Category: Wineries

Before we introduce you to this particular winery, we’d like to say a few words about how we got there.  We visited Vienna for the first time and fell in love with the city.  Our purpose was not wine tasting, but as long as there was an opportunity to see some vineyards, we couldn’t resist (of course).  Quite frankly, we don’t usually like to take a tour for wine tasting purposes, but in this instance, we thought it was the best choice.  Not every winery we visited was worth reporting, but Weinbau Prinz (www.weinbauprinz.at) was a very pleasant experience so we’re pleased to share it with our readers.

Weinbau is a German word for viticulture or wine growing, what we would call a winery. This particular one is owned by Roswitha and Martin Prinz, who are from winemaking families stretching back for centuries.  Their small (3.1 hectares) vineyard is located in the village of Stetten in the winemaking district known as the Weinviertel, the largest in Austria.  The Weinviertel (“wine quarter” in German) abuts Vienna and this winery is only a 45 minute drive from the city center.

The village church in Stetten, Austria rising over the vines of Weinbau Prinz.

The wine tasting experience at Weinbau Prinz is highlighted by the setting.  Your party is seated at a long table right in the vineyard, with the steeple of the village church looming over you.  If, like us, you have seen scenes like this in the movies and were ever-so-eager to do it yourself, you’re hooked before you even take the first sip.

Tasting in the Weinbau Prinz vineyards.

The wines are poured by Roswitha Prinz herself.  (Martin is the cellar guy.)  Besides owning the winery, she is a lecturer at BOKU, which we gather is the Viennese university for viticulture.  She seems unfazed at answering questions from those who know little about Austrian wine or wine in general, as well as from wine snobs.  You get all kinds in the wine business, we guess.

Weinbau Prinz is proud to proclaim that they have been fully organic (or bio as they say in Europe) since 2018.  For a small vineyard, they make quite a wide variety of wines, ranging from the inevitable Grüner Veltliner, through a white blend they call, simply enough, Cuvee Weiss to some sparkling wines known in Austria as sekt.  Weinbau Prinz has a number of wines made from unusual (to us) white grapes, including Blütenmuskateller, Donauriesling, Cabernet Blanc, and Sauvignac.  Although the Weinviertel is primarily known for white wines, they also offer a few Zweigelts, a red grape more frequently found in Western Austria.

We’ll leave it to others to discuss the subtleties of aroma and taste of the wines at Weinbau Prinz.  Power Tasting is all about the wine tasting experience, not wine reviewing.  If your objective is an enjoyable hour well spent, in scenery that seems to come from the winemaking Tourism Bureau, we recommend Weinbau Prinz without reservation.  Oh, maybe a reservation would be a good idea, since they welcome tours.

A few issues back, Power Tasting featured a winery, Margerum, that had moved from the refined area of Santa Barbara to the raucous Funk Zone.  Here, we report on Kunin Wines (www.kuninwines.com), which went the other way.  Some years ago we featured Kunin in their old digs (now occupied by the Santa Barbara Winery).  We are pleased to say that the wine is just as good, maybe better, and the vibe is way, way cooler.

We last visited Kunin in early 2017.  Tragically, the founder, Seth Kunin died later that year.  His widow, Magan, joined in time by their daughter Phoebe, took the reins.  Maybe we were just in a better mood in the new tasting room; maybe the vintages were better this time; or maybe Magan has just improved the wines.  Whatever the reason, we enjoyed the wines even more this time.

The new facility is in the Presidio section, once the center of Spanish colonial administration in Santa Barbara.  In fact, some of the old buildings are visible out the window.  It’s a storefront, with an adjoining cheese shop.  You can buy some cheese or sliced meats to accompany your tastes, if you so choose.  The tasting room is small and sparsely furnished, with a few stools at the bar, and a few chairs and tables in an open room.

The Kunin tasting room, with a server ready to pour.

Crowd control is not the problem it was in the Funk Zone, because there are no crowds.  Most of the uptown wineries have tasting rooms on the main drag, State Street.  Kunin is a few blocks away.  We hope that they attract dedicated tasters, because we suspect that foot traffic is sparse.

Kunin still makes Rhône style wines with Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre taking the pride of place.  (We hate to hear them called GSM, but that seems to be the American way.)  But Kunin also produces wines from a variety of grapes not often found in the US.  These include Carignane, Cinsault and Counoise.  Whites are made from Viognier and Chenin Blanc.  Many are estate wines, but Kunin does have several single vineyard sourced wines.

