bottles, just in case.
Here’s a little Long Island history. Wild grapevines have always been a part of the island’s flora. In the mid-1600’s, settlers trained the wild vines up arbors, introducing viticulture to the region quite early. In the late 1700’s, vitis vinifera vines were brought over from Europe to the Prince Nursery Company on the Western tip of the island. Mr. Prince was a pioneer of American viticulture, producing one of the first texts on the subject entitled “Treatise on the Vine.” He studied the soils of Long Island and concluded they were prime for growing grapes.
Viticulture didn’t begin in earnest until the 1970’s. Since then, many wineries have sprung up — sticking mainly to Bordeaux varieties, more due to their sales potential than their appropriateness to the climate and soil. Over time, Merlot and Cabernet Franc were singled out as ideal for the region, as well as Syrah.
Other, more obscure grapes such as Lagrein, Blaufrankish, Refosco, and Dornfelder are making their presence known, but will need a bit more time to show their true colors in the Long Island terroir. As for whites, the ubiquitous Chardonnay is of course omnipresent, but some Gewurztraminer, Riesling, and Pinot Gris can be found here and there.
The Long Island viticultural area today consists of three AVAs: the all-encompassing Long Island AVA, The North Fork of Long Island AVA, and The Hamptons, Long Island AVA.
Larry Perrine of Channing Daughters Winery explains that the North Fork experiences a slightly warmer climate than The Hamptons due to the Atlantic exposure of the South Fork. But in general, the climate for both regions is maritime, with long warm summers coupled with cooling oceanic breezes. These winds keep the fall season temperate and protect the vines from icy winters. Soils here are very complex due to their glacial Ice Age origin. Variations of loam and sand permeate most of the vineyard land, offering good drainage and perfect nutrient levels.
Shinn Estate Vineyards.
Winemakers and vineyard managers are getting experimental in Long Island, testing new trellising methods, different grape varieties, and natural winemaking techniques. The word “wild” can be seen on quite a few labels, referring to fermentation by native yeast (Shinn Estate Vineyards and Channing Daughters both have excellent examples of these wines). Orange wines produced predominantly with Chardonnay and Pinot Gris can be seen on some tasting room shelves next to bone-dry rosés perfect for quaffing on the beaches of The Hamptons. Wölffer Estate maintains an interesting block of vines to study various trellising styles right in front of their impressive tasting room. Not only are delicious wines coming from these AVAs, some excellent research is underway as well.
So how are the wines? I visited a number of wineries and sampled quite a few bottles on my own. These wines are almost Old-World in style with excellent acidity, moderate alcohol (most between 12% and 13% ABV), and piquant aromatics. They far surpassed my meager expectations.
And I was very happy to have left room in my bag for bringing back some samples — I returned to San Francisco with 11 bottles. Below the fold are notes on some wines that really stood out to me. Read the rest of this entry »