Long Island wines in your collection

WINE TALK
81

I was on the North Fork over the Labor Day weekend, so I thought I should sample some of the local offerings. After disappointing whites Saturday and last night, we decided to visit One Woman Winery and Paumonak before heading back to the city. One Woman was a very pleasant surprise.

FYI, I didn’t attempt to taste the full range at either winery, as it was hot and late in the day.

One Woman Winery

When I saw they grew gruner veltliner, I put this place at the top of my list. A good line-up here and fair prices. There’s a good story, too: Calabrian woman moves to U.S., works in restaurants and then returns to the land.

2013 Gruner veltliner. The only GV currently being bottled on Long Island, though some other people have now planted the variety. Faint grassiness on the nose, though not as grassy or minerally as most Austrian GVs. More grass in the mouth. Good acidity. At $23 I happily bought a bottle. 13.1% I suspect I’d have liked it even more if it had been picked just a wee bit earlier. I’ll watch for future releases of this. It seemed to have real promise.

2013 Chardonnay (regular bottling) – Half steel, half new French oak fermented. Crisp, fairly light, with only a little oak. I think this was about $25. Nice but I wasn’t moved to buy.

2011 Estate Reserve Chardonnay – The winemaker personally picks the fruit for this. 100% new French oak-fermented and aged for eight months. Good body but not heavy or overoaked. Good acidity. Some butterscotch. I almost sprung for this at $34.

The reds suffered a little from being too warm. (Paumonak managed to keep their reds at a proper temperature).

2012 Merlot (regular) bottling – 100% new French oak fermented, aged for 20 months. Some creamy oak notes with nice fruit. Really spoke of merlot. Medium bodied with a similar good balance of oak and fruit. Fresh, too. 12.8%. At $28, I grabbed one to try at home.

2010 Estate Reserve Merlot – 100% new French oak fermented, aged for 24 months. Bigger, riper fruit. (Picked two weeks later than the regular, I believe they said.) A case where more was less. Not a bad wine, and it had some real character. I’m sure it would have shown better if it had been cooler, but both my wife and I preferred the regular bottling. $48. I can’t recall the ABV.

Paumonak

2014 Chenin Blanc: I had this first in a restaurant in Greenport Saturday with excellent halibut. The wine was clean, fresh, with body and acidity, but was basically neutral taste-wise. It was very cold at first but it didn’t open up much as it warmed up and saw more air. A second taste at the winery today was much more satisfying: the same good balance of body and acidity, but with some genuine chenin character. Perhaps it benefited from being open a while. (We hit the tasting room at the end of the day.) A little pricey at $27, though.

Among the many reds, we opted for the two single vineyard bottlings since they had a little age.

2010 Apollo Drive Vyd Petite Verdot. Inky color, a fair deal of French oak on the nose. Quite tannic. Some cinnamon oak spice of the sort I associate with higher alcohol wines. Kind of reminded me of a petite syrah: a bit rustic, slightly hard tannins and not enough charm. $75 is crazy for this. 13.8%, as I recall.

2010 Tuttle Lane Vyd Merlot. Medium garnet color. Nice French oak on the nose, melded with some fruit. Good balance in the mouth, with a nice blend of the oak and fruit. Not terribly complex, but quite pleasurable. Unfortunately, at $75, it doesn’t compute for me. I think this was about 13.8% as well.

2012 Late Harvest Riesling (frozen grapes = ice wine). Great concentration, perfectly balanced with acidity. Really tasty, though a bit simple in the way that ice wines typically are. $36 for a 375ml seemed a bit high, given what you can get for that from Germany. Still, well done.

Bedell

2013 Chardonnay. Drunk with friends as an aperitif last night. Fresh, clean, no oak, not much fruit. Not much of anything, actually. Clean, competent and utterly neutral. $20.

Bottom line: I now have two Long Island wines in my cellar, both from One Woman.

82

Never had a LI wine. I live in the West and no one stocks any NY state wines here at all. Never tasted in LI either. So my cellar amount would be zero.

83

Just based on the weather - haven’t spoken to anyone out in LI - you would think this has a chance to be an all-time vintage out on LI. Dry, warm, long growing season, no tropical mischief.

Of course, that means that the wines will rise to the level of “drinkable” from “undrinkable swill”, but since you’re going to see some of the LI wines on the BTG lists at the local farm-to-table restaurants, they might as well be palatable.

84

The folks at One Woman said this looks to be the best vintage ever in the region.

David: I think “undrinkable swill” is way off base. Everything I’ve tasted from the area was competently made and potable. To me, the typical shortcoming is just that the wine is boring – that there is no flavor or it’s mostly oak – and poor value.

85

Sure. FWIW, I think Millbrook is better than half the wineries out on the Island, which given the geographic disadvantage that Millbrook is faced with is totally indefensible.

86

As a LI’er, between the lack of real/perceived value (especially the reds) and the lack of multiple flavors/nuances (the wines are “flat”), it’s tough for me to accumulate LI wines. At least for the wineries I have visited. But when out there we will go to Paumanok and bring something back.

87

I stopped by Channing Daughters yesterday, curious to check it out given all the good reviews.

I’m not sure it was the best of their wines they were offering in the tasting room, but I was underwhelmed. The Sylvanus pinot grigio/bianco/muscat petillant (cloudy, under crown cap) was pleasant. The pinot grigio was decent and an OK value at $20. Pretty full-bodied without being overripe.

