A banner at Paumanok Vineyards in Aquebogue proclaims the 25th anniversary of the Long Island wine industry. It has been that long since Alex Hargrave discerned that North Fork soils and climate were ideal for fine wine grapes and established the East End's first vineyard. Others have followed and the market for fine wines from Long Island continues to gain, earning a niche among wine connoisseurs and adding a dimension to East End agriculture. Charles Massoud, 55, a former I.B.M. salesman, and his wife, Ursula, opened the 77-acre Paumanok Vineyards in 1991. If all goes according to plan, he said, ''we'll be here for keeps.'' ''What's not to like?'' Mr. Massoud said, sitting in the vineyard's tasting room on a recent afternoon, surveying his fields of vines and ripening grapes. ''It's paradise. All you have to do is look out the window. It's a dream scene.'' Mr. Massoud, an American citizen of Lebanese descent, left Beirut in 1965 to study in Paris and at the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia. From 1971 to 1978, he and Ursula, an American of German descent, were in Kuwait, a dry country where making wine and beer was a hobby in the expatriate community. There the Massouds learned winemaking skills they took to Aquebogue, where they bought their vineyard, formerly a potato farm, in 1983 after a long land search begun after they read an article in The New York Times about Mr. Hargrave. Mr. Massoud, the president of the Long Island Wine Council, has been a full-time winemaker since 1992, the year he retired from I.B.M. Mrs. Massoud and the couple's three sons, Kareem, 27, Salim, 25, and Nabeel, 18, also work full time at the winery. JOHN RATHER |