SAGAPONACK—Roman Roth likes it when things go wrong.

It’s not that he loves misery—far from it. The congenial, smiling winemaker and former choir tenor, who has been at the helm of Wölffer Estate for 16 years, is far more likely to burst into song or crack a joke then complain about the world with a decanter-half-empty viewpoint. It’s just that Roth has always had a way of turning bad situations into happy accidents since the day he set foot on the Sagaponack vineyard.

It all started in 1992, his first year at Christian Wölffer’s now 55-acre winery. “I came during the worst vintage in Long Island history—1992,” he says. It was that challenging year that not only proved Roth’s abilities as a winemaker to watch, but one who would in time play a vital role in dragging the reputation of Long Island wine from laughable to lauded. “We made excellent wines that year. Carol Asher in Gourmet magazine put us in the top five of Long Island. So that was great, but certainly wasn’t what I wanted to show of what I can do.”

Fast-forward to the near-devastating rains of 2005. The week-plus of torrential downpours at the end of what should have been a great season left many vineyard managers and winemakers scrambling to salvage what they could. “What happened was it was the best year ever. It was way ahead of any other—we had 23 and a half brix three weeks earlier then we’d ever gotten to such a stage!,” he explained referring to the measure of a grape’s sugar content sometimes used to gauge ripeness. “Then came the rain.”

Twenty inches fell from the sky over eight days, literally washing away all that lovely, ripe natural sugar to half what it had been. “Richie [Pisacano, vineyard manager] wanted to commit suicide! We had to hold him back.” After the rain stopped, 15 percent of their fruit burst on the vine, but Roth found a way to make lemonade from lemons—or, more accurately, Amarone from raisins. “The grapes swelled up so much that they went from 23 1/2 down to 19 brix and below; they were like watermelon,” he recalls. The remaining 80 or so percent of grapes that survived the storm looked marbled, Roth says. They had tiny little cracks in the skin, but luckily they were not deep enough to penetrate too deeply. The sun came out and Roth and Pisacano began furiously checking the sugars. “It was completely dry, cool, windy. It helped to dehydrate the grapes and by the time we started picking four or five days later, we had gone from 13 or 14 brix at 22 ½, then 23. Eight days after that, we were at 25, which is unheard of! ”

One particular batch of cabernet sauvignon caught Roth’s gimlet eye. “Finally, the last we picked was the Amarone-style Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. By then we were at 28 brix, which is just mind boggling for here. This region is not about that; it’s about long hang time and elegance. We were looking at the grapes and Richie said, ‘I don’t know if I can pick this, it looks like raisins.’ But there was no fuzzy stuff, no botrytis, they just stayed completely clean. It was amazing. And I said, I don’t know, Richie—it looks like an Amarone to me…” Roth is giddy and smiling broadly when he says this, laughing at the sweet serendipity sitting in a bottle in front of him. And he should laugh—the Claletto Amarone-style Cabernet Sauvignon, which became part of Wölffer’s limited-edition 20th anniversary wine series released on August 1st, is thick with the sticky aromas dried fruit—prunes, figs, raisins—dark, bursting blackberries, and a refreshing hint of eucalyptus—one can only imagine what it will be like in a decade or so. “This is why it was rescued. The dehydration gave us the most concentrated wines we ever had. It really captured that vibrancy.”

No one could have really known that this was the direction the original 14-acres would go; that Roth and proprietor, Christian Wölffer, would play host to culinary heavy hitters like the James Beard House; that the New York Times’ Howard Goldberg would sing their praises; that their wines would be sought after and sold in restaurants like New York’s Tribeca Grill, Landmarc, Blue Hill, the Union Square Café, and Café Gray; that Le Bernardin’s Eric Ripert would say that Roth’s 2007 rose made him “fall to his knees”; that in her last remaining years Julia Child herself would make it a point to show up to see what all the buzz was about. “Wolffer's been on my radar for quite a while. I remember trying their rose about 7 or 8 years ago and thinking, wow, this is really impressive,” says Blue Hill wine director Claire Papparazo. “We support local and sustainable [wineries] and it's just been a really good fit on our list. I like the way the 2005 reserve Chardonnay is drinking. It pairs beautifully with a dish we're doing right now with corn and mushrooms; it's ideal with it. It's really balanced and not over-oaked. It's got beautiful bright acidity; everything that you look for. And at a good entry-level price point. But I don't think it's just because of the price point that people love it, I think it's more the expression of what we have to offer [in NY]."

No, no one could have known this about this pretty stretch of land two or so miles from the ocean in the vacation-happy Hamptons more famous for its temporary residents than its winemaking. Not even the entrepreneurial-minded Christian Wölffer.

Born in Hamburg, Germany, Wölffer began the whole 170-acre estate that is part equestrian center, part vineyard, in 1978 with a mind to turn it into a weekend get-away spot. Thirty years and many acres later, the picture-perfect, hand-maintained, pristine vines, which look more like art in the form of agri-sculpture, sit on what was the defunct oenophile-experiment, Sagg Vineyards. By 1987, Wölffer had turned it into his namesake spot, but miles and miles have been traveled since that first vintage—a Chardonnay that was labeled “New York State White Burgundy.” Wölffer saw the potential, though, and set out to find himself the right winemaker for the job. The hunt eventually lead him to his journeyman winemaker (he has worked everywhere from his native Germany to Australia and California) and fellow German native, Roth. It was the decision that put Wölffer on the map.

But all the will and drive and talent in the world—and the financial means to build what might be the most stunning tasting room on eastern Long Island—is not enough. At least not to draw attention to a wine region that has had to fight and scrape its way into the good graces of sommeliers, wine writers, wine salespeople, and the vino cognoscenti in general. Long Island wineries have certainly won praise from a growing number of those in the biz, like Appellation Wine & Spirits owner Scott Pactor, who's a fan of the reserve Chardonnay: "It's been a successful bottle for us, and I think the reason why we have enjoyed selling it and people have enjoyed drinking it is that after so many years of being bitten by bad Chardonnay, their able to enjoy a Chardonnay that's beautifully balanced and has appealing aromatics and also has a low alcohol level [it's 12.5%]. It's a judicious amount of French barrique as well, and the wine is delicious. I think for under $20, it'll be one of the better Chardonnays you'll be able to find in New York." But while winemakers, like Roth, Lenz’s Eric Frye, and Channing Daughters’ Christopher Tracey have gained notoriety far, far beyond the borders of Suffolk County, making great wine is not enough. Roth knows this and accepts it in much the same way that he accepts fickle weather patterns as part of the work-a-day facts of being a Long Island winemaker. While he earned the nickname Roman the Showman for his aforementioned singing talents, it’s not a stretch to apply that same moniker to his drive to get Wölffer’s name out there. “You can make the greatest wine in the world, but if it’s not shown and you don’t go out…” he trails off, shrugging and waving a hand in the air. “I always say this: I run into more New Zealand winemakers than Long Island winemakers in Manhattan. People need to go to the city and conquer that prejudice. A few have found their place, but they work hard at it. It’s an effort. You know, sometimes you don’t feel like driving back from the city at 1 in the night and getting up for bottling at 8, but if you don’t like people, don’t go into the restaurant or wine business.”

But while Roth seems to enjoy (or is just especially good at tolerating) the social aspects of the wine business, it’s the vineyards and fermenting tanks and laboratories and barrel-rooms where he drops that outward poise just the tiniest bit, and that giddy, geeky, intense love that has kept him here for almost two decades bubbles to the surface. He is a prolific winemaker; chances are, you’ve tasted more than just his work at Wölffer—he’s made wine for David Page and Karen Shinn at Shinn Estate, Martha Clara, Roanoke Vineyard, and Vineyard 48. And while Wölffer has become known for Roth’s pretty, pale, near-iconic Hamptons rose, with its gentle strawberry and citrus notes, Roth is no one-trick pony there, either. Several of his wines are in the very affordable $10-$30 range, blowing the long-heard complaint that Long Island wines are too expensive, while on the other extreme collectibles like the 2002 Premier Cru Merlot flew off the shelves at a cool $100 a bottle, proving Long Island’s potential to play with the big boys. Wölffer is one of the larger Chardonnay producers among ELI’s ever-growing crop of vineyards, with around 4,500 cases made annually (although, as Roth notes, this is still fits squarely into boutique status: “It’s not a climate that produces mass quantities. We’re working here by quality and small quantities, where you select these particular little lots. That’s what makes it special.”) The anniversary series for which the Amarone-style Cab was made also features an earthy, juicy Barbera, an exciting botrytis Chardonnay, and the Noblesse Oblige sparkling, brut-style rose. “From a quality point of view, we’re pushing the envelope all the time,” says Roth. “Christian Wölffer is happy to jump at opportunity and say, ‘Okay, let’s try something; let’s change something!’”

Then there’s the winemaker’s own garage-esque series separate from Wölffer, cheekily labeled the Grapes of Roth. “I got this urge to create something very special for myself. And Christian Wölffer was okay with it, so here I am...” In 2001, he made a few hundred cases of merlot from special vineyard blocks at Martha Clara—it garnered a whopping 92 from Robert Parker in his magazine Wine Advocate. And what could be labeled under “You Can Go Home Again,” last year he finally produced a German-style Riesling that’s been winning raves.

“The greatest part [about making wine here] is there is this traditional style on Long Island. A really rustic tradition, and some people don’t like that. We don’t do modern winemaking things like heat up the tanks to make the process goes faster. The nice thing is the Long Island style in generally still very traditional. From my point of view, I cannot make a better wine anywhere. You can’t just make cough syrup. You can’t just drive a bigger Mercedes and a bigger one – or make a fatter wine and a fatter wine. If you lose you lose your balance, your esprit, your essence, you broke the camel’s back; you overdid it,” he says, picking up a glass of his “Amarone” and bringing it to his nose for a whiff. “I think that’s one of my specialties, maybe.”