The Scuttlehole chardonnay (old oak barrels) was decent but boring. The rose from cabernet was very much toward the white end of the rose scale and boring. What’s the point of a rose if you don’t pick up a bit more flavor from the red skins?

The Ramato orange wine from pinot grigio was a bit bitter without offsetting flavor interest.

The petite verdot (2011, I think) had some nice spice and smoke, but the tannins were a bit hard for the age.

I was looking forward to the vermouths (they have a wide range, bottled by season with the herbs and plans available at that time), but the white they served was too intensely herbed. It as like an over-scented soap to me. The red was better balanced, but was pretty dark and tannic – nothing like a French or Italian dry red vermouth. With this much tannin, I’d have preferred some residual sugar (like a Barolo chinato). It sounds like they’re still experimenting with these, and they might have some promise.

The 2004 Pazzo, a fortified sweet merlot, was kind of interesting and I bought a 375ml. A bit like a tawny port, with fading color and mellowness, but without the oxidation. At $35 for a 375, it’s not exactly a bargain.

Again, maybe I was just there between releases of the best stuff, or they only offer the slow-sellers for tasting, but my curiosity was satisfied without igniting any desire to taste more.

Overall the wines were well balanced – mostly around 12.5% and without conspicuous oak. But just not that exciting.

88

Surprised me too! Lawn Geyland wine… whoda thunk it?

Wait… isn’t he the Sausage King of Chicago?

[rofl.gif]

Having tasted plenty of NJ wines, and currently residing in Southern NJ, I have to say that’s probably close to the optimum number to have. [wink.gif] Actually, there is one worth trying - Renault’s American Port.

89

If the grapes don’t get warm enough for Bordeaux varieties, why are they not using cooler weather grapes. Or do others have different views of the reds than Jay.

As I have said previously, I have no opinions on this - don’t live in NY, have not tasted any Long Island wines, not even sure if I have seen any down here in DC. Just curious.

90

I take it back. I had a 2013 Paumanok Cabernet on Saturday that was bought for me by a friend who visited the winery at my recommendation. I opened it at a party at her house and it was excellent. Nice balance, red fruit, some spice, enough acidity, a bit of violet on the nose. I do not remember what the weather was like that year but the ripeness of the grapes was just fine. I think I tasted this in barrel at the vineyard Labor Day weekend 2014. It had some weird funky that Charles said would disappear as it aged and he was right. I do not remember what it was for sure, but I think it was VA, and it is certainly gone. This may have been the best young Long Island red I have ever had.

91

I’ll just leave this here …

Leo Family Cellars 2013 Petit Verdot - North Fork of Long Island (92+ Points)
Very deep ruby.
NOSE > Big, aromatic, sappy, exotic, pungent, rich, ripe crushed black/purple/blue-fruit.
Choke-cherry, black-plum, crushed blackberry, black raspberry liqueur, lavender, black mulberry, Morello-cherry, creosote, sumac, wineberry, crushed rose-petal & lingonberry.
PALATE > Big, sappy, meaty, rich & tight. Choke-cherry, blackberry, black raspberry & lavender. Sappy wild red-cherry/Morello-cherry, purple mulberry, cactus-pear, sumac, licorice & cherry-bark.
Finishes with some big, ripe, grippy, slightly chalky tannins, & nicely grainy oak. Sappy fruit follows through to finish.
Good balance, acidity, length & intensity. Powerful stuff.
Starts ripe, rich, lush, turns sappy mid-palte, & tightens up with big ripe, sappy tannins on back palate.
A lot of fruit & structure there. Needs time.
Opened up nicely (& upgraded slightly) from pop’n-pour over 5+ hrs, & could use some time in bottle (bottled Sept '15)

There are not many better Long Island reds.
Not sure if it’s actually released yet, release date, or price. Bottled in 500ML bottles.

Don’t know if this is 100% PV, but it’s close, if not.

I’m a Petit Verdot fan, but mostly as a blender rather than stand alone. Does work here though. When successful it can add color, alcohol, tannic backbone, & a rich, exotic, ripe purple/black-fruit character. Downsides can be a high pH & acidity (often both on L.I.), late ripening (also not very botrytis resistant, contrary to some opinion), high vigor, & overcropping in the vineyard (have seen up to 8 clusters per shoot on occasion).

[cheers.gif]

92

Why can’t LI make good wines. The have the best high school in the tri-state area, so why not good wine? BTW I was born in Hollywood CA and have lived in the area since birth. But Jay Hack went to the stellar High School (I actually visited it sone time ago) and it is nicer than any public schools here.

So why not good wine?

93

I had my first Channing Daughters wine recently and was unimpressed.

94

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95

You deleted all the Lawn Guyland wines in your collection?

96

We don’t own any wine from LI. We enjoy visiting the area however. I think many people are too hard on the region and I do think there are some good wines to be had if you search for them. The issue there for me is more a matter of QPR. I prefer to buy Bordeaux, Burgundy, Chianti, etc.

97

I found that the LI wines are not up to the quality level of the FL region. I might be biased as I grew up on Seneca Lake and knew most of the new guys. Taylor, DR Frank, and others.

Have had tastings here of LI wines, and found many were rough, and not fully rounded out