Winemaker Notes
SERVING SUGGESTIONS: This wine is ready to drink now with its intricate fruitiness & ripe tannins. It could also be cellared for about 5 years. Enjoy with red or white meat, it will also compliment cheese. Try with a beef roast and Madeira wine sauce or warm brie over toast.
In 1978, the family agreed to sell the company and move on to greener pastures. For Robert Entenmann this meant a potato farm turned thoroughbred horse farm on the North Fork of Long Island. The neighboring potato farms began to give way to vineyards; it was just a matter of time before he would follow suit
In 1995 Robert caught the grape bug and planted 18acres of vitis vinifera grapes. Over the next four years his vineyard acreage grew to 112 acres as he anxiously waited for the grapes to come of age. Today, daughter Jackie runs the Long Island vineyards home to over a dozen types of classical European varietals.
Increasingly garnering widespread and well-deserved attention, New York ranks third in wine production in the United States (after California and Washington). Divided into six AVAs—the Finger Lakes, Lake Erie, Hudson River, Long Island, Champlain Valley of New York and the Niagara Escarpment, which crosses over into Michigan as well as Ontario, Canada—the state experiences varied climates, but in general summers are warm and humid while winters are very cold and can carry the risk of frost well into the growing season.
The Finger Lakes region has long been responsible for some of the country’s finest Riesling, and is gaining traction with elegant, light-bodied Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc. Experimentation with cold-hardy European varieties is common, and recent years have seen the successful planting of grapes like Grüner Veltliner and Saperavi (from the Eastern European country of Georgia). Long Island, on the other hand, has a more maritime climate influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, and shares some viticultural characteristics with Bordeaux. Accordingly, the best wines here are made from Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The Niagara Escarpment is responsible for excellent ice wines, usually made from the hybrid variety, Vidal.
With generous fruit and supple tannins, Merlot is made in a range of styles from everyday-drinking to world-renowned and age-worthy. Merlot is the dominant variety in the wines from Bordeaux’s Right Bank regions of St. Emilion and Pomerol, where it is often blended with Cabernet Franc to spectacular result. Merlot also frequently shines on its own, particularly in California’s Napa Valley. Somm Secret—As much as Miles derided the variety in the 2004 film, Sideways, his prized 1961 Château Cheval Blanc is actually a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.