Vineyard with Winery Visit

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Wine Beverage Analysis
By: Rukiya Graham

For this assignment, I had the opportunity to visit a vineyard with a winery.

The First Look: The Place:

The vineyard that I chose is Paumanok Vineyards located in Aquebogue, New York, on 1074 Main Road. This estate is roughly 127 acres.  In this vineyard, they grow a rather large variety of grapes, such as Chardonnay, Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and many more. This vineyard is located in North Fork of Long Island American Viticultural Area (AVA), in New York. When pulling into the entrance of the Paumanok Vineyards the parking lot has gravel soil and as you begin walking up to this barn house style entrance and looking to the right side you can see the wooden style tasting room and towards the left you can see their grapevines and a patio deck that leads to their tasting room as well.  As soon as you walk inside of the barn the gift shop, bar and register are all located within the same proximity. Furthermore, this vineyard is so big and beautiful that it is capable of hosting weddings and other outdoor events.

My Outlook: The Experience:

Visiting Paumanok the wine tasting was very different from the one I experienced in Champagne, France. Within Paumanok I took the liberty to do the self-tour, instead of having a guide. I was able to walk the vineyards freely and take as many pictures, and seeing and smelling the grapes right on the vines as they grow, and see exactly what clusters are and how they separate each grape variety. What makes Paumanok Vineyards have great wines are the type of soil that is surrounding their AVA which is known as prevailing soil type. Also, the climate within the long island is considered Maritime climate. They keep their vines in very neat rows and they have a very careful pruning system. They make sure that they install the usage of cover crops between each and every row of vines.  Their viticulture practices are the usage of being sustainable. It was explained to me that the vintage distinction can be slightly different from a year to year basis depending on the season. The knowledge and willingness of the tasting room personnel were amazing. Erika expressed the knowledge and history of the vineyard as well as giving us a menu to look at for which wines are in a pre-fixe menu. It was roughly around thirty (30) dollars to taste six (6) glasses of wine. While getting the six wines of choice, she explained that majority of their white wines are held in their stainless steel tanks and their red wines are held/aged in oak barrels that are inert. Also depending on the grape, it would be hand or machine picked. They also sell one sparkling wine that is made from their Chenin blanc and Chardonnay. Visiting this vineyard and seeing the passion that each individual took to explain the process of how their viniculture is done and how they expressed their vinification techniques, without telling me to set an appointment shows their excellent customer service skills. Seeing these wonderful attributes make this vineyard a recommended choice.

View or their outdoor tasting room

view of some of the oak barrels they use to store their red wines

Mister Wright Fine Wines & Spirits

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For my retail shop analysis, I had the opportunity of visiting Mister Wright Fine Wines & Spirits, which is located at 1593 3rd Avenue on the Upper East Side. The store opened in 1976 and say they specialize in hard to find wines, and offering great prices on well-known brands. Before visiting the shop, I did some research for myself on their website just to get a bit of background. The store does offer tastings but it is very rare, the last one being in July of 2017. They also provide their customers with the option of actually ordering online, which I have seen becoming a trend in many wine and hard liquor establishments. The prices are fairly well and there is a great variety.

The manager Jodi was very polite and hands on with her staff members on the floor. I spoke with her briefly and the first thing I was curious to know about, was how they decided on their wine placement throughout the store. She told me that they base the placement on the country, which they then go deeper with by placing the sale items up closer to get customers looking into new items. They also base placement on the quantity of a certain wine they order, sometimes these wines are more rare and only certain customers know about it because they have ordered it. On occasion they will order a small quantity of a new wine or spirit to see how well it does in the store so they can add it to their inventory. The shop also orders seasonal items which Jodi says usually gets placed right up front for all customers to see because they do particularly well.

I asked if there was one specific item that they are getting asked for more of now, and it is Bulgarian Tequila. Personally, I know the classic Mexican Tequila so this was a bit of a shock to know that Tequila made in Bulgaria was even a thing. Finding this out led me to ask if there were any customers who make requests for special or specific wines or spirits, and she said that they do not serve too many customers who do but that they can order pretty much anything upon request. For these more expensive and rare wines/beverages, they do have four temperature controlled refrigerators and a temperature controlled wine room. The best sellers at the shop depend on if there are any holidays around that specific time, the type of wine and/or spirit, and the specific country because they serve so many different countries at the shop. Overall, I think that Mister Wright Fine Wines & Spirits is a fantastic shop with an amazing selection and offer prices that anyone can afford.

A Pinot Noir Chardonnay from South Africa

The shelf talkers are only located on specific items throughout the store and usually have a few sentences on that item for the customers to get some knowledge before purchasing.

2016 Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley

A red wine from Rioja Alta located in Spain

 

 

New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc

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At the 2015 Society of Wine Educators Conference, Will Costello, MS told the audience how New Zealand is a “land like no other,” during his presentations titled “New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc: Breakthrough Approaches and Individual Expressions.” You can download a copy of the presentation here: NZ Sauvignon Blanc presented by Will Costello

http://winewitandwisdomswe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/NZ-Sauvignon-Blanc-presented-by-Will-Costello.pdf

CĂ´te de Beaune by Kazuyoshi Karasudani and Lordina O-A

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CĂ´te de Beaune

  • Country France
  • Region Burgundy
  • Appellation Cote de Beaune

Grape Variety

  • Red Pinot Noir
  • White Chardonnay

Climate

  • Continental, Slightly higher temperature
  • Slope, good drainage and get optimum sun.

Soil

  • Brown limestone and calcium-rich soils.

Viticulture

In Burgundy, the concept of “terroir” (cultivated land) is very important since it’s the soil that gives its name to the wine

 Vilification

  • Oaked Chardonnay

 How to read a Whine Label

  • Labels differ in reference to the origins of the grapes, even though same producer.
  • Grand Cru is the highest vineyard classification in Burgundy, followed by Premier Cru. After that, the appellation is only for the village as a whole, and finally the appellation for the region.

Interesting fact

  • CĂ´te de Nuits and CĂ´te de Beaune are called CĂ´te d’Or together. CĂ´te d’Or meansGolden Slope. The CĂ´te de Nuits and CĂ´te de Beaune are historically considered the most important regions in Burgundy.

North American wine on NPR, Listen and Learn

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This is from 2013 but still so relevant. An exploration of wine in North America, not only California. Jancis Robinson describes wines from New York, New Mexico and Virginia among other non traditional regions.

wine-revolution-as-drinkers-and-growers-u-s-declares-independence

(http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/03/16/174431437/wine-revolution-as-drinkers-and-growers-u-s-declares-independence)