Two wines available for tasting are somewhat different.  Kunin has two wines that they call Pape Star, which are their take on Chateauneuf de Pape.  The white is a blend of Grenache Blanc and Rousanne, which we don’t think any other American wineries make.  The red is made of Grenache, Mourvèdre, Counoise and Carignane.  These wines are a tribute to the great wines of the Southern Rhône.  But make no mistake; they’re unmistakably California Rhône-style wines  that don’t need to tip their proverbial hats to their French cousins.

There’s also a real oddball wine that they call MV Special K.  MV means multi-vintage; Special K doesn’t mean breakfast cereal.  Moreover, this wine is a blend of different vineyards from around Santa Barbara County.  It’s usually reserved for Kunin’s club members.  If it’s not on the tasting list, ask for it politely.  If they have it open, we’re sure they’ll pour you some.

If you’re wine tasting in Santa Barbara, make a point of visiting Kunin.  Don’t let them be lonely.

Several years ago, Power Tasting published a review of the Sanford tasting room in Santa Barbara.  That space now hosts other vineyards, but interested wine lovers can still visit Sanford (www.sanfordwinery.com) at their facility in the Santa Rita Hills.  It’s a drive of an hour or so outside of Santa Barbara, and it’s a trip worth taking.  [Elsewhere in this issue we discuss the attraction of the locale; here we’ll focus on the winery.]

The interior of the Sanford winery, with doors leading to the vineyards and outdoor tastings.

When you get off the road at Sanford, you’re immediately surrounded by grape vines.  You are, in fact, in the midst of the Rinaconda vineyard and some of the wines you are about to taste were made from the same vines, just a few years prior.  That sense of being surrounded by great grapes stays with you throughout the visit.

The winery and its tasting room are housed in a handsome adobe brick building, with Spanish roof tiles.  It looks very much like a hacienda, an impression that is reinforced inside, with Southwestern décor.  It evokes the missions that once dotted California in its colonial times.  We suppose there are tastings in there on rainy or cold days, but if you can, have your tasting outside.

As we said before, Santa Rita Hills is a trip worth taking.

A capella tasting, at the “hacienda”

Visitors are seated at comfortable tables, spaced widely enough that you have the sense that you are the only ones there to taste Sanford’s wines.  The pleasure is doubled by the vista, all the way to the horizon, of vines.  Make that tripled pleasure, because the tables are placed within gardens of blooms and desert plants.

The server explains the history of the Sanford winery, which in brief is the history of wine production in the Santa Rita Hills.  Richard Sanford and Michael Benedict planted the first vines there in 1971.  Their first vineyard, called Sanford-Benedict naturally enough, was and is the most prestigious in the region.  Today, Sanford is owned by the Terlato family, who also have several other top wineries in California.

And then the wines.  They make Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays.  Unusually, they serve the reds before the whites.  When we questioned this practice, the server acknowledged that this is not the way others do it, but that the winery believes that the high level of acidity in the Chardonnays would affect the taste of the Pinot Noirs if served first.

The standard tasting menu includes their top single-vineyard wines, including the aforementioned Sanford & Benedict and the Rinaconda.  The former is emblematic of Santa Rita Hills wine; the latter is somewhat richer, to our tastes.  Also to our tastes, Sanford’s Pinot Noirs are among the most Burgundian of American wines made from that grape.

The servers are generous with their pour, which leads to a dilemma.  Yes, there’s a bucket, but the wines are so good that we didn’t want to pour anything out.  Still, we had to be aware that there would be driving ahead of us.  As dilemmas go, this wasn’t a bad one.  WE savored the wines but responsibly left some behind.

In the city of Épernay, there is a famous street called the Avenue de Champagne, which Power Tasting has featured in the past.  It is lined with Champagne houses where you can taste all day long.  At the far end, away from the center of town, is Champagne Mercier (www.champagnemercier.com).  They may not make the best Champagne in France (we’ll leave it to others to choose which one is) but it is the most popular one in that country.  Considering the combination of quality and price, that’s understandable.  Their top Brut Rosé costs about $38 a bottle.  Alas, it can’t be found in the US and wouldn’t be that inexpensive if it were.

However, the price of a bottle isn’t the attraction at any winery, it’s the enjoyment of the visit and the tasting.  And here Mercier excels.  As you approach the entrance, there’s an antique truck that evidently was once used to deliver Champagne.  It’s a way of telling a visitor that Mercier has been around a long time, since 1858 in fact.  The current facility was erected in 1871.  When you enter, you are confronted with a massive, decorated wine barrel, that holds 200,000 bottles worth of wine.  It was built for the 1889 Paris World Exposition.

