Long Island=Merlot

[Craig Camp]

A handful of top wineries have begun forming a trade group, the East End Merlot Alliance, to promote merlot as the top wine of the region. Merlot has become synonymous with Long Island the way Pinot Noir defines Oregon.

[BrentKulman]

Frankly, I think that the Long Island whites are better than their reds, but I'm not a Merlot drinker. I'm in the "anything but Merlot" red wine camp so I'm not the best person to evaluate whether Long Island has become or should be synonymous with Merlot.

From my personal bias, while Merlot may have mass appeal, it's not the grape I would choose to define a region. With apologies to those of you who love Merlot, it's like selecting to be the "iceberg lettuce" or "red delicious apple" capital of the world.

[rich]

Cabernet Franc makes a much better wine on Long Island than Merlot. But then again, the only Merlot I've tasted worth the price is from Duckhorn.

[LENNDEVOURS]

I don't think it's really fair (or accurate) to say that LI is already defined by it's Merlots. In fact, I agree that the Cab Francs are probably better.

However, the winemakers on the island don't think that Cab Franc has a large enough group of fans to help them get on the map. Also, there are a lot of top wineries (Raphael, Lenz, etc.) that disagree with this movement, arguing that it's far to limiting and may pigeon-hole the region.

Personally...I've had some outstanding Merlot on Long Island, particularly at Bedell (took part in a 17-vintage tasting two weekends ago), Lieb Cellars, Comtese Therese and Wolffer.

But, there are other great wines out here. There is some great Riesling, some excellent steel-fermented chards and, again, super Cab Francs.

I'm curious to see how this all plays out. It's a bit of a civil war out here right now.

[tommy]

i'm with rich and lenn. i'd like nothing more than to see LI continue refining their cab francs, which i've always enjoyed immensely. i don't recall any merlots, as i'm usually grabbing up steely whites or cab francs.

Edited August 31, 2004 by tommy (log)