Sannino’s Bella Vita Vineyard Joins the North Fork Wine Scene
Remember when Harold Watts of Ternhaven Cellars sold his vineyard in Cutchogue? I said at the time that I had heard the new owners were going to keep the property under vine. Well they have and it’s called Sannino’s Bella Vita Vineyard.
This isn’t just another vineyard or winery on the North Fork though, far from it. Much like the apparently failed Premier Cru Society at Belle Brittany Vineyard, owners Anthony and Lisa Sannino are offering wine lovers the chance to become winemakers. It’s a pretty cool thing that I hope they do well with.
For $3500 per year membership, you get:
- A custom barrel of premium wine of your choice (1 barrel = 23 cases = 275 bottles)
- Filtering
- Bottles
- Corks
- Standard Labels
- Annual Harvest Festival
- Two educational viticultural sessions
- One educational wine tasting session
They are billing themselves as a Home Winemakers’ Center, and they have been home winemakers for 15 years. Anthony began his formal education in enology and viticulture at the American mecca for wine education-the University of California, Davis. He has also been a frequent volunteer at many of the local wineries and continued his education that way. His wife Lisa has an MBA from Adelphi and will run the membership/business portion of the endeavor.
You can read more about the project at their website and also in this Newsday article.
Sounds like a great idea, but what the frick am I going to do with 275 bottles of wine
that sort of stuff always captures my imagination. My uncle owns 3 barrles - one in Allicante, one in Bordeaux and one in Tuscany. He’s in on it with ten of his friends. And if you divide it up ten ways, its not too bad really (still way out of my league.)
I’ve often wondered why more restaurants don’t buy barrels and make their own house wine - where the chef collaborates with a wine consultant to make the best blends for the restaurant. I think this’d be great for chain restaurants as well.
What are the direct to trade rules on that BTW? If a restaurant and a winery do a direct deal for the wine to be made specifically for a restaurant or group of enthusiasts - does their have to be a distributor in the equation if they’re sending it out of state?
Nice to see that this property will remain under vines. I recall attending one of the original Long Island Barrel Tasting & Barbecue events in the mid-90′s and being very surprised when this unknown winery named Ternhaven pretty much stole the show. Harold’s 1994 and 1995 releases were consistently among the top performers in our Long Island cellar. Hopefully the new owners realize what a special property this is.