By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor Merlot dominates the Long Island wine landscape. It is the most-planted grape and the one that many wineries have built their red wine programs around — and with good reason. It ripens d...

Four library reds at Bedell Cellars Bedell Cellars is one of the true jewels of the North Fork wine industry. You have history — it was founded in 1980 by Kip Bedell who still serves as founding winemaker. You have an influx ...

Most winemakers talk about how their wines are "made in the vineyard" and about how they let the grapes make the decisions for them in the winery. Not all of them actually practice what they preach though. Some local ...

Long Island cabernet can be a not-very-tasty proposition. As consistently as vineyard managers can ripen merlot on this overgrown sand bar, cabernet does so just as inconsistently. Often, it doesn't ripen fully at all, lead...

Saturday morning, several of you (my readers) descended upon Sannino Bella Vita Vineyard on Saturday morning to harvest cabernet sauvignon for our community-made Long Island red blend. I was unable to make it because I was in t...

It’s Wednesday and I’m drinking wine virtually chosen by another person, so it must be Wine Blogging Wednesday, this time hosted by Catie from the Through the Walla Walla Grape Vine blog. The theme, fittingly enough...

On the North Fork, there is an un-official red wine grape pecking order. Okay, maybe it isn’t even un-official. At the top is the almighty merlot grape, lauded by many observers as the king of Long Island grapes. And, it ...

On Sunday March 11, two of the North Fork’s best-Paumanok Vineyards and the North Fork Table & Inn-will present a special wine dinner featuring three vintages of Paumanok’s cabernet sauvignon. $85 pl...

I have an announcement to make: I have a new favorite local red wine for every day, food-friendly drinking. Shinn Estate Vineyard’s non-vintage Red ($14) is a blend of 75% merlot and 25% cabernet sauvignon, isn’t th...