Who is producing the best wines on the North Fork of Long Island. I’m not concerned about how wonderful the tasting room is. Just looking for the best quality wine available. I have read through some older treads on this topic. Perhaps Anthony Nappa, Paumanok, Bedell? What recommendations can you all make?
Can’t go wrong at Paumanok IMO. Have you previously visited any LI wineries ?
Channing Daughters do some interesting stuff, but not sure how easy they are to visit. Shinn is solid, and Lenz was a leader in Merlot; it’s been a while for me, though, since I’ve made it out there.
Paulmanok and Bedell.
First time on Long Island. I’m in Stony Brook visiting my daughter.
I agree with the previous mentions of Paumanok and Shinn, though I haven’t tried Shinn since the ownership change.
Channing, which was previously mentioned, is on the South Fork. Good wines, but not really practical to get to if you’re on the North Fork.
I would also try for McCall, Roanoke, Lieb.
Paumanok is my favorite NY state winery, as well as being the best on LI. Charles Massoud is a very gracious host and his son is a very talented winemaker…Do not miss their Chenin Blanc. As stated above, Channing Daughters is on South Fork but not that bad a drive from Paumanok or from Stony Brook…No problem getting in to taste at Channing, very eclectic mix of wines with a number of Italian varietals in addition to the usual suspects…My only quibble was that some of the wines were served too cold…That being said, their wines are quite tasty and worth a visit.
Paumanok is the gold standard and a must.
I have also really enjoyed Roanoke (for BDX varietal reds) and One Woman Wines makes some interesting whites. Coffee Pot Cellars is obe of the better QPRs.
Many good choices, to be sure. The food truck behind North Fork Table is fantastic at lunchtime, too.
Thank you all for the helpful advice.
Paumanok and Lenz above all others.
Paumanok has the widest array of high quality, Lenz offers the exceptional “Old Vines” Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Another big plus 1 for Charles, Ursula, the boys and the entire staff at Paumanok. Their chenin blanc is one of the two stars for me. The other is their late harvest Riesling oddly enough. If you can have Charles or one of his boys tell you the story of the chenin blanc vnes. In my tasting group we have over 15000 bottles in our cellars combined and less than 100 hundred bottles of LI wines. over 75 of those bottles are from Paumanok (bedell, lenz and pelligrino make up the most of the rest).
if you want to drink some decent stuff (NOT LI wines) I am about 20 minutes away from stony brook and more than happy to open a few bottles with a berseker.
By far Anthony Nappa has the most interesting wines on the north fork. Who else makes a ripasso on LI ?After tasting through the more popular wineries including Shinn, the entire range of Nappa wines blew us away.
Another vote for Paumanok.
I guess I’m the outlier, but I’ve been disappointed the times I’ve been to Paumanok. I didn’t think the wines were anything special, or even that flavorful.
My best experience has been at Mattebella, where someone took a group of us last summer. Not world class by any means, but pretty good reds and whites.
I liked some of the wines we had a couple of years ago at One Woman Winery – a merlot and a gruner veltliner. Not memorable, but decent values.
John,
I agree with your recommendation of One woman. Clean crisp whites especially the gruner. One of the fun experiences is to go to there on a weekend night for movie night where they project films on the side of a bar and people bring picnics and drink One Woman wines. Lots of fun.
I also will give a nod to Croteau( the all rose winery). The wines were just ok but the location and the ability to sit outdoors near the vines and eat small plates and drink flights of Rose was tons of fun. Unfortunately, as a result of the commercial success of Rose these days, we had to wait 45 min to get in.
I agree with One Woman Winery as well. Interesting wines, and I randomly ran into another Wineberserker there.
Croteau was just ok, but the setting was decent.
About four years ago I had a very nice Pinot Noir Blanc (yes, you read that right – a white from PN grapes!) by Anthony Nappa Wines.
Peter: Hearts and Hands in the Finger Lakes(Cayuga) also makes a Pinot Noir blanc tho they called it by another name which I forget…Not sure why they did it, for my taste, at least, their basic red PN was quite a bit better
John, Geoff, Jeff: where is One Woman Winery??sounds like it is worth a visit on our next trip to LI
It’s called Polarity. I agree with your curiosity.