{"id":2464,"date":"2023-09-29T15:58:03","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T15:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2464"},"modified":"2023-09-29T15:58:03","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T15:58:03","slug":"bedell-cellars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2464","title":{"rendered":"Bedell Cellars"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bordeaux winery founded in 1980 is a newcomer.\u00a0 In Napa Valley, it would have a heritage but wouldn\u2019t be a pioneer.\u00a0 But on Long Island\u2019s North Fork, a 1980 winery is positively ancient<\/em>.\u00a0 Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue (pronounced KUCH-og) is just such a winery.\u00a0 It has had two owners, the Bedells (Kip and Susan) who started it and the Lynne family who are still there.<\/p>\n

Then and now, Bedell made a number of wines, red, white and ros\u00e9.\u00a0 At the outset, the winery focused on one grape, Merlot, to the extent that Kip Bedell was known as \u201cMr. Merlot\u201d.\u00a0 In our earliest forays into Long Island\u2019s new Wine Country, we found Bedell Merlot to be a standout among other wineries trying to do everything for everybody.<\/p>\n

Bedell Cellars still bottles Merlot, but today it is a<\/em> wine, not the<\/em> wine. The wine that Bedell features most prominently now is Mus\u00e9e, which is a Bordeaux grape blend.\u00a0 It is unusual in two ways: the most prominent grape is Petit Verdot, which is usually used for blending in France.\u00a0 And the 2019 bottling does not contain Cabernet Franc, which many (us included) find to be the grape most suited to the North Fork\u2019s terroir<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/em>The entrance to the Bedell winery.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are a number of reasons to spend time at Bedell when visiting the North Fork.\u00a0 Not the least is the look of the place, both inside and out.\u00a0 There is a New England-y quality to the exterior of the winery buildings.\u00a0 Since the North Fork was settled by \u00e9migr\u00e9 Puritans in the 1700\u2019s, the architecture is an homage to local history.\u00a0 White clapboard and little steeples lead one to expect whalers to be coming home at any minute.\u00a0 These days, especially in the summer months, it is far more likely that it will be tourists who are coming.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/em>Bedell\u2019s tasting room.<\/em><\/p>\n

The d\u00e9cor of the tasting room belies the rustic sense of the exterior.\u00a0 It\u2019s modern, metal and high-tech, all rather dramatic.\u00a0 The servers work behind the bar and interact with visitors languidly on cool, early April days and a bit frantically at the height of the summer.\u00a0 We do recommend a visit to Bedell to get a sense of where the North Fork\u2019s wines have come from.\u00a0 But we further recommend that you do so on a day other than a high-season weekend.<\/p>\n

In addition to the tourist hordes, you are likely to find some distractions at Bedell.\u00a0 They often present musical acts, for one thing, and in the summer youmight find yourself surrounded by a lot of surprisingly well-dressed people.\u00a0 They are probably there for a wedding.\u00a0 Winery nuptials are becoming quite the thing on the North Fork, and the beauty of Bedell\u2019s vineyards, grounds and architecture attract quite a few.<\/p>\n

We view marriage quite favorably and are happy to see people getting hitched in such lovely surroundings. \u00a0But the business of winery-as-a-backdrop may have an effect on the business of making and selling wine.\u00a0 It\u2019s enough that winemaking is part farming, part art and part industry.\u00a0 Adding ceremonies as a fourth part of the financial equation can alter a winemaker\u2019s perspective, as well as that of wine tasters.\u00a0 We hope that Bedell keeps its eye on the ball\u2026or at least on the grape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Bordeaux winery founded in 1980 is a newcomer.\u00a0 In Napa Valley, it would have a heritage but wouldn\u2019t be a pioneer.\u00a0 But on Long Island\u2019s North Fork, a 1980 winery is positively ancient.\u00a0 Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue (pronounced KUCH-og) is just such a winery.\u00a0 It has had two owners, the Bedells (Kip and Susan) … Continue reading Bedell Cellars<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2467,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464\/revisions\/2467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}