Maritime Winemakers Meet

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Maritime Winemakers Meet on Long Island
Lenn Thompson

Alessio Dorigo from Dorigo winery in Friuli, Italy and his business partner Marco Pecchiari of Terra e Vino take the stage. Photo by Lenn Thompson

Stony Brook University's Southampton campus played host to an international gang of winemakers in early August who ply their craft in cool climate regions throughout the world. Long Island was well represented of course, with just about every local winemaker in attendance, but what made this event special were the winemakers from the Finger Lakes, Spain, Italy, California, and France.

This global winemaking talent descended upon the Hamptons for a two-day symposium titled "The Art of Balance: Cool Climate/Maritime Wines in a Global Context" hosted by the Stony Brook Center for Wine, Food and Culture at their Southampton campus, in partnership with the New York Wine and Grape Foundation and the Long Island Wine Council.

Over the course of two days, various winemakers presented information about how they make wine in the face of the particular cool-climate challenges they face.

On the first day, the conference opened with Alessio Dorigo from Dorigo winery in Friuli, Italy and his business partner Marco Pecchiari of Terra e Vino. Friuli's climate is characterized by the influence of cooling Siberian winds from the north and of course the sea to the south. Dorigo also discussed his winemaking techniques, the difficulty that he has selling his wines at times, and some of the vineyard density experiments he's conducted in his vineyards.

As he presented, we had the opportunity to taste his Ribolla 2007 and a Bordeaux-style red blend called Montesclapade from the 2001 vintage. Both were delicious and I've since tracked both down on-line and purchased them.

Next up was Gunter Kunstler of Weingut Kunstler in the Rheingau region of Germany, a producer that I was familiar with before the symposium even started - I love his riesling. Kunstler began his talk by discussing the history of his region and of his winery before moving into a discussion terroir, a French term which can be loosely defined as a wine's sense of place. In one of the more depressing parts of the symposium, he focused as well on how climate change is changing the wines in his region, particularly riesling.

He predicted that by 2050, Germany might be too hot to grow riesling. We tasted two of his Rieslings from the 2007 vintage, from two very different vineyards, and these were my two favorite wines of the symposium.

Thomas Laszlo of Heron Hill Winery in the Finger Lakes region was the next presenter. He too focused more on terroir than on the technical aspects of making wine in the Finger Lakes. There is a lot of variability in Finger Lakes vineyards and Laszlo feels that only certain vineyard locations can lead to truly spectacular rieslings that exemplify his regions terroir well. We got to taste two of his rieslings during the presentation, one from winery owner John Ingle's vineyard and also Laszlo's reserve bottling. Both displayed a wet slate, minerally flavor that I also noted when I visited Heron Hill on Keuka Lake this past spring. Both are among the best that lake has to offer.

The final solo presenter of the day was Katia Alvarez of Martin Codax, located in Spain's Rias Baixas DO, where the focus is set squarely on the Albarino grape. She offered the most technical information of the day, speaking about the weather, soils and also traditional trellising system, called emparrado. Those in attendance got to taste two Albarinos - one from the main Martin Codax line and another from their Burgans line. The Martin Codax struck me as an excellent summer wine, while the Burgans was a little less fresh tasting and a bit less interesting.

The symposiums first day concluded with a panel discussion on terroir, moderated by Paul Greico, of Hearth, Insieme and Terroir restaurants in Manhattan.

That evening, there was also a Grand Tasting featuring over 200 wines from local wineries and participant winemakers.

Lenn Thompson lives in Sound Beach with his wife Nena and infant son, Jackson. He is the former editor of the Long Island Wine Gazette and writes about local wines for several media outlets including AppellationAmerica.com, Edible East End, and his blog LENNDEVOURS.com. He loves hearing from readers and fellow local wine enthusiasts. You can email him at lenndevours@gmail.com.

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