Once you leave New York’s Long Island Expressway on your voyage to Long Island’s Wine Country in the North Fork area, among the first wineries you will come to is Macari Vineyards (www.macariwines.com). It offers a warm welcome and some of the better wines we have tasted in the region.
Macari’s vineyards were once a potato farm, as is true of much of the North Fork. It is still family-owned and run and it is, in a sense, still a farm since they raise a herd of cattle as well as growing grapes. They are exponents of biodynamic wine making,(which we don’t really understand, but we must say that biodynamic vineyards often produce excellent wines).
Macari has two tasting rooms: the original one in Mattituck and another in Cutchogue. The latter is only open in the summer tourist high season; Mattituck is open year-round. It is this one that is the basis for our comments, although the wines are the same in both locations.
The tasting room is quite large, with a high-vaulted ceiling that can absorb noise when things get busy on summer weekends. Yet despite the massive stone fireplace and all the exposed wood there’s somehow a sense of intimacy to the place. Displays of bottles of wine on boards stretched between barrels reinforce the rusticity of the setting.
The wines available for tasting shows Macari to its best effect. The reserve list includes a very creditable Sauvignon Blanc, a Syrah and the stars of the show: Macari’s Cabernet Franc and their Bordeaux blend, Bergen Road. These last two have depth and power that show how far Long Island wine making has come in recent years. Interestingly, although the blend of the Bergen Road differs from year to year, in the 2014 available now they have four of the five Bordeaux grapes, except Cabernet Franc. Also, for those like Lucie who enjoy a glass of Rosé, make sure to taste theirs. She loved it and find that it tastes like a rosé from Provence, which is quite a compliment.
They are well aware that Cabernet Franc is their flagship grape. Over the course of the summer, Macari hosts several events highlighting their twenty years of Cabernet Franc. This is the same grape that is used in the majority of the wines made in Pomerol, and unfair comparison to be sure, but an indication that Macari is aiming high with the wines that have garnered them their highest praise.
Macari’s porch and the pizza truck
Macari makes it easy to spend an extended time at their winery. As you enter their tasting room, there is a refrigerated cabinet with cheeses and charcuterie, which you can eat on their spacious and well appointed porch. If that’s not enough, the winery has arranged for a pizza-making truck to pull up alongside the building. And of course, you enjoy it with a bottle of Macari wine! We don’t think we’d make a special trip from Manhattan just for a pizza and a bottle of wine, but if we had a vacation home on the North Fork or the Hamptons, it would be a very tempting way to while away a baking hot summer afternoon in the shade of Macari’s porch.
Macari is one of the Long Island wineries that gives evidence to the potential of what the North Fork can produce. Macari Vineyards is offering a fine wine tasting experience today and the future of this winery is yet to discover.