Posts Tagged“merliance”

Merliance Seeks New Executive Director

Merliance—the alliance of Long Island producers of quality merlot and merlot-based blends—seeks an Executive Director to run its non-profit trade association. The group, formerly known as Long Island Merlot Alliance, needs to replace Donnell Brown, who has left the group to become SeniorMarketing Manager at Wolffer Estate. From the announcement: [box_light]Our Executive Director will work from home on a part-time basis (approximately 16 hours/week), ensuring our organization runs smoothly, gains stature and new members, achieves our marketing and research goals, and annually produces our cooperative blend, also called Merliance. Our ideal candidate is a self-starter, capable of/comfortable with working independently from home,…

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Lieb Cellars Joins Merliance

Merliance, formerly known as the Long Island Merlot Alliance, announced today that Lieb Cellars has joined its ranks. and that two barrels of Lieb Cellars’ merlot will be included in the 2012 vintage of Merliance, the group’s cooperative merlot blend. This move isn’t surprising. Acquired along with Premium Wine Group by private equity firm Southport Lane earlier this year, Lieb Cellars is now under the business leadership of Peter Pace and technical direction of Merliance co-founder winemaker Russell Hearn. “Lieb seeks to expand the visibility of Long Island wine at high-profile venues across the Northeast,” said Pace in a press release,…

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News Brief: Merliance Elects Roth, Nappa and Ginsburg as New Officers

Merliance (formerly known as the Long Island Merlot Alliance) has named offers for a new two-year term — ending in June 2015 — based on a vote of members. Roman Roth, partner, winemaker and technical director at Wolffer Estate is the group’s new president. Roth is also one of the founders of the organization. He said in a press release “The Merliance has come a long way since we started in 2005. With collective reviews of our merlots and merlot-based blends in national publications, annual consultations with international oenologists and elegant wine-focused events like HARVEST EAST END to our credit,…

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Stéphane Toutoundji, Famed French Oenologist Visits Long Island

For the second year in a row the six members of the Long Island Merlot Alliance hired a noted Bordeaux oenologist, this time Stéphane Toutoundji,  to visit each member vineyard, winery and lab. He arrived on Monday, June 3. The Alliance is comprised of six local producers — Clovis Point in Jamesport, McCall Wines in Cutchogue, Raphael in Peconic, Sherwood House Vineyards in Jamesport, T’Jara Vineyards in Mattituck and Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack. Toutoundji has been making wine since 1988 and once was a student of the famous oenoligist, Michel Rolland. In 2002 Stéphane purchased half of the wine lab, Filles Pauquet…

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Long Island Merlot Alliance 2006 Merliance

By Lenn Thompson, Editor in Chief Regional Wine Week continues today with a review of the Long Island Merlot Alliance's latest release, Merliance 2006 ($35).  Formed in 2005, the Long Island Merlot Alliance (LIMA) strives to develop quality standards in the production of classically-styled Long Island merlot and to establish Long Island as the leading region for merlot in the New World.  After an initial press splash, the group has been somewhat understated, choosing to focus on vineyard research and conducting tastings to identify the qualities that help define "typical" Long Island merlot. In March, founding members Raphael, Pellegrini Vineyards, Sherwood…

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Merliance 2005 Merlot

Merliance is a wine co-produced by the members of the Long Island Merlot Alliance: Raphael, Pellegrini Vineyards, Sherwood House Vineyards, Shinn Estate Vineyards and Wolffer Estate Vineyards. This is only the second vintage of Merliance, but each year, the member wineries choose two barrels from their own cellars that they feel best represent their own individual style as well as Long Island’s unique terroir. For those keeping score at home, that's ten barrels of 100% merlot from five wineries with five winemakers with five differing styles. Under those conditions, crafting a wine that not only retains true Long Island character…

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