My best friend, Ted, surprised his lovely bride, Megan, for her birthday, with a bus trip for family and friends out to the North Fork, to do some wine tasting. I think there were about 35 people in attendance, on a coach bus…4 stops over the course of 4 hours…My overall assessment is that there is some good wine being made out there, unfortunately, it represents some of the worst Quality to Price Ratio around. Chardonnay should not be produced out there, period. I did not taste any Chardonnays from these 4 wineries (small sample set admitted) that merited me taking a second look.
Baiting Hollow Winery-Honestly, I would rather not post notes on these wines, as they were all pretty bad. Their Riesling (which received a gold medal recently from some awards competition) was not at al like Riesling. Their Cabernet Franc had strong burnt overtones, and everything in betweem was that much worse. No one really knew much about the wines, they were just pouring alcohol for people to get wasted, it would appear.
Next stop…Palmer Vineyards…one of the landmark wineries in LI. This place has been around for over 25 years. Clearly a step up from #1. I tasted the SB, Gewurz and Sparkling white to start. I did not care for the SB or the Gewurz, but I did enjoy the Sparling (100% Chardonnay). The Gewurz lacked any of the nuances of a “typical” Gewurz and the SB was very bland. The Rose Merlot was not very exciting either (this is their first time producing this wine). 2005 Merlot was very good for me, and one of the best “values” of the trip. Good structure, this wine was not old in any way. Well balanced. The Cabernet Franc was uneventful. The next two wines are the “best” at Palmer…the Gallagher’s Private Reserve Red (private label for Gallagher’s Steakhouse) and the Select Reserve Red. Gallagher’s private label is available for sale at the winery, so not much of a private label. The Select Reserve got a slight nod for me. Both are similar blends and similar flavor profiles, but the Select Reserve had a touch more sweetness on the palate for me, which made it more enjoyable to drink now. The woman who did the pouring was reasonably knowledgable on the wines.
Macari. I guess Macari is one of the newer wineries to pop up on the scene. I think they may have been one of the first to produce a $100 wine out there. The woman who poured the wines did not know too much, other than she told how much better LI wines are versus the Finger Lakes (which if I really cared, I would have raked her over the coals for). Anyways, my best wine of the day was here…2004 Macari Bergen Road. Great great wine ($43 at the winery). I did enjoy the Katherine’s SB as well, but the Estate Chard and the Reserve Chard, you could keep. Most of the Chards I had were completely overoaked, it reminded me of KJ 5 years ago. 2004 Cabernet Franc was true to the varietal. Very earthy nose, lots of spice in the mouth, overall a pleasant wine. 2004 Merlot Reserve was a winner for me. At $36/btl, maybe not that good, but very good wine all around. The Bergen Road Meritage was a dead ringer for a good value Bordeaux or Cali Claret. 25% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot…this was the kitchen sink, but I enjoyed sipping on this one. Finished with 2005 Block E Chardonnay (ice wine style). The acid was way too low for this wine, more like a sweet, dense, Chardonnay with low alcohol. At $40, easy pass.
Last stop was where we had lunch, Osprey’s Dominion…another crowded venue with people sucking back a lot of alcohol. I tasted numerous wines here and I could only find one that I “liked.” The 2005 Cabernet Franc was decent wine. Very masculine and powerful for CF. At $24, I ain’t buying though. Toasty, oaky Chard, Uninteresting SBs, Gewurz was a good $6 summer sipper (@$15). The Merlot was too flabby, the Cab Sauvignon was just awful. The reserve wines showed a lot of oak, too much considering they were 2005 vintage.
Overall, my first trip to LI wineries was exactly what I expected. A few good wines, a lot of bad wines, lots of alcohol being consumed, and very poor QPR. Macari was tops for me, it seems like they know what they are doing there, unfortunately, the prices are out there, but I would drink the wines again…for free…
I went out there a month ago for the first time and had a similar reaction overall, particularly on the QPR issue. I have to say, though, that I liked a couple of chardonnays: the 07 Paumanok Barrel Fermented ($19) and the Lenz 05 Old Vines ($25). Both were fairly oaky but had a nice acidity, and I thought those represented good value. And Paumanok had a nice dry riesling at $22. (Sadly, I didn’t buy any because it was our first stop and I was expecting to encounter something better over the course of the day.)
