On April 23^rd, I have visited a vineyard with my classmates: Ayako, Anny, Andre and Ivy. The vineyard we visited was Shinn Estate Vineyards which is located at 2000 Oregon Rd in Mattituck, Long Island. The 20 acres vineyard is own by Barbara Shinn and David Page. They have started the vineyard in 1998, and they start to grow the vine in 2000 after the soil were set.

Barbara has walked us through the vineyard with us and told us a lot about their vineyard. They have 5 red grapes varieties in their vineyard and they are: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Melbec, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc (which mostly for blending). The 3 white grape varieties they plant are: Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc and Semillon.

The loam soil in their vineyard which is lighter than other soil and water can drain quicker. The vines are grow in a meadow with clovers and dandelions which they have different functions for the soil. The root of the dandelion can help the soil and the clover itself can capture nitrogen in the soil. They also have trellis wire and bird net to protect their corps. They believe that it is their job to protect the grapes as a winemaker.

Barbara also mentioned that they use organic material for farming such as fish head, tails or guts in order to control fungus. And because chemicals kill the soil, so they don’t use any chemical fertilizer. They are bio-dynamic which they follow the movement of moon. They harvest during ascent moon because there are more mineral in the soil.They are also a member of Long Island Sustainable since 2012.

After the vineyard walk, David has talked with us about the vinification of wine. The 1^st vintage of wine they have were 2002. They produced 72000 bottles of wines last year. He has told us about the process of making Sauvignon Blanc. They first press the whole cluster of vine, then they move it to the tank to chill it to 40˚F for 2-3 days which is to put the yeast to sleep. Then they will move it to a 2^nd tank and ferment at 55˚F, and they won’t add any sugar or yeast. After they ferment, they will transfer it to barrels.

Then he brings us into the barrel cellar room. There are 200 barrels in the room and each of them can contain 225L per barrel. They try to maintain the room temperature at 58˚F. They keep everything cold in order to stop the bacteria. All their barrels are from France and made in France. They age their wine in barrels for 18-20 months before bottling. Each barrels get re-use for around 3 times.

They always keep 50-100 bottles for wines for each vintage so that they could taste the difference of every year. and at the end, he also shows us that they have a little lab area in the barrel cellar room which they use it to test the PH level, sugar and acid level of their wine.

A little info about their vineyard on the board.

outdoor wine tasting area

vine with buds growing

Sauvignon Blanc that we have tried.

tanks

barrels

their little lab area

For my Winery and Vineyard Analysis, a couple of my classmates and I decided to go to Shinn Estate Vineyards and Farmhouse located on Oregon Road in Mattituck, NY. Shinn Estate Vineyards was bought and owned in 1998 by native Midwesterners, Barbara Shinn and David Page. They planted 20 acres of grapevines and built an estate winery and Farmhouse bed and breakfast which has been named a top American wine destination by Gayot, Fodors, U.S. News Travel, Food and Wine and Bon Appetit.

As we arrived, we head to the wine tasting area where we await our tour to begin. We were greeted warm and friendly staff of the farm. The wine tasting area was very comforting with indoors and outdoors seats available for us.

We begin our tour with a greeting from Barbara Shinn who will be giving us the tour around the vineyard. As we walked along the vineyard she gave us many detailed and important information about how she runs her vineyard as self-sustainable eco-system. One of the main reason she choose that farm to grow wines was due to the type of soil which has a mixture of gravel and loam soil. Due to the maritime climate and many rains they get, the soil drains the rain water with ease. Clover crops and roots where allowed to grow under the vines as these greens and grasses absorbs rain water too so the vines don’t get too much water.

As continue to walk deeper into the vineyard, she explains that unlike other farms, she does not use any form of chemical fertilizers, using only organic materials for her farm. Seaweed are used for fertilizers. On top of that, the farm does not have any bug issues as bugs are attracted to the vineyard to eat the meadow.

The vineyard itself grows 8 types of different grapes:

• Red: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot
• White: Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc, Semillon

And out if the compound:

• Riesling and Chardonnay

The chosen wines depends on the agriculture. The red wines ripened in mid-September and the white wines ripened in mid-October.

The second part of the tour would be in the winery. The winery tour was conducted by David Page, Barbara Shinn’s husband. He started off by giving us some history if the vineyard. The grapes where planted way back about 17 years ago and Sauvignon Blanc were the first grapes to be harvested.

David gave us some information on how they do their wine making process. The grapes are picked and loading in the picking bins and unloaded for pressing. In the pressing process, the whole cluster will be pressed meaning that the braches are included. Once the liquid are extracted, it will be chilled at a temperature lower than 40’F for about 2-3 days. As soon as its time for fermentation, the liquid will be warmed to about 50’F for fermentation. Juices are separated from the yeast after fermentation.

Apart from wines, Shinn Estate Vineyards and Farmhouse also produces a small production of brandy and cognac.

To finish off the tour, we were taken to the barrel cellar where there are about 200 barrels stored at the temperature of 58’F and below. The wines are stored in variety of types of barrels but mainly French barrels. Each barrels can bottle about 300 bottles of wines.

A small info of what the vinyard could offer

Wine Cellar

Barrel Cellar

Large Wooden Tank (Winery)

Metal Tank (Winery)

Growing Bud

Outdoor wine tasting seats

Wine tasting room

They have their branding on every napkin they have.

The famous upside down tree.

One of the sculptures Walter Channing made.

The winery my friends and I decided to go to is Channing Daughters Winery, at 1927 Scuttlehole Road, Bridgehampton; it is about a 2 in a half hour drive from Manhattan. This place is known because of the various grapes they use to make every wine and the unique story behind upside down tree. The upside tree as we see it was caused by a storm several years ago, but to Walter Channing he saw the upside tree as an artwork which gave him the idea of making wooden sculptures it various ways to describe his wines.

For every wooden sculpture Walter Channing has made, he used them as the branding label; his famous branding label of course is his first inspiration the upside down tree. However, the branding label and sculptures aren’t the main reason that attracts customers to buy and taste their wines. The main reason is because the way they blend and the unique taste of their wines are what catches every customer’s attention. For instance, the Vervino Vermouth- Variation 5 this is a fortified wine that they made with neutral grape and sweetened with their local honey. They had botanicals added, they are musk melon, peaches, flowering basil, flowering dill, lemon balm, papalo, lemon verbena, and many more. Each botanical adds on a unique flavor to the wine which makes it unique and flavorful for the late summer.

Another wine that left a lasting memory to me was the red wine, Over & Over– Variation 8 -Long Island AVA. This wine was made with lots of effort, they used methods called ripasso and the solera system. By blending the two most common red wