Agreed, but seems a bit of a marketing/infomercial piece to me.
I always dreaded the drive to and from Central Jersey to Pellegrini on a Friday when I was ITB. We were given the VIP hospitality treatment after a very long drive down the LIE and then more. Coming home in the Friday bumpa to bumpa traffic was horrendous. I preferred the Chard, Merlot and Cab Franc. There may be a new winemaker now but the mid grade wines made the biggest impression on me.
Bruce: No argument re it being a puff piece but most of the stuff i have seen, be it website or print journalism, coming out of the LI wine country over the years, have been puff pieces so no big surprise…just enough info to help me keep up to date since I have been located in upstate NY since 1983. I grew up in Queens and spent quite a few summers in the Hamptons when I was single. Wife and I go back to visit family and friends, wine taste, etc…Jessica ran her first Marathon in the Hamptons.
I had a 1998 Lenz Estate merlot back in March that showed very well. I came across Lenz back in 1985 when Morrell was moving from its original East 49th Street location and was closing out the 1983 Lenz merlot at $4.99 a bottle. It remains a memorable merlot. They have done a good job with merlot for a long time and the wines age well.
There definitely are some long lived wines from LI. I still have the better part of a case of Palmer Vineyards 1997 Estate Merlot that is still a wonderful wine. I believe that wine was made by a very talented winemaker Dan Kleck. Here’s an NY Times article about him leaving for California … https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/16/nyregion/long-island-vines-palmer-wine-maker-california-bound.html .