I found the reds uniformly disappointing – often too tannic for the fruit and without any complexity. One friend who was with me and knows the wines reasonably well is of the view that they should give up on red altogether.
The other weird thing was that at each of those wineries and at the Tasting Room in Peconic, which offers tastes from a number of smaller producers, they were serving badly, badly oxidized bottles yet neither the pourers nor the other customers seemed to notice. The lady at Paumanok took my word for it when I complained that the bottle had been open too long (it wreaked of VA). She checked and it had been uncorked four days earlier. I’ve had tired bottles in tasting rooms before, but not at three in a row!
I’ve never been to any of the North Fork wineries, but have been to a few South Fork wineries (Duck Walk, Channing Daughters, e.g.), but have tasted a good number of North fork wines and I agree that the qpr ratio of the wines coming from this part of the world is a major FAIL. Some of the wines are good, but not nearly worth the tariff. I’m surprised they have all stayed in business this long honestly.
I had the Macari last weekend by coincidence. It was opened by a friend. I agree, this was a nice wine. Probably not worth $43 though. The problem with wine industries that rely on tourism, their wines are over priced for the commercial market. That’s fine if they can sell out, but if they want to make the jump to the big time, they need to be more competitive. Same is true in Ohio, Niagara and the Finger Lakes. Some wineries get it and some are content to rely on tourism.
FWIW, here is my note:
2004 Macari Bergen Road (Long Island)
42% Merlot, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot. Inky purple in color, ruby at the rim. Mostly opaque and bright. The nose has coffee, dust, alcohol and slight black cherry. With air the fruit became more pronounced. This is a bit sweet and jammy. Bitter black raspberry on the palate (in a good way). Some tannins. This was pretty impressive for Long Island I though. 50+4+11+17+6=88
Drew – My notes on the 05 Assemblage read: “Some cab franc on the nose, even more in the mouth. Fairly tannic. Like a young Chinon. A bit rustic/coarse.” At $40, I’d rather drink an 05 Joguet, which I think has a better chance of evolving nicely.
my in laws live out there and I have been tasting wines at almost every vineyard for 10 years. I have purchased maybe, maybe a case of wine, I just cant get past the price on most. There are a couple of GREAT wines I have had but not memorable. i find even the good vineyards differ too much year to year to buy anything without tasting it. I also have seen turnover in the winemakers, its very interesting also, do some research into who grows all of thier own grapes and what single source supplies most of the grapes for the entire fork.
Thank you for the comments. 1 case in 10 years…I saw people downing peach wine at Ospreys by the case in one day…You obviously have no appreciation for the good stuff!
The Red Hook wines are not even in bottle. We tasted a barrel sample last night of the Jamesport Sauvignon Blanc and I thought it was awesome. Its made more in the Scholium style so not for everyone but still the most interesting Sauvignon Blanc I have ever tasted from Long Island.
I have also tasted the wines from barrel three times and I am frankly shocked at how good they given its their first vintage and they only had a short time to work with the growers.
Heh heh. I had a similar experience at the Charlotte airport last week with some NC wines. One Cab Franc was so light that I have had Roses with more color! Vapid and reminiscent of Robitussin and mushrooms.
The best of the bunch was an under-ripe (!), over-oaked Viognier.
The experience that I have had when out on the north fork is somewhat similar to Dan’s. I have had the '03 and '04 Macari Chard and they are overoaked plonk.
Paumank is a great winey to visit, in fact I still have an '04 Assemblage. The better estates, that I have found are Paumanok, SHinn and Schneider. And with regard to what to grow out there, CHardonay should not be grown and they should focus instead on sandy soil type grapes. Cab Franc does decent and so does other whites such as Chenin blanc