As of last
weekend, my favorite Long Island pinot noir producer, Castello di Borghese  in
Cutchogue, went on the market for $9.2 million. The entire estate is included —
85 acres (25 planted with vines), winery, tasting room, warehouse and beautiful
family farmhouse.

Before
current owners Marco and Ann Marie Borghese bought the property in 1999, the
property was known as Hargrave Vineyard — Long Island’s first commercial vineyard, founded in 1973 by Alex and
Louisa Hargrave. The Borgheses bought the vineyard and winery for $4 million.

When I
asked Ann Marie what made her and her husband, an Italian prince, decide to put
the property on the market, she answered simply "Marco and I are following
our initial plan which was to be here until the children graduated high school
and now we are structuring our next phase. The vineyard is for sale and with
the time it takes to conclude this type of transaction we are starting the sequence."

Apparently neither
her son nor daughter have any interest in taking over the family business.
Maybe they’d be interested in adopting a local wine writer and letting him take
over?

Apparently
there are several parties already interested in the property, but as rumors
swirled leading up to last weekend, the Borghese’s winemaker Stan Schumacher
resigned.