'Sips of Summer' Heralds 50 Years of Long Island Wine

In 1973, Alex and Louisa Hargrave, a young couple with big dreams, bought a 66-acre potato farm in Cutchogue and planted 17 acres of vinifera vines on the property.

Their audacious move marked the birth of the East End wine industry, which has grown by leaps and bounds. In the decades since, vineyards have popped up across both the North and South Forks. Some, like the long defunct Bridgehampton Winery, didn’t quite live up to expectations, while others grew, expanded and can now hold their own against some of the most fabled wine-producing regions on the planet.

Fifty years after the Hargrave’s foray into viticulture, The Express Magazine is paying tribute to the golden anniversary with “Sips of Summer,” a series of three intimate tasting events that will highlight the region’s best wine, beer and spirits with top local makers, who will explain their process.

“Sips of Summer” begins on Thursday, June 22, with “A Celebration of 50 Years of Long Island Wine” at The American Hotel in Sag Harbor. It’s a fitting venue, given that the hotel’s fabled wine cellar, curated by owner Ted Conklin, is legendary and includes more than a few Long Island vintages.

The event, which runs from 1 to 4 p.m., will include tastings of the best wines the region has to offer, light bites and seminars led by some of the East End’s top wine producers, including Kareem Massoud, winemaker at Paumanok Vineyards and Palmer Vineyards on the North Fork, and Roman Roth, winemaker and partner at Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack on the South Fork.

Kareem Massoud

Founded in the spring of 1983, just a decade after the Hargrave’s arrival on the scene, Paumanok’s 127-acre estate is owned and managed by Ursula and Charles Massoud, and their three sons, including Kareem, who is the winemaker.

“My brother, Nabeel, is vineyard manager and my other brother, Salim, is our administrative manager,” explained Kareem Massoud who, in a recent interview, said he began working alongside his parents at the age of 10. “We’re absolutely a family affair, we all have children and the oldest one is 14 and 6-foot-one and will be the next generation.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is it’s like three businesses in one,” he added. “We’re a farm, a wholesale wine distributor and a hospitality venue.”

When asked to reflect on the varieties of grapes grown in this region and how that has changed or expanded over the years, Massoud notes that in the earliest days of Long Island’s wine history, Bordeaux was considered the favored grape to grow because of that region’s parallels with our own.

“That continues to be valid,” Massoud said. “The prevailing climate is maritime, like here, and it’s surrounded by water. We share similar metrics in terms of accumulation of rainfall over the growing season and there are not dissimilar amounts of humidity.

“The other important thing to note is our prevailing topography is similar,” he added. “It’s farmland, mostly flat, and the same thing is absolutely true in Bordeaux, which is one of the most prestigious and famous wine growing regions in the world — there’s not much in the way of slopes to speak of.”

The lack of a steeply sloped terrain increases the importance of the soil content below, another similarity the East End shares with France where “Graves,” the French word for gravel, describes the soil and is the name of an important subregion of the Bordeaux wine growing area.

“What we have in our subsoil is just that. Sandy, gravely subsoil and a rich agricultural heritage that’s good for farming,” said Massoud. “We have fertile topsoil and well-draining soil. Grape vines don’t like wet feet, they need to be well-drained and that’s the advantage of a slope where gravity is taking care of it for you.

“In the flat topography of Long Island, it would’ve been a concern, if not for the exceptionally draining soils we have,” he added. “It’s an existential aspect of our region, and we would not be here if not for that characteristic. It’s a fundamental aspect of why we exist.”

As expected, over time Bordeaux varietals have done well on the East End, “But what we’ve also learned over decades is related varieties have done as well or better,” said Massoud. “The Loire Valley varieties — the Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc — all of which we grow at Paumanok.”

Ironically, he notes that when his parents began their vineyard in 1983, they had no intention of planting Chenin Blanc, but today, it is the most popular and successful wine they produce.

“It came about because they acquired the vineyard across the street in the ’80s, and the owners had Chenin Blanc because it is a high yield grape and they planted it with an eye to produce Chardonnay and blend it in,” he explained. “You get more tons per acre from Chenin Blanc. That was the opposite of my parents’ approach, which was a quality product — when a lower yield can be a great charismatic wine — where the neighbors were all about low cost.

“Chenin Blanc was not part of original game plan, but not it not only does well, it seems to thrive here,” he said. “It’s been poured at places like Gramercy Tavern and other restaurants.”

At this point Paumanok is growing 12 grape varieties, while Palmer grows 13. Going forward, one of the variety’s that interests Massoud for its potential is Melon de Bourgogne, which produces Muscadet. Despite its name, this variety is not from Burgundy, but the Loire Valley. Paumanok has also grown Riesling since 1983 (Massoud’s mother is from Germany’s Riesling district)and at Palmer, he grows the Italian variety Albariño, as do some of the others on the North Fork.

Massoud credits winemaker Chris Tracy at Channing Daughter’s Winery in Bridgehampton for pushing the envelope of experimentation when it comes to bringing Italian varieties to the region. Unlike many wine growing regions in the U.S. that are synonymous with just one or two varieties (think Finger Lakes Riesling or Napa Valley Cabernet), Massoud feels Long Island can develop a much wider portfolio of wines.

“There was a movement on Long Island to achieve the same with merlot, but there were a couple problems including that merlot as a variety has horrendous brand equity, mainly due to the movie ‘Sideways,’ and we’re still dealing with that,” he said. “People like myself and my father don’t like to be pigeonholed into one variety. What should be celebrated — and people have a hard time accepting — is we can do well with so many different varieties. How can such a young region show up and do so well with so many varieties?

“It’s a fair questions and there’s an answer,” he continued. “A lot of the Old World is held hostage to its own tradition. This is the New World wine district and relatively young, so we’re free and at liberty to experiment. And the good news is, we’re in a sweet spot with terroir, with a long growing season, ample sun and rain if we need it. We can actually grow dozens of varieties and do well with it.”

Roman Roth

When Roman Roth first encountered the South Fork on his initial visit to the area in 1992, he was surprised by what he found — or rather, what he didn’t find.

“We were on the Long the Long Island Expressway for two hours, then came to a no-man’s land,” he recalled in a recent interview. “I had come to the fabled Hamptons. There were a lot of car dealerships in Southampton and in Bridgehampton, a couple little wooden houses, but it doesn’t seem like there are major Hamptons towns. You think, there must be some big town or big village, or something. Where are we? It was like being hijacked.”

But then he met Christian Wölffer, the man who owned what was then called Sagpond Vineyard, and who would soon become his boss — and he then began to understand what the area was all about.

“Christian Wölffer had a big party, I was thinking, ‘This could be a rosé flowing lifestyle of entertaining,’ That was the feeling of what happened at Christian Wölffer’s house,” said Roth. “It’s this beautiful sea breeze, that’s why people come out here to the East End. The promise of this steady sea breeze helps lower frost damage, the rolling hills. The land seemed promising, that was the first impression.”

And Christian Wölffer had the vision that helped to make the vineyard, and the South Fork growing region, what it is today. In 2009, Wölffer was tragically killed in a swimming accident off the coast of Brazil, but his early faith in the wine growing potential of the South Fork has come to fruition, thanks to the talents and fortitude of Roth, who is now a partner at Wölffer Estate Vineyard alongside Christian Wölffer’s two children, Joey and Marc.

“I definitely thought the whites were extremely promising ,” said Roth of those early days. A native of Germany, he came to the East End after having spent time making wines on the West Coast. “In California, they make fat oaky Chardonnays. We had more elegance, which fits my style and history. I think we should make a wine that is elegant and vibrant, not just hitting you with a four by four and big fat monster. That was appealing from the start.”

Also appealing was the idea of crafting a rosé that perfectly captured the spirit of the South Fork in the high season, as was the case at that first party Roth ever attended out here. That’s turned out to be the true winner for the vineyard and today, “Summer in a Bottle” is Wölffer’s best seller.

“The local rosé is quite nice and it took off. It’s easier to endorse without saying ‘I don’t like Burgundy or Bordeaux,’” he said.

But the reds also proved promising and within a few years of Roth’s arrival, the winery was producing award-winning vintages. Wölffer had a 2000 merlot that was the first bottle of Long Island wine to retail for $100 — and the vineyard’s wines started making it onto the menus of some of New York City’s top restaurants, including Eric Ripert’s La Bernardin.

“That was when it became Wölffer Estate, and [Christian] said, let’s build the winery,” said Roth “You want to put your name on this. You want to break the prejudice. This is something that competes with the best wine regions in the world. Let’s just get more professional, fine tune our own marketing approach and get bolder.”

That’s exactly what Wölffer has done, building not only on the region’s reputation, but also its advantageous growing position in the world. Today, Wölffer Estate Vineyard encompasses a total of 50 acres on the South Fork while Roth and his team manage another 23 acres of vineyards on the North Fork, and work with almost 250 in different North Fork growers.

“Long Island is on the same line as Naples and Madrid and it’s farther south than France,” said Roth. “We have great sun for ripening and Atlantic breezes and the bay and sound. We have a unique climate and can make fresh and elegant wines and rich and concentrated, wines.”

From Pinot Noir, merlot and Cabernet Franc on the red side, to whites like to Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Trebbiano, as a winemaker, Roth is proving that there are few limits on what can be accomplished here on the East End.

So after some 30 years of making wine here, what has surprised Roth?

“One big surprise is that merlot can age 30 or 40 years,” he said. “Nobody thought on Long Island you could make a wine to age that long.”

Another big surprise was the discovery of the strength of the little-known Italian grape Trebbiano, the prunings of which Roth rescued from a vineyard on the North Fork when it was transformed into a polo field. Basically, the move kept Trebbiano from going extinct on Long island.

“It was sent to a nursery upstate and now we have 3.5 acres of it. My goal is to become America’s biggest producer of Trebbiano. With 10 acres, I can maybe do it,” laughed Roth “It’s a fun variety, it has a nice aroma, acidity and works well in our climate of high humidity.”

At the “Sips of Summer” seminar, Roth said he will touch on not only the past of Long Island wines, but the present and future as well.

“So there will be something for everybody,” he said. “What’s nice is a visionary like Ted Conklin from The American Hotel. In 2001 or so he came up with the famous Long Island wine rating, which caused a stir. Ratings are always a subject for discussion. Now he’s opening for a whole day of tasting and celebrating 50 years with 80 to 90 wines from Long Island.

“It helps the entire region if all of us support local wines. I think a long vision is to create a wine region — from hotels to restaurants, to wineries — everybody.”

On Thursday, June 22, “Sips of Summer: A Celebration of 50 Years of Long Island Wine” begins with wine tasting from 1 to 4 p.m. at The American Hotel, 45 Main Street, Sag Harbor. Featured are wines from Wölffer, Paumanok, Lenz and John Leo, winemaker for Leo Family Red, Onabay Vineyards and Clovis Point. Lite bites will be served and attendees will come and go as they complete the tastings from each winery.

At 2:30 p.m. Paumanok Vineyards master winemaker Kareem Massoud discusses his family’s 40 years in the business with select tastings. At 3:15 p.m., Wölffer Estate Vineyard master winemaker Roman Roth will offer insight to the past, present and future of the vineyard’s wines and share some special tastings of red, white and rose wine.

Tickets for the event are $25 for the wine tasting and seminars at “Sips of Summer 2023” at eventbrite.com.

Other upcoming “Sips of Summer” events include an afternoon of beer tasting at Kidd Squid Brewing Company in Sag harbor on Thursday, July 13, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., and an afternoon with local distillers at Sagaponack Distillery on Thursday, July 27.