It’s the end of the year and holiday season and I ended up with two weeks vacation to use up before the New Year. So yesterday I took my younger sister and niece (both are of legal age) to Long Island’s North Fork wine country. We visited three wineries Macari Vineyards, Castello Di Borghese, and Pindar Vineyards.
Macari Vineyards, located on the intersection of Bergen Road and Route 48 (aka Sound Ave) in Mattituck, is a beautiful Tuscan villa type winery with a gorgeous wrap around stone and timber deck (BTW construction is under way to make this deck bigger and better). From the deck one can take in an almost 360 view of very rustic and rural setting, vines, grazing cows, buffalos and, Sicilian donkeys. In the tasting room there is a long bar and behind it a glass window looking down into the tank room of the wine cellar. This Thursday behind the bar was a very knowledgeable woman, who presented the wines with both a very informative and colorful flare. One thing that did grab my attention was her discussion of a 2007 Early Wine – 100% Chardonnay
Now when one hears the term “early”, “new”, or “young” wine, one immediately thinks Beaujolais Nouveau. It’s quite a shame that the term “nouveau” is divinely linked to the Beaujolais region of France and all the hype especially around Thanksgiving time. But the concept of early, young, new, nouveau, novella (a), vino joven, jungwein, or whatever else its know as is a tradition and custom in almost every wine growing region. The very first grapes are picked and fermented and within less than a month the young wine is bottled, and served to the vineyard workers after the grueling and tiresome harvest is finally completed. This wine could be made from any grape, red or white, the first picked. The first grapes picked on Long Island are usually the whites, so at Marcari, Austrian born wine maker Helmut Gangl takes the first bunch of Chardonnay grapes and produces a “young” or “early” wine creating a Chardonnay like no other.
Macari Vineyards 2007 Early Wine 100% Chardonnay
Bright and brilliant, very pale in color with a slight green-ish tint on the rim.
Aromas of lemon-lime with hints of green apple and pear.
Ditto on the palate, very crisp and lively wine. Good balance between white fruit, alcohol, and RS [11 g/L (1.1%)]. Pleasant aftertaste. (14 -15) $14.99
Salute