Welcome to our new wine blog, The Vine Line

We're kicking off 2012 with a new blog about all things viticultural, compiled by the multitalented Bob Reina, a long-time resident of Queens and Long Island wine buff. Salut!

When I established my summer residence in Mattituck on Long Island’s North Fork in 1988, the region then sported 12 vineyards and wineries, most of which produced wines of acceptable quality that seemed “a little expensive for what they were.”  Fast forward to 2011 and the East End now boasts 50 sources of uniquely styled wines that compete handily with the best of comparably priced wines from Europe and California.

It’s fitting that I start my regular wine blog with a profile of Paul and Ursula Lowerre’s Peconic Bay Winery, one of the pioneering wineries on the North Fork, which has matured into a world class producer of white, red, rose, sparkling and dessert wines in a variety of styles, but all of which showcase the North Fork terroir at its best.      

Founded in 1979,  Peconic Bay became Long Island’s third winery, and, in addition to planting its 56 acres with the traditional Merlot and other Bordeaux Red blends, Chardonnay, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc, has begun to experiment with Viognier and is already marketing a hard apple cider and, my favorite, the Sono Renata Immature Grape Brandy, a grappa-like digestif.    

Winemaker Greg Gove keeping watch over the fermentation tanks

Winemakers Greg Gove and Zander Hargrave (the latter the son of North Fork wine pioneers Alex and Louisa Hargrave) produce over a dozen quality products catering a variety of tastes, ranging from the $12 Hard Apple Cider to the rare Lowerre Family Estate Red ($56).

   Solar panels at Peconic Bay

Peconic Bay is probably the greenest winery on the North Fork, with 70% of their energy supplied by solar panels supplied by Long Island’s Green Logic (it’s convenient that the sunniest season on the North Fork is the fall when the winemaking machinery is working the hardest).  

Rocking out in Cutchogue

The winery also spearheaded the concept of the Long Island winery as a live music destination. They were the first to have live music every weekend (now a fixture almost everywhere on the North Fork) and in 2010 sponsored the now annual North Fork Rock and Folk Festival, which brought the likes of Richie Havens, Mountain, and Johnny Winter to sing and pick among the vines.

I ran the gamut of many of Peconic Bay’s latest releases at a tasting at the winery recently. The 2010 Steel Fermented Chardonnay ($24) is in the classic North Fork unoaked style, with a citrusy silky finish and strong acid to mate well with local seafoods. Peconic Bay did not overdo the oak, however in their 2009 La Barrique Chardonnay, which to me is very similar to its steel brother, just giving up a little grapefruit to gain a touch of butter.     

I normally expect Long Island Rieslings to be slightly sweet, but the winery’s 2010 Riesling ($24) actually seemed drier than either Chardonnay, with a fruity and light-bodied texture but with a strong structure to stand up to spicy food (the Thai Chicken Green Curry at Tony’s Asian Fusion in Mattituck comes to mind).    

It’s the Merlot grape that put the North Fork of Long Island on the map and the winery’s 2009 Red Label Lot #1 ($24) is a classic example of the soft but approachable 100% merlot with just enough tannic structure to stand up to hearty dishes.  The 2009 Red Label Lot #2 ($24) blends 40% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc, and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon for a more traditional Bordeaux-style blend. The wine’s 12 month residence in French oak gives it a tannic structure with a bit of tar on the back of the palate and the longest and silkiest finish of any North Fork red I’ve experienced. I ended with a special treat, the 2007 Lowerre Family Estate Red ($56), a blend of the winery’s choicest lots of Merlot (60%), Cabernet Franc (38%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (2%). Aged for 26 months in French oak, the wine’s seductive blend of berries, tannin and tar only give us a hint of how this ageworthy wine will develop in years to come.

Finally, Peconic Bay has launched a new retail store (technically a satellite tasting room) this past November in the Tanger Outlet Mall in Riverhead. The store features over 200 wines from Long Island, the Finger Lakes and the Hudson valley for purchase and tasting.

WHERE TO BUY

36 Avenue Wines & Spirits, 30-14 36th Ave., Astoria, 718-361-8865

Northern Liquor Depot, 7304 Northern Blvd., Flushing, 718-458-0026

Queensbury Liquor Store, 112-24 Queens Blvd., Forest Hills, 718-268-2290

Little Neck Wines & Liquors, 254-39 Horace Harding Expressway, Little Neck, 718-229-4600

Court Square Wine and Spirits, 24-20 Jackson Ave., Long Island City, 718-707-9911

Maspeth Discount Wine & Liquors, 69-15 Grand Ave., Maspeth, 718-505-8460

Bob Reina, a Long Island Wine Country resident for over 20 years and a Queens resident for over 30 years, teaches wine classes in Douglaston and on the North Fork of Long Island and sponsors special wine tasting events and dinners throughout the NY Metro Area. He also writes the “In Vino Veritas” column for the St. Anastasia Church Bulletin and is a Contributing Editor for Stereophile Magazine.On the musical front, Bob plays piano in the improvising jazz quartet Attention Screen and in the classic jazz John Atkinson Trio, as well as keyboards in the R&B band Souled Out and the classic rock band Stimulus Package. In his spare time, Bob is an Account Executive at Prudential Capital in Manhattan. Got a wine question? Email Bob at Robert.j.reina@earthlink.net