Viewing the artwork from the train at Champagne Mercier.

The actual visit begins with a tour of the cellars.  Groups are taken together onto a glass elevator that descends slowly down 98 feet.  The walls of the shaft have paintings, to get you into the spirit right away.  At the bottom you are ushered into an open train, sort of like at Disneyland.  It winds its way through parts of the 11 miles of chalk tunnels.  Evidently the founder, Eugène Mercier was concerned about the cultural well-being of his workers, so there are carved works of art throughout the cellars.  And of course you get to see where Champagne bottles are stored, riddled and aged.

There is a recorded guide as you progress through the cellars, which is available in English as well as in French.  Be sure to bring a sweater.  The whole reason for cellaring Champagne is to age it and concentrating the sediments in a stable, cool environment.  Rolling along in an open train, you definitely feel a little chill.

At last, the tasting.

At length you return to the surface and have the chance to taste.  Tours include either one or three Champagnes to try.  At this point you’re so eager and thirsty that of course they seem quite good.  It takes some taste memory to summon up how you felt about better-known labels you’ve had in the past (or an hour ago elsewhere on the Avenue de Champagne.  If you wish, you are free to wander around the public area, admiring that big barrel and taking in the modernist interior architecture.

When you step outside at last you find yourself in a vineyard.  We think it’s the only working vineyard inside the city limits of Épernay.  Once you’ve seen the hectares after hectares of vines in Champagne, you may not be surprised by the size of this vineyard, but it’s mere existence is another reminder of what Champagne production must have been more than 100 years ago. 

Mercier is among the most fun tours we have taken at a Champagne house.  It is worth the visit.

Power Tasting reported on wine tasting in Santa Barbara several years ago; this edition is an update of sorts.  At that time, we visited the Margerum tasting room, then at the El Paseo complex.  The wines were enjoyable but the room was on a dark alley and it was dark and uninviting inside as well.  Power Tasting’s policy is that we don’t print bad reviews; we believe that silence is the best way to deal with wineries that we couldn’t recommend.  So we never said anything about Margerum at that time.

The entrance and one of the patios at Margerum Wines.

Margerum (https://www.margerumwines.com) has moved, somewhat surprisingly, to the Funk Zone.  But their tasting room in Santa Barbara is anything but funky.  (They also have a tasting room in Los Olivos that we haven’t visited.)  From the elegant, soaring entrance to the broad, capacious room inside, the message is: “Margerum makes serious wine and should be taken seriously”.  [Is the Funk Zone evolving?  Time will tell.]

The interior of the tasting room at Margerum in Santa Barbara.

The overall ambiance is that of Spanish-accented lounge at a fancy resort.  There is a wide bar, terraces in front and on the side, and a separate section above for groups and parties.  Perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it a restaurant at resort, because Margerum also has a rather extensive menu.  Many wineries will offer a cheese and charcuterie plate, as does Margerum, but this one also has a lengthy list of hors d’oeuvres, sandwiches, salads and pizzas, all prepared on the premises.

All of this would mean nothing if the wines were subpar.  While Power Tasting doesn’t review wines as such, we can say that there were several that we enjoyed quite a bit.  While Margerum does offer Pinot Noirs and several Sauvignon Blancs, their specialty is wines made from Rhône-style grapes.  Our favorites were the Pinot Noir from the Sanford-Benedict vineyard, their Reserve Syrah and particularly their Mourvèdre.  The Margerum Rosé is also quite Rhône-like.

Doug Margerum, the winery’s founder, is a Central Coast wine pioneer and continues to advocate for and consult to other vineyards in the area. He has started a second label, Barden, using his middle name for these wines.  The intent, according to their web site is “an exploration of cold climate grapes grown in and around the Santa Rita Hills AVA”. We didn’t enjoy them as much as the Margerum-labeled wines. We visited the new tasting room on a weekday and so can’t speak to the weekend when the Funk Zone fills with partiers.  We were told by our sever that weekends get quite crowded.  We don’t understand why the decision was made to relocate to an area better known for high times than fine wines.  We prefer to taste wine in an environment that to some degree replicates the atmosphere of a dinner party in our home: a happy buzz of conversation but not the clang of a wild night of drinking.  We can only advise that wine lovers visit Margerum and do so on the days of the week that best fit their temperaments. 

