In this week’s "Long Island Vines," New York Times writer Howard Goldberg announced the formation of the Long Island Merlot Alliance. He does a nice job introducing the endeavor…which has come of often when I’ve spoken to winemakers and winery owners. People tend to feel very strongly about the LIMA…on both sides. I’ve written before that I’m not sold on pushing merlot as "the region’s flagship wine" mostly because I’m not sure that all of the best wines here are merlot or that the one-varietal push is what Long Island needs to stand out. Proponents point to Oregon starting as…