Should Long Island Be Identified By a Single Grape?

 

By Contributing Columnist Charles Massoud

When Lenn asked if I would contribute to LENNDEVOURS, I was at the same time flattered, intrigued, apprehensive and I questioned if that is something I was good at. Of  course to write here must be sufficiently interesting for the reader, but I was thinking selfishly about whether it would be interesting for me. Writing in a newspaper is pretty much a one way street. In that case I state my opinion as forcefully as I can. So I do not do it often.

Writing here offers a novel opportunity because it can be interactive and as such presents the possibility of, at first, anonymous dialogue in cyberspace. I have had such an experience on eRobertParker.com and I enjoyed it. I have learned from it. I then met people that have become good friends with whom I  have participated in several dinners and wine tasting that otherwise I would have never discovered.

So I am hoping that this will open yet another new door I did not know existed. And my fist salvo is one where I wish to reflect on  topics that preoccupy some of us winemakers on the East End of Long Island. Getting responses may or may not change my mind, it depends on the strength of the argument presented.

As an example I will kick off this dialogue with the question of whether Long Island should be identified with a particular grape variety.

As a preamble, it may help those who are not familiar with the wines of Long Island to know that ours is a relatively new wine growing region. The industry was started by the Hargraves in 1973. And right away they demonstrated that vitis vinifera is the grape species to grow here. Thereafter many dreamers, like ourselves, started emulating their example and, by 1998, a census that I conducted showed that up to 30 varieties were being grown. The largest planting was in Chardonnay, followed by Merlot, then Cabernet Sauvignon. Since then a good amount of Cabernet Franc has also been planted.

Of those thirty varieties there are some that have proven to be great success and include Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chenin Blanc, Tokai Friuli in the whites, and Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Syrah in the reds. My personal experience with Pinot Noir and Zinfandel has been disappointing and we pulled out these varieties from our vineyards. Yet others have made good wines from Pinot Noir, but almost everyone agrees that it has earned its reputation as the "heartbreak grape".

Because our season comes to an abrupt end in the fall, as the weather turns cold, there is a preference for early ripening varieties which are safer year in year out as most locations can ripen them well. Yet, in spite of its small size, the East End has a very diverse microclimate and when that is taken into account other varieties such as, for example, Cabernet Sauvignon, a late ripener, can and do shine here.

To complicate things further, there are new clones of most varieties that are being introduced that offer yet another dimension as to what is possible to grow successfully and new plantings will shed light on whether this is promising or not.

So, after a long introduction, here is the subject for consideration: a number of my colleagues have come up with an idea to promote Long Island as a "Merlot" region. The case for this is based on sound underlying reasons:

• Merlot thrives on Long Island
• Merlot is an early ripening variety and ripens very well every year
• Merlot is the most widely planted red variety
• Merlot makes great red wines, as ours have come to be known as well as those of our friends

Even though, as stated, we make great Merlots, I have been very vocal about my opposition to this initiative. To me it is a solution looking for a problem. I fail to see why we should choose one against the others. Most varieties mentioned above have produced wines of at least as high a quality as any Merlot. And since this is still a growing region why close the doors so soon?

But the more important question is not what the producers would like us to believe but what is the consumer looking for. Another question is what other grape is being grown here that is generating excitement. Merlot is one of them, but there are quite a few more, named above.

In a world where supermarkets are coming under attack for being ambassadors to standardized  and homogenized agriculture, movements such as Slow Foods and retailers such as Whole Foods are celebrating the diversity of our food supply and the curiosity and adventure that it stimulates at the dining table. In the process the farmer is being recognized as a vital but struggling pillar of our food supply, worthy of every support we can give him/her. The word "artisanal" is now fashionable and a rebirth is being experienced as we have more choices in tastier foods than ever before, through this movement. The East End of Long Island has a rather rare quality in that we can do the same thing with wine. It is rare for many wine regions to be able to successfully grow as many varieties as we do and to me that is the trade mark of Long Island viticulture. Celebrate the diversity and offer more choices rather than narrow down  the options for the useless convenience of  easy identification. 

So here it is, an opinionated view seeking validation or rebuttal. Your serve!

Comments

[Mithrandir]

There is definitely a balance to be struck between limiting one's self unnecessarily, and providing a solid "message".

Every successful wine growing region I know of has one or two primary varietals. Given this correlation, one of two things must be true: varietal specialization is necessary for success, or success naturally leads to varietal specialization.

That doesn't actually prevent you from growing secondary varietals. This isn't France; it's ok to grow P. No. in a Merlot region, and still put the region on the label.

I don't know whether it will make it harder to market them though, in an absolute sense. Specialization may just make marketing the specialized varietals easier, without affecting the others.

[Beau]

Personally (and I'm no LI wine expert), I think it would be a big mistake to try and associate LI reds with Merlot. Not that there's anything wrong with Merlot, but styles change, tastes change, and the history of wine on the island is still young. It seems to be that the single varietal style pendulum will swing back to blends with unique character. Additionally, wine drinkers are likely to continue to become more sophisticated, which means they'll actually understand what Long Island Meritage/North Fork Red/Bordeaux Blend is.

Then again, from a marketing standpoint, it's much easier to beat the LI Merlot drum. But I think that would be selling the region's potential short.

[Terry Hughes]

I have to agree with Beau and Charles on not limiting LI to premature identification with one variety. It's way too early in the region's history to try to peg it so narrowly. I know they're searching for a marketing hook, but that's not the way to do it. A general positioning as a cool-climate terroir might be more convincing in the long run: America's Loire or some such analogy.

Well, anyway. Maybe the wineries should be worrying a lot more about distribution and not some facile hook.

Personally, I like the whites I've had a lot better than the reds, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc especially. For what that's worth.

[fingerlakesweekendwino]

I think the Finger Lakes wineries have also grappled with this question in regard to promoting Riesling as 'The Finger Lakes Wine". For the Finger Lakes, I think the notoriety has not come from a specific marketing plan to promote Riesling, but just from a natural progression of winning major awards and honors for their Rieslings and the subsequent publicity and media coverage. I believe that now the wineries are trying to build on that Riesling publicity and craft many other types of wine that will be judged favorably. Marketing as a Group of Wineries is very tricky because each member of the group wants to accomplish different things through the marketing, and many variables affect the marketing needs of wineries; small wineries perhaps have a more local focus and those wineries that are less Merlot-oriented obviously do not want to spend their marketing dollars to heavily promote Merlot. It really sounds like this type of marketing would be better done by the local tourism organization. But, in my opinion, any publicity that will focus the media and public on your region and promote the wine has to be considered a good thing, but some wineries may benefit more than others from Merlot-focused marketing.

[Richard Olsen-Harbich]

Kudos to Charles for bringing the topic out for this blog to dissect. As one of the founding members of the Long Island Merlot Alliance, I’m far from giving an objective opinion, but I thought I could add to the discussion by clearing up some misinterpretations (or as our POTUS would say, “misunderestimations) of our group…

For one, the group is a Quality Alliance - the first of its kind assembled on Long Island; we are not a trade organization so our mission is quite different. Nor are we saying that all anyone should grow is merlot or that we are proponent of “homogenized agriculture.” That would be nonsense. On the contrary, we require all members to the Alliance to practice Sustainable Agriculture. All of our members also practice what would be termed artisanal winemaking techniques. If anything, making wine from grapes that have a good affininty to a terroir results in even less human intervention and manipulation (like adding acid, sugar,and, whoops -even water! - sorry California) and enables winemakers to produce a more natural,higher quality product.
There are surely some grapes that grow better than others on L.I. - as in any other region – and all of us produce a number of wines other than Merlot in our cellars. In fact, most of us believe that the best Merlot wines on Long Island are not 100% varietal but contain some percentage of other Bordeaux reds. But we also believe that (on Long Island) the dominant varietal in any great red blend – in most years – will consistently be Merlot.

After 30 years of history, it is not too early for us to be able to recognize that some grapes are simply more successful than others. Every great wine region in the world has recognized this over time. Name one great wine region of the world and you can name the one or two signature wines they are known for. At the same time, these regions make many other wines which can also be extremely good. (see Oregon, New Zealand, Germany, Australia, etc.)The fact that merlot is the most widely planted grape on LI was never about a market issue - it has always been about the ease with which this variety is managed in the vineyards, the level of ripeness it can achieve on a consistent basis, and the quality of wines it produces.

The founders of the Merlot Alliance did not come up with this idea on our own. If you go to our website at www.longislandmerlot.com you will see a sample of the hundreds of quotes taken from the wine press at large, praising the attributes of Long Island Merlot. Many of the top wine writers in the country use the term “signature grape variety” in their description. To a large extent, we are just following what has already been happening – that merlot has been recognized as one of the better wines made on Long Island. All of us in the merlot alliance want to make wines that are even better.

Many regions in the world can grow lots of different grape varieties so we are not so unique in that ability. However, we feel that in order to take the region to the next quality level, we need to start recognizing what we do best. This involves focusing attention on a variety that does wonderful things in our terroir - one of the few varietals we make that can possibly rival the best in the world. You can’t say that about too many of the wines grown on Long Island - I think that’s the main point. Diversity is great thing. But let’s remember to also apply the concept of diversity to the expression of opinions in this regard. I think there’s plenty of room on Long Island for both. Do we have lofty ideals? Sure we do. But if we weren’t crazy dreamers we wouldn’t be in the wine business!