Long Island Whine

Long Island Whine: Are LI Wines Really Over-Priced? Or are We Looking at Them From the Wrong Perspective?

Just like the wines we drink, any discussion of wine prices and price-to-value ratios is always a complex and layered one. There are dozens of factors that help a winery’s management decide what to charge for its wines, including land costs, labor costs, market pressures, and supply and demand. The list goes on and on. The idea of “value” is even tougher to pin down as it’s so subjective and affected by things like the media, mood and personal perception.

So before we can even tackle the question, “Is Long Island wine over-priced?” there are a few points that need to be made.

First, wine on Long Island varies from winery to winery and year to year. Richard Olsen-Harbich, managing director and winemaker at Raphael in Peconic, said it best in an email to me last week. “As in most areas producing wine, you have good value, you have great wines and you also have poor value and bad wines -- and because we are not that large a (wine-producing) area, it gets magnified.” Rich went on to say that he doesn’t even like talking about Long Island wine in general terms.

Next, when I contacted several winemakers and winery managers in the area, I found that very few customers actually complain about wine prices in winery tasting rooms themselves. “Interestingly enough," Olsen-Harbich noted, "the tasting room provides an overall wine experience that people are typically very satisfied with. The biggest complaints we hear are that we don’t have enough white wine – or that our wine isn’t sweet enough.”

Wine that isn’t 'sweet' enough is a topic for another time, but the “overall wine experience” point is very important. I personally am willing to pay more for a bottle of wine if the setting, the friends I’m with and the overall experience is memorable.

So now we know that we can’t generalize about Long Island wines and that people rarely complain about the prices in tasting rooms (even though they are almost always higher than at local wine shops). But people do complain about L.I. wine prices – just not in tasting rooms.

As a wine lover and an admitted Internet addict, I’m active on a few wine discussion sites and through my own website (www.lenndevours.com) I’ve met and emailed with wine lovers the world over. Many of the people I meet haven’t even tried Long Island wine – it’s just too hard, even impossible, for them to get. And sadly, many of those who have tried LI wines have tasted wines on the lower end of the quality spectrum. For instance, someone commented recently, “I can buy wines from Chile that are much better than the stuff I’ve tasted from Long Island, and they are a much better value. Long Island wines are just over-priced for what you get.”

I hear this kind of comment all the time. And it’s frustrating.

How can one best respond to this criticism? Trent Preszler, vice president of operations for Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue, has a great answer. “Whenever someone says something to me about our prices being too high, I simply tell them it is not true. It is a myth promulgated by consumer misinformation and a lack of understanding about the broader wine market. Can you name one premium boutique (winery) in Napa making fewer than 10,000 cases a year that sells a world-class Bordeaux blend for around $20-30, like us? For equal quality comparably produced (small-scale farm winery) American Bordeaux-style reds out of Napa or Washington, you’d be paying at least double or triple, if not five times what we charge."

But can Long Island wines compete with these top wines from Napa and other respected wine regions? I certainly think so and Charles Massoud, Paumanok Vineyards’ co-owner and winemaker, has pulled together the blind tastings against these world-class wines to prove it.

“In a blind tasting with Dr. Harvey Passes, three Chardonnays from Long Island (Lenz, Bedell and Paumanok) were tasted blind with a fourth wine, which when revealed was Puligny Montrachet Champs Canets 2002,” Massoud said. “Eric (Fry, winemaker at Lenz), Kip (Bedell, winemaker at Bedell Cellars), Dr. Passes and I could not tell which was which. Ours sold for under $20 while the Puligny sold for between $55 and $75, depending on the store. When you compare apples to apples, our prices are a bargain.” This is just one example. Other wineries have conducted similar tastings with similar results.

Preszler concurs. “When compared with other small-scale viticulture efforts around the world, there is no question that the best Long Island wines offer the best value for the money.

That’s a very important point. The best Long Island wines really are great values. But if you’re not the type of person who typically spends $20-30 on a bottle of wine, you may find the lower end pricey. If you are used to paying less than ten dollars for a bottle of wine from Australia, Chile, Argentina and other warm growing regions, some Long Island wines can certainly seem expensive. “Long Island cannot compete with cheap wines from hot climates. But if you are looking for wines with character, the value is there,” said Roman Roth, winemaker and general manager of Wolffer Estate in Sagaponack.

So what has to happen to change the perception of all Long Island wines as expensive and over-priced? I think people need to put aside their preconceived notions and taste the wines – and taste the right wines. It would be unfair to base your opinion of California wines solely on Beringer White Zinfandel, and serious wine drinkers shouldn’t base their impressions of Long Island wine solely on one or two wines either. As we said before, you just can’t generalize.

Robin Meredith of Broadfields Cellars summed up the issue of the relative value of Long Island wines in his wine club newsletter last summer: “There will always be boatloads of solid $10 wines coming from places like Spain, Australia and Southern Italy, but using those wines as your benchmark for value means you will never taste a Barolo from northern Italy, a Cote-Rotie, Hermitage or Chateauneuf-du-Pape from the Rhone Valley or a Pinot Noir from just about anywhere. Compared to wines of similar structure, ambition and distinction from around the world, Long Island’s best wines (Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay) are better values than ever.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Comments

[Terry Hughes]

Great overview, Lenn. The perspective is a good one, and as one who has tasted at least some of the LI wines you mention, the comparisons are apt.

God, now I'm getting thirsty for a glass or two of Lenz chardonnay...

[Ray]

One thing to keep in mind is that wine making is a business and, for the vast majority of wineries, not a terribly lucrative one. I don't mind paying a little bit more for a bottle from a small winery if it's of good quality and/or a little bit unique. Craftsmanship has a price and good craftsmen deserve to be compensated.

If I remember my history, the thing that put Napa on the map was when Stag's Leap won in a blind tasting against some well-established wines from France. Once people took notice, the prices began to climb. When (not "if") that happens to Long Island, those $20 and $30 bottles become $50 and $60, like they are in Napa. It's just a matter of what certain people are willing to spend for a quality product.

[Richard AB]

I never met a Long Island wine I liked. I guess I am spoiled befcause I use to live near the Napa Valley!

[reggie d]

I never met a Napa valley former resident who wasn't a homer when it came to wines.....open those tastebuds up richard...

[Kevin]

I have alwys found great value in the smaller prices than I have in the greater prices. Rarely on my trips to LI have I paid more than $20.00 for a bottle, and if I did, it was something that was meant to be that expensive, (Like a dessert Ice wine Wolfers Ice Chardonnay comes to mind)
Call me a bargain Buyer, but you really do not have to pay top $$$ to get a good wine.

Speaking of great deals, I picked up a case of 2001 Chardonnay from Sakonnet Vineyards the other day for $50.00 Great wine great price!

[Lucia Adams]

I have just returned from a few days on the North Fork; I noticed a distinct similarity in the terroir of all the wines sampled. Sulphur? What is it in the soil that creates this distinct taste?

[Lenn]

That's actually not part of any LI terroir...that's a problem that results from overuse of sulphur dioxide during the winemaking process. Once the wine has finished fermenting, SO2 is added to keep it from turning into vinegar. Sometimes if it's overused...the aroma lingers in the finished product. But, if you let your glass sit for a while, and swirl quite a bit...it will dissipate or even disappear.

What wines did you taste? When I got your email, several popped into my own mind...but I'm curious about what you found.