Caveau de Chassagne

Burgundy is one of Wine Country’s greatest and best known sectors.  And the best Burgundy wines come from the Côte d’Or.  On the southern tip of this vinicultural (and cultural) wonderland are the paired villages of Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet.  Puligny is more famous, probably because of its white wines, which some connoisseurs believe are the world’s finest.  We at Power Tasting are merely wine lovers and make no pretense of connoisseurship, so we offer no opinion. 

Photo courtesy of the Caveau de Chassagne.

Chassagne, on the other side of the road, has both excellent whites and reds.  You can visit some châteaux, but there aren’t that many (and not the greatest ones) that are visitor friendly.  So if you want to taste the wines of the two AOCs, we recommend the Caveau de Chassagne (http://caveaudechassagne.com/).  In some ways, it’s like a cooperative, in that you can sample wines from a variety of local producers.  But it’s more of a regional showcase, with tastings and sales of wine.

To confuse things, the tasting room is also known as the Caveau Municipal, which is emblazoned on the exterior of a somewhat plain, sandy-covered building.  That was the name of the place when it opened in 1986 and they haven’t bothered changing the sign.  The interior is rather dark, perhaps because the walls are bedecked with wine bottles.  There are a few tables and a display case with the wines you can sample.  There are servers, whom they call guides, who are of varying degrees of friendliness to those who don’t speak French, and are quite knowledgeable about the local wines.  All that said, it’s worth going.

Some of the Grand Crus available. Photo courtesy of the Caveau de Chassagne.

Although the tasting room is located in Chassagne, Puligny’s are served as well.  What makes it distinctive is the range of quality of the wines they serve. A few words about Burgundian wine naming rules is called for here.  If the label says only Burgundy, then the grapes can come from anywhere in the province.  If it has a village name, such as Chassagne-Montrachet, on the label then it’s from some of that village’s designated vineyards.  If it says Burgundy Villages as well as a village name, then it’s from its better vineyards.  Premier Cru is even better (and somewhat affordable) and Grand Cru is the top, in both quality and price.  And all these levels are available to sip and compare at the Caveau de Chassagne.

Almost all the wine in Burgundy comes from two grapes, Chardonnay for the whites and Pinot Noir for the reds.  The reasons have much to do with history as well as terroir, but certainly the local vignerons have perfected the elevation of these grapes.  (Yes, there is also Passetoutgrains, which aren’t worth drinking, and Bourgogne Aligoté, which is used in making kir.)  Since all of the wines you are going to taste at the Caveau de Chassagne are from the same two appellations and the same two grapes, comparison tasting really can show you how different micro-terroirs, winemakers and quality levels determine what goes into your glass.

Oh, about Montrachet.  For one thing, it can be pronounced MAWN-rashay or MONT-rashay.  The so-called Mount Rachet is a not very large hill between the two villages.  We suppose a mountain is in the eye of the viewer.

We’ve often been told that in California, Cabernet Sauvignon is king.  That’s true, except where it’s Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.  For some reason, the grapes originally from France are the most widely grown in California.  Why aren’t there more Italian grapes planted there?  Well, Zinfandel is descended from Italian Primitivo and there is certainly enough of that grape in California.  And at Passalacqua Winery (https://passalacquawinery.com/) you will find quite a lot of Zin.  You’ll find a fair number of Italy-inspired wines as well.

Members of the Passalacqua family have been making and selling wine in Dry Creek Valley since 1895.  After operating in several locations around Sonoma County, Passalacqua settled at the western end of the Lambert Bridge Road.  This was previously the location of Pezzi King, known for their Zinfandels, which Passalacqua still features.  In fact, there are five of them, most sourced from nearby vineyards and one grown on their own land.

The winery building is a simple, wooden structure without pretense.  A Napa Palace would feel out of place in Dry Creek Valley, and Passalacqua certainly has a sense of place, which they invite you to share.  We recommend that visitors take their tasting out on Passalacqua’s terrace.  Of course, it’s always pleasant to taste wine out of doors, but the experience at this winery is more than that.  The views across the Dry Creek Valley are nothing less than spectacular.  In case the vines didn’t provide enough scenery, fountains and some well-placed olive trees add just the right touch.  You will find yourself sipping slowly, just to extend your time taking in all that beauty.

The Passalacquas’ Italian heritage comes through in several of the wines they make.  Their aptly named Radici della Famiglia (Roots of the Family) is now in its fifteenth release, so they add Quindici (15) to the name of the wine in the current release.  It’s meant to tase like a Super Tuscan, as it is made of Cabernet and Sangiovese.  Italian it may be in style, but there’s no missing that it’s a California wine.  Of course, they still bow to the king and make Cabernet Sauvignon as well.  They also make a white Fiano, and almost no one else in America makes wine from this southern Italian grape.  Interestingly, the majority of the Fiano grapes are pressed the old-fashioned way, by foot.  Roots, indeed! 

Quite a few of the wines that Passalacqua makes are available only to their club members, although just maybe an odd bottle or two will show up in the tasting room.  And if you want to taste their wines, you’ll have to do so at the winery or join their club, because they don’t distribute commercially.

Napa Valley and Sonoma County have many wineries established by immigrants from Italy.  Not many others pay tribute to their heritage in the wines they make.  (David Coffaro, nearby, is another exception.)  With regard to Passalacqua, we say come for the views; stay for the wine.

Winemaking in Long Island’s North Fork has been going on long enough that there are beginning to be two types of wineries.  The first is the pioneers, built by the hardy individuals who thought they could make quality wine where once potatoes grew…and to a greater or lesser extent, they’ve done it.  The other is the newcomers, building on the success of the pioneers but bringing a lot of money earned doing something else, such as software or manufacturing.  Pugliese Vineyards (www.pugliesevineyards.com) is one of the oldest of the pioneers.

Established in 1980, Pugliese was and is a family enterprise.  The founding father has passed away but his wife is still to be found in the tasting room, dispensing wine, gifts and advice.  We’ve learned that there are now five generations involved in production and sales.  For those of us with respect for tradition in winemaking, this fact alone is a reason to visit the winery.

Photo courtesy of Foursquare.

The building housing the tasting room is simple, made of white clapboard.  There is a touch of a farmhouse about it.  But really, don’t visit Pugliese for the architecture.  Find a perfect warm afternoon, with blue skies and lots of sunshine.  That’s the time to come to this winery.

Around the aforementioned building are acres of lawns, trees, a lake with a fountain in it and, gloriously, a long pergola covered in vines with plentiful picnic tables below it.  You can bring a picnic or buy cheeses, cold cuts, snacks and olives on the premises, all designed to accompany the wines.  (Hint to the owners: they should offer Pugliese bread.)  Most of Long Island is flat; Pugliese isn’t exactly hilly, but they do bill themselves as “The Winery in the Hollow”, which only adds to its attractiveness.  As is the case with many North Fork wineries, Pugliese does a side business in weddings.  We can see why people would want to get married there.

Like many Long Island vineyards, Pugliese makes wine from a wide variety of grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese, Gewurztraminer and Niagara, to be exact.  We have often said that this is an error by the local wineries.  Yes, they want to appeal to all tastes, but we think they would all be better off making better wine from fewer varietals.  We notice that some of the newcomers are also doing this.

Pugliese takes great pride in their sparkling wines, which they still call Champagne.  Of course, by law the real thing comes from that place in France, but Pugliese has been making their sparklers long enough that they were allowed to continue using the term as long as they identify it as coming from Long Island on the label.  They have four of them, and you can try a flight of all four.

To be honest, we don’t find Pugliese’s wines to be to our tastes.  That’s really unimportant.  For one thing, Power Tasting isn’t about the wines but about the wine tasting experience, and the experience at Pugliese is great.  Moreover, it seems that they have developed a dedicated following.  Whenever we have been there, we have seen groups of visitors buying lots of wine and enjoying it quite a lot.

We love driving down Westside Road in the Russian River Valley.  Healdsburg is just behind us; great Pinot Noir and Chardonnay lie ahead.  Westside is a well-tended country road, with wineries on your right side, heading south, and occasional glimpses of the valley floor to your left.  And there on your right you will find Bacigalupi Vineyards (https://bacigalupivineyards.com).

The Bacigalupi tasting room.  Photo courtesy of the winery.

Bacigalupi is a family vineyard, which means a lot in these days, when “family” often means “We made a lot of money doing something else, and bought ourselves a vineyard”.  The Bacigalupis have been growing grapes on this property since 1956, with the first plantings of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in 1964, possibly the first Pinot Noir in Russian River.  They must have done some things right, because their Chardonnay was in the blend that won the Judgement of Paris in 1976, included amongst Chateau Montelena’s grapes.

Bacigalupi’s Pinot Noir.  Photo courtesy of the winery.

In fact, you may have already tasted some of Bacigalupi’s production.  They sell more of their grapes than they use for bottling under their own label.  Williams Seylem and Gary Farrell are among their customers, who gladly announce the vineyard they source from.  We don’t know if this is true (and the family won’t tell) but it’s only reasonable to expect that they hold back their best grapes for their own wine.

To this day, Bacigalupi is truly family-owned.  Charles, the founder, has passed away, but his wife Helen is still with us.  John and Pam, son and daughter-in-law, run it and Katey and Nicole are in management positions.  We have found that if you stop by for a tasting, a family member is likely to be pouring your wine.  And in keeping with that of-the-soil tradition, the winery is simple, more of a farmhouse than a tasting room.  It’s far enough off Westside Road that it feels rather isolated, as though it were the only farm property for miles, instead of one of the many Russian River wineries.

To this day, Bacigalupi has stuck with what they do well: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  In fact, they have kept the 2½ acre Paris Tasting Vineyard.  Wine from this vineyard is available (though hard to find) under the name Renouveau.  Our tastes run more to their Pinot Noirs, from several of Bacigalupi’s vineyards.  We find them representative of Russian River Pinot Noirs, which is saying quite a lot.  If you want to know what good Russian River Pinot Noir tastes like, try theirs.  They are full-bodied, but not like some of the bruisers from Santa Lucia Highlands, nor thin and acidic as you find at other Russian River vineyards.

While the wines are modern and bright, the experience of a visit to Bacigalupi is homey and laid-back.  It’s as though you are being invited into the Bacigalupis’ home, which after a fashion you are.  The wines are well worth tasting but they’re not the only reason to stop there.  You get to feel a part of a culture that is sadly dying out, of honest people making quality wines because that’s what they do.  More, it’s who they are.  If you’re a serious wine taster, you’ll appreciate the people as well as the wine.

Most American wineries that we are aware of have names that include words like Vineyards, Estate or Cellars.  But Paumanok, on Long Island’s North Fork, doesn’t have one of those words; it’s just plain Paumanok.  That’s okay, in part because the word is Algonquian for Long Island. It’s a no-nonsense name for a winery that’s basically about the wines they serve, without a lot of frills.  If your purpose for visiting is also all about the wines, you’ll be happy there.  If you’re looking for a party atmosphere, not so much.

The Paumanok winery, with its tasting porch.

It starts with the architecture of the winery.  It’s a renovated old barn, simple and a little weather-beaten.  Big barns do reflect the agricultural history of the North Fork, where potatoes and duckling were once the main crops, not grapes.  Founded in 1983, Paumanok is a family-run enterprise.  The interior is also plain and simple: a wooden bar and an expansive though rather empty wooden floor.

The Adirondack chairs, where you can sip and watch the workmen tend to the vines.

But if you are visiting on a pleasant day, you don’t want to be inside anyway.  You want to be on the winery’s porch or near the vineyards, where Paumanok comes into its own.  You can sit at a table or in a field of Adirondack chairs, facing the vines.  You choose some wines to try, a server brings them to you and then you’re left alone to enjoy them.  Again, plain and simple; if you want a buddy to converse with you, bring your own.  The servers are informative but not chatty.

And to an extent, this straightforward approach is reflected in the wines as well.  As is the case with almost all Long Island vineyards, they make wine from a wide variety of grapes, both red and white.  Paumanok specializes in the Bordeaux grape varietals in their red wines.  Power Tasting doesn’t review wines, but we can say that we were particularly impressed by their white wines.  That’s quite a compliment coming from us, whose cellar is 90% made up of red wines.  The Sauvignon Blanc and especially the Chenin Blanc were our favorites.

[Pardon us for a bit of a rant.  Why do Long Island winemakers think they need to grow a dozen different grapes, when clearly the terroir there is supportive of only a few?  Make what you’re good at and don’t try to please everybody with everything.  And while we’re ranting, why don’t more vineyards grow Chenin Blanc?]

For those driving to the North Fork from the west, which is just about everyone, Paumanok is among the first you’ll encounter when you leave the Long Island Expressway, which makes it an excellent first stop (or last one on your way home).  For people from New York City, visiting Paumanok is like letting out a long sigh: “Aaah, we’ve made it”.  This good, solid winery with its good, solid wines sets a standard that the rest of the North Fork vineyards needs to live up to.