THE public can periodically sample Long Island wines at their best at public tastings that often raise money for charitable causes. The Island's restaurateurs and wine retailers go to frequent daylong tastings that wholesalers hold for their suppliers, and members of the Long Island Wine Council, a trade association in Peconic, participate in council tastings for the public. But qualifying to play on distributors' turf is a different story. Distributors are picky: they won't agree to represent just any producer, Long Island or otherwise. The wines have to be good, and salable. Then there is another arena, perhaps the most selective of all. If you seek Long Island wine at its best, it is where to go, if you can afford it. It is the New York Wine Experience, held every two years and sponsored by Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation. The $225-a-ticket Grand Tastings, usually held on two successive nights at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Manhattan, are, for American winedom, not-to-be-missed events. This year's theme was ''Critics' Choice.'' Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher of Wine Spectator, explained what that meant in an introduction to the formidable carry-around tasting book. ''Each of the participating 237 wineries/chateaux will pour one great vintage throughout these two nights,'' he said. ''They have been asked to pour a wine rated 90 points or higher by Wine Spectator.'' Wine Spectator decided, correctly, that Long Island should be represented by Bedell, Paumanok and Pellegrini. (If it wanted to cast a wider net, Wölffer Estate and Lenz could have been included, under criteria like current performance and a record of achievement.) These vintners from a 28-year-old wine region found themselves with Lafite-Rothschild of France; Mondavi of California; Robert Weil of Germany; Hugel of Alsace; Gaja of Italy; and Vega Sicilia of Spain. Bedell Cellars, in Cutchogue, was represented by Kip and Susan Bedell, the founders, who sold the property to Michael Lynne, the president of New Line Cinema, in 2000. Mr. Bedell has stayed on as winemaker, and the featured wine was his 1995 Cupola, a Bordeaux-style blend consisting of 65 percent cabernet sauvignon, 25 percent cabernet franc and 10 percent merlot. When reviewed in this column in November 1999, the '95 Cupola ($25 then, not for sale now) was described this way: ''Inky dark; smoky, earthy, oaky, caramel aromas in bouquet; dense, huge, almost overwhelmingly powerful; fleshy; packed with barely accessible dark-fruit flavors.'' Cupola has been made every year since then except 1996. ''It was a light year, and we want it to be our top wine,'' Mr. Bedell said. The '97 Cupola is sold out, and the '98 will be released after Jan. 1. |
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Paumanok Vineyards, in Aquebogue, was represented by its owners, Ursula and Charles Massoud, the winemaker, and their son Kareem. They poured their Limited Edition 1995 Tuthills Lane Vineyard cabernet sauvignon, which has attracted attention and praise and is a collectors' item. (It cost $49 on release, and now is $109 a bottle, with a limit of one bottle per customer.) Although the wine was never reviewed in this column, it figured into a 1998 article elsewhere in the paper titled ''Winemakers Raise Glass to the Other Guys,'' in which various winemakers and owners were asked which of their colleagues' wines they especially liked or remembered that year. In that article, Mr. Bedell said of the Paumanok bottling, ''It shows what we are capable of doing with cabernet on Long Island in the right year: tremendous fruit, balanced, ripe, but not harsh tannins.'' Sean Capiaux, at the time Jamesport Vineyards' winemaker, said of it, ''Incredibly concentrated, very dark, very deep, rich, and, like a California wine, gives a sweet perception when it is not actually sweet.'' |
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Pellegrini Vineyards, in Cutchogue, was represented at the Wine Experience by its founders and owners, Joyce and Bob Pellegrini. (Russell Hearn makes the wines.)
They poured their '97 Vintner's Pride unfiltered merlot ($29), a winter-weight wine, which was reviewed here Oct. 28 and is fully available. My comments included the following: ''No need to hurry the wine down the throat. You nuzzle it, taking in its smokiness, its jammy, chocolate-like, crushed-raspberries bouquet.'' And, ''You can see the merlot's thickness, its opacity, as it is poured into the glass. Twenty-one months in French oak barrels have pretty much smoothed it down to a near-velvet caress on the palate. Words like 'lush' and 'opulent' and 'voluptuous' and 'dense' cross your mind. And then all the rich characteristics of the bouquet turn into kindred flavors, with an herbal edge in the aftertaste.'' HOWARD G. GOLDBERG |