I had the surprise privilege to taste a very nice lineup of wines with Paumanok vineyards winemaker Kareem Massoud. While visiting a friend at a retail store in NYC Kareem came by to show him a bunch of wines. And I jumped on the opportunity to join them.
The North (or South) Fork of Long Island has yet to reach prominent status as a world class wine growing region, but there certainly seem to be some world class winemakers making some lovely wines there.
IN the interest of keeping things brief (partly due to some frustrating internet issues) I’ll get right to it.
I tried the 2007 “Dry Riesling” and 2008 “semi-dry Riesling”. The semi-dry only had about 2 grams of residual sugar, so the sweetness was not overly detectable. I found the two wines to be quite similar. They both showed some bubble gum aromas and a nice crispness. The dry Riesling also had some nice spiciness to it. Nice!
The wine that I thought presented the best value, and also really enjoyed was the 2005 Merlot. This 100% Merlot had ripe tannins, blue & black fruit characteristics (rather than the usual red fruit one often finds in Merlot), had a nice mouth feel and a medium to long finish.
The last wine I want to mention was the 2005 Assemblage, a blend of 44% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon and 22% Petit Verdot. This wine had dark berries and some subtle chocolate aromas. On the palate it was fruity and a bit of a lean wine, and consequently I think a good food wine. It too had a pleasant medium to long finish.
In all it was a pleasure speaking with a winemaker who is willing to hit the road to promote his products and equip retailers carrying his wines with as much ammunition as possible to best enable them to be successful with the wines.
Happy little known wine region wine tasting!
WTG
Tags: Paumanok vineyards
Paumanok is a great winery. They produce some of the more unusual varietals on the North Fork, eg a Chenin Blanc and an Petit Verdot, both very interesting. They are very active in promoting the region as well as their own products.