The Evolution Of Long Island Wines

Long Island Wine Country Then and Now! 

The Evolution!

Guests at Laurel Lake Vineyards new outdoor tasting bar

I can't believe how fast time flies by. Back in 1999 when we started the Long Island wine industry was 26 years young. A lot of milestones had been reached and vintners had a good grasp on which varietals grew best on the East End. 

Back then the region was looking to increase visitation to it's wineries so that new wine customers could be developed. Fast forward to 2013 and it is hard to imagine that more than one million visitors come out to the East End each year to tour and taste. 

This has had a very positive impact on the industry. Most wineries are selling all of their wine in their tasting rooms at retail prices (versus wholesaling through a distributor). By not sharing their profit margin with a distributor, wineries have been able to re-invest in their businesses, making improvements to their winery buildings, purchasing new tanks, barrels and wine making equipment. 

The 2012 Harvest may come down as the best Long Island vintage of the decade. Long Island vineyards brought in most of their fruit before hurricane Sandy hit!

Roman Roth, executive vice president of Merliance, and winemaker and technical director for Wölffer Estate Vineyard, says, “2012 is one of the great vintages for Wölffer Estate and Long Island in general. After a growing season with abundant sunshine and heat, the fruit ripening was on average 2.5 weeks ahead of normal. This translated into wonderful concentrated, dark, rich red wines—especially Merlot and Cabernet Franc, which are showing fantastic results.”

“This was definitely a ‘Vintner’s Select’ year for us—that’s our estate-level distinction, made in the best vintages,” says John Leo, winemaker at Clovis Point. “We had time to let the fruit hang to optimum ripeness and concentration. The strength of our terroir will no doubt shine through in all the wines of the region in the 2012 vintage.”

“We are eager to see the wines of 2012 come to fruition,” says Les Howard, winemaker at Raphael. “This is the kind of year that makes winemaking most fun and creative.”

Russell Hearn of T’Jara Vineyards says, “T’Jara wines are always blends of at least five red grapes—always based on merlot. This vintage will give us lots of great reds to play with, all of impeccable quality and with great balance of fruit and acid.” Russell adds: “We’re committed to screw-cap closures for all T’Jara wines, and believe that the combination of the cap and a permeable liner in the capsule will age the wine in the bottle without the risk of cork variability. We’re already seeing great results in our 2007s and 2010s—two other exceptional vintages—and we’re eager to see the potential of what promises to be a superior 2012 vintage, aged in screw-cap closures.”

*All harvest data presented is a range from the lowest to highest figures in each category, as submitted by Merliance members. Individual winery data is proprietary.

Note: These quotes were provided by Merliance

Reading these quotes makes me thirsty for tasting 2012 wines!  Whites will start to be released by summer 2013. Reds will be released in 2014-2016 depending on winemakers philosophy. 

CD

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Christopher Davies is the National Wine Country Columnist for Examiner.com, and the publisher and editor of Wine Country International Magazine & VinoTasting. To follow his articles, subscribe at the link above.

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