Long Island wine has never been better.
Based on what is inside the bottle or your glass, the state of Long Island wine is strong. Very strong. Long Island wine has never been better. Even wineries that historically cared about the quantity of tasting visitors more than the quality of what was being poured are making at least one wine worth drinking. That wasn’t true 10 years ago.
50 years into the region’s winemaking history, the idea that good—even great—wine can be grown and made here is no longer questioned. It’s a given. But the wine industry is about more than the wine in the bottle. It is a community—one that includes the land, the people working in and living near it, the people making their living at the wineries, and the people visiting the wineries and enjoying the wines made here.
Here is how the Long Island wine community has gotten to where it is today, and where I believe it will go in the future.
It’s cliche, but it’s also true—it all starts in the vineyard. Without high-quality fruit, no winemaker can make great wine, no matter how talented.
Growers Really Know What They Are Doing
It’s cliche, but it’s also true—it all starts in the vineyard. Without high-quality fruit, no winemaker can make great wine, no matter how talented.
“Time is the great educator in vineyards,” says Bedell Cellars veteran winemaker Rich Olsen-Harbich, whose book about the region—Sun, Sea, Soil, Wine—will come out in early 2024.
Growers today understand how best to tend each grape variety—things like when to pull leaves to enhance ripening and improve airflow around maturing clusters, what vineyard inputs are most effective at various points in our varied and often-humid growing season, and how much fruit each vine can usually fully ripen. It’s not just the how, though. It’s also the what.
“The vines available to plant thirty to forty years ago were vastly different to today’s selections. New French clones of Merlot, Malbec, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, Pinot Gris, and others are a huge game changer and make far better wines than the older California clones that were available to growers in years past,” says Olsen-Harbich, who is quick to highlight the importance of a strong local research program like Cornell University’s Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center (LIHREC), led by Alice Wise.
“Many years of improved research on clonal selections and rootstocks for specific soil types has resulted in better planting choices on Long Island,” says Pindar Vineyards winemaker Erik Bilka. “Cornell has done beneficial research that has helped all Long Island wineries make better decisions when planting new vineyards. Newer planting geared towards our soils and climate allows for better ripening and higher quality fruit with less spraying for disease and pests.”
In many cases, better planting has also meant different planting. Grapes like Merlot and Chardonnay continue to be the workhorses of Long Island wine. Still, continued interest in somewhat lesser-known European varieties like Albariño, Auxerrois, Lagrein, Melon de Bourgogne, and Verdejo—not to mention hybrid varieties—serves as a reminder that what is today might not always be. As the impact of climate change continues, and may potentially increase, Long Island grape growers must continue to evolve and learn.
Even five decades in, the story of Long Island wine is only in its early chapters.
“One of the greatest strengths of Long Island winemaking is we can harvest grapes in a perfect balance of chemistry and ripeness, which allows us to make wine without any additives,” says Raphael winemaker Anthony Nappa.
Winemakers are Letting Long Island Wines Speak
There is a saying that goes like this: new oak in wine is like salt in food—if you can taste it, you’ve added too much. If that’s true, many Long Island winemakers were over-salting their wines 20 years ago.
Whether it was to (try) to cover up green, underripe flavors in red wines or to (again, try to) mimic wines from either California or Bordeaux, local winemakers were aging their wines in too many new, full-flavored oak barrels for too long. It wasn’t just new oak, either. Chaptalization—adding sugar to the grape juice before fermentation—was common to ensure higher levels of alcohol. As was the practice of adding enzymes, tannins, and other additives.
It was all done in the interest of making “better” wines, but the results weren’t always, well, better.
These practices are still employed but are far less prevalent and are used much more thoughtfully—when they are truly needed, which isn’t as often. “One of the greatest strengths of Long Island winemaking is we can harvest grapes in a perfect balance of chemistry and ripeness, which allows us to make wine without any additives,” says Raphael winemaker Anthony Nappa.
As local winemakers have gained confidence in the distinct aromas and flavors of Long Island wines, they’ve let these wines’ uniqueness shine.
”My winemaking style has always been to honor the integrity of the fruit,” says Bilka. “I have always been one to use a moderate amount of new oak, but my style preference in recent years has led to very minimal new oak with reds, as my goal is to allow the fruit to shine and just be complemented by the oak.”
Robin Epperson-McCarthy from Chronicle Wines and Saltbird Cellars has noted a welcome shift across the industry and market. “Thankfully, having the inside of your mouth feel like you have just been chewing on a toothpick is no longer a sign of quality. The Saltbird Merlot is aged in mostly second-year and neutral oak, which creates a luscious red that you want more of because it’s not exhausting your palate.”
Most expect tasting room offerings to continue to evolve with a focus on hospitality and service, as well as unique experiences.
COVID Has Transformed Tasting Rooms Forever
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most winery tasting rooms worked the same way: you’d stand at the tasting bar, quickly taste through a handful of wines, buy wine (or not), and leave.
It worked, and you can still find that experience at many wineries. But it’s no longer the de facto North Fork wine-tasting experience—partly because of COVID, but also because of evolving customer expectations.
“Prior to the pandemic, we offered limited outdoor seating and primarily bar service for our tastings,” says SUHRU’s Shelby Hearn. “In response to the pandemic, we moved our tastings to all table service, sped up our plans to expand our outdoor seating area, and expanded our small bites menu offerings, all of which has been a wonderful improvement to the level of service we are able to provide.”
Similarly, Macari Vineyards’ Gabriella Macari says, “The pandemic was definitely an impetus for many of [our] new offerings. Most of them came out of necessity: our bungalows were our response to social distancing and the need for more outdoor seating but ended up fitting well into our tasting room experiences. Moving to a mostly reservation model in our tasting room, for example, has ensured we’re able to provide a more memorable experience that the guests seeking us out are looking for.”
Most expect tasting room offerings to continue to evolve with a focus on hospitality and service, as well as unique experiences.
The grapes best suited to Long Island’s soils and growing seasons might not be the best in the future—or maybe they will be.
What Challenges Might Climate Change Bring?
Few dispute that our climate is changing—and there is a reason that it’s no longer referred to as “global warming.”
“We knew climate change was going to become a bigger issue as far as warming, but the bigger impact has been unpredictable weather patterns. We saw two days of 80F weather in April! This led to an early bud break and a break from previous vineyard patterns,” says Epperson-McCarthy.
The grapes best suited to Long Island’s soils and growing seasons might not be the best in the future—or maybe they will be. There isn’t a crystal ball for vineyards, which is unfortunate. Planting new varieties is expensive and takes time—typically, winemakers wait at least until the vines’ third year in the ground before making wine from them.
“Climate change is the biggest challenge in the vineyard,” says Nappa. “It’s hard to plan ahead for something with so much uncertainty. Every decision we make is a minimum of 5 to 10 years to see it play out. To plant new grapes, make wine out of it.”
And for existing vines and vineyards, a changing climate could mean more sprays to fend off new pests and disease pressures. And that doesn’t even consider severe and sudden temperature changes, the potential for rising sea levels, and damaging storms—which always seem to come during harvest.
Grape growers and winemakers are already—and always—looking ahead to what the future might bring. But despite the future challenges, winemakers are generally confident in the region’s resiliency.
“We must stay mindful of what’s happening in our vineyards and respond accordingly. Right now, I think most growers are content to work with what they have in the vineyard and produce even better wines,” says Olsen-Harbich. “We have already been dealing with these effects over the last few decades and will continue to do so successfully.”
Long Island wine has battled the (sometimes correct) assertion that it is overpriced for many years.
Costs Apply Constant Pressure
Long Island wine has battled the (sometimes correct) assertion that it is overpriced for many years. These prices result from the high costs of making wine on the East End—particularly the costs of real estate and labor. They’ve always been high, but they continue to rise in the area.
“In the coming years, I believe labor will be the most significant challenge to the Long Island wine industry,” says Bilka. “The short supply of labor on Long Island and especially in agriculture, has made it difficult to hire and keep trained vineyard workers. Unfortunately, I don’t see this changing anytime soon.”
Even if you can find employees—can you afford to pay them enough that they can live here?
“While we are attracting more and more knowledgeable and skilled employees to our wineries, vineyards and tasting rooms,” says Hearn, “it is continually difficult to find housing on the East End. A number of the towns are actively working to help this by adding affordable housing options, but I worry if it is enough.”
Affordable housing isn’t the only real estate challenge that the wine industry faces. Suitable vineyard land on the eastern part of Long Island is among the most expensive in the country.
“Winegrowing is one of the most expensive forms of agriculture in the world,” says Olsen-Harbich. “It’s clearly a concern, however, the East End has been a national leader in farmland preservation, which does provide some level of cost reduction for new vineyards. I also believe more cooperation and collaboration with our local town government is essential moving forward.”
Even with “some level” of cost reduction, starting a new winery literally from the ground up—purchasing land, planting a vineyard, building a winery and tasting room, etc.—is exceptionally expensive for all but the most wealthy. Prohibitively so.
“This is why I have started as and will remain a micro-winery,” says Epperson-McCarthy. “When I started Saltbird Cellars, I didn’t have millions to invest in planting a vineyard. It was a hope that I could eventually purchase land and plant a vineyard. With a much larger investment required for setting up a traditional operation, I plan to continue operating as a micro-winery indefinitely.”
What might this mean for the long-term viability and sustainability of the Long Island wine region? Sustainability—over the short and long term—is another important topic to consider today and beyond. I will tackle this topic in another issue.
But for now, the wines, wineries and winemakers of Long Island are all right. They’ve actually never been better.
