Len Dest brings a different viewpoint to NYCR as he is a relative newcomer to New York Wine, after having focused for twenty five years on West Coast wines from Oregon and California, where he lived and worked in the aerospace industry, as well as wines from Europe, where he traveled extensively for business and pleasure.
When Len, a Pennsylvania native, returned to the East Coast ten years ago he quickly discovered and was impressed with New York wines and thus began an intensive learning process to familiarize himself with Long Island wines in particular.
Len served as the first director of the Long Island Merlot Alliance (Merliance). He has also traveled extensively to wine regions in North America, South Africa, Argentina and Australia and along with his wife Martina (who is from the same town in Germany as Long Island winemaker Roman Roth, who sang with her brother in a boys’ choir).
Len spends summers at their East End of Long Island home, and the remainder of the year between Manhattan and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. While not a professional writer, Len is the co- author of “Success Stories in Satellite Systems,” a collection of essays on commercial space activities published in April 2009 and is currently working on a second similar book.