- “Wining” with Sue

After Thanksgiving Rich and I decided to take the ferry to Long Island and visit the wineries along the North Fork.

This area boasts more than 25 wineries that are either on or near routes 25 and 48.   There is a map showing where the wineries are along The North Fork Wine Trail.  Just be sure to stop at those wineries that are not on the map.  There are some great wineries that choose not to pay to belong to the Long Island Wine County Association.   In our 2 1/2 days we visited 9 wineries.

One of the wineries not on the map that we visited was Lenz Winery in Peconic, NY.   It is one of the oldest wineries in the area.  They have been around since 1978 and all of their wines are from estate grown grapes.

Lenz has two choices for tasting, an Estate Flight for $7 that includes 7 wines and a $12 Premium Flight that includes an extra 3 wines.  We chose the estate flight and had two favorites.

Rich with Jerol in the tasting room

The first was the 2008 Blanc de Noir which is actually a blush wine.  I can’t believe we liked this wine as we normally shy away from blush.   It is a dry wine made of 100% Pinot Noir grapes with a hint of strawberries on the finish. This wine was $15 a bottle.  Our other favorite was the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon which was a new release for them.  It was dry with notes of cranberry and strawberry.  It was very good Cab.  It sells for $23 a bottle.

They also had a 2007 Gewuertztraminer which was good and sells for $20 a bottle, a 2007 Merlot which I found to be a little harsh going down for $17 a bottle.   There were also 2 Chardonnays, their 2007 White Label which was dry with traces of fruit flavor.  It was aged in elderly French Oak and stainless steel.  This was a very good value at $12 a bottle.  The 2008 Gold Label Chardonnay was not as good as the White Label.  For my taste it was not as dry and very buttery from the oak.  This wine sold for $20 a bottle.   We also got to try their Sparkling Wine, a 2005 Cuvee which was vey good.  It sells for $30 a bottle.

We really enjoyed our trip to Lenz Winery.  It was not a fancy place, but the wine was very good and our wine pourer Jerol made our visit fun and educational.  When visiting the North Fork of L.I. Be sure to check them out.  Until then, check them out on Facebook or visit their website http://www.lenzwine.com/.

If you are coming from Connecticut, there are 2 ferries to make your trip across Long Island Sound less stressful.  The ferry from Bridgeport brings you into Port Jefferson, NY while the ferry from New London docks at Orient Point.  I suggest making reservations to get the time you would like.

With all of the wineries in the area, I also suggest planning to stay a couple of days.  There are many B&B’s in the area, but due to cost we decided to stay at The Hilton Garden Inn, Riverhead. It was clean, reasonably priced and not far from many of the wineries.

Article Written by “Wining” With Sue