TN: Sparkling Pointe North Fork Visit

WINE TALK
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SPARKLING POINTE NORTH FORK VISIT - North Fork, NY (6/26/2014)

My wife and I went away for a mid-week escape from the city to visit the North Fork of Long Island. While there, we visited a few wineries to see what was being done. I was happily surprised at the number of new wineries, however, and folks seem to be really interested in following Organic and even Biodynamic practices, which is always nice to see. Sparkling Pointe was our first of 2 winery visits.

  • 2010 Sparkling Pointe Brut - USA, New York, Long Island, North Fork
    Tasted at the winery- yeasty red apples, sour lemon on the nose, with a hint of bitterness. The palate offered more of the same, on a medium-bodied frame with very fine bubbles, yet that sour/bitter note coated the mouth and stayed with you long after the wine disappeared. The finish might have been long, but not pleasant. The dosage on this was pretty high, but it didn’t seem too sweet I have to say. Not to my liking.
  • 2007 Sparkling Pointe Brut - USA, New York, Long Island, North Fork
    Tasted at the winery, from magnum- sweet red apples, yeast, smoke and citrus notes vie for your attention, with a background of bitter notes poking their heads through every now and then. This was more quite different from the 2010, with a medium frame offering tiny bubbles and a grippy mouthfeel, with sweeter/rounder aspects to the fruit. However, the finish was much shorter, and overall the wine was much more straightforward and simple than the 2010, which was surprising since they all consider 2007 to be a magical year for the North Fork.
  • 2005 Sparkling Pointe Brut Seduction - USA, New York, Long Island, North Fork
    Tasted at the winery- chalky, stony, with a hint of that old Champagne mushroom and some sherry/nutty notes on the nose. Now this has the potential to be interesting. Medium-bodied, it offered fruity citrus, red apples and more sherried notes, however there was an almost sharp bitterness that poked at the insides of the mouth at the end, with a long appley finish. That sharp bitter thing really distracted from the enjoyment of the wine, I have to say. I’m not sure if the wines were acidulated or what, but it was quite distracting. Like being poked in the mouth with tiny shards of glass, very bizarre. My wife also got this sensation, but then again we have similar palates.
  • 2009 Sparkling Pointe Blanc de Blancs - USA, New York, Long Island, North Fork
    Tasted at the winery- on the nose, creamy citrus, brine and chalk, very much like a sparkling Chablis (not surprising considering the grape). The palate was again medium-bodied with very fine bubbles, yet that distracting bitter note that I found in all Sparkling Pointe’s wines was there again, lying underneath the fruit to distract you from the more pleasant aspects. Not sure what that is but I wish it would go away.

As usual, my reactions are the same for all North Fork wineries: the wines are not bad, but too expensive for what they are. And that weird bitter note kept cropping up in all the sparklers I tried from SP, not sure where that’s from.

Posted from CellarTracker
Cheers! [cheers.gif]

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Thanks for the notes Michel -

I’ve been doing a little reading about their facilities, and the hyperbole, but the pricing seemed a bit out of wack. I realize that land is very expensive here, and I guess they are selling most of what they are making, so who am I to bitch…

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The venue is quite nice, and the vines outside make for a great wedding picture (in fact they were setting up for one while we were there). But the wines were so-so, though the welcome was very gracious and friendly.

Both wineries we visited charged for tastings, something I don’t recall from my last visit 10 years ago.

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Mimosa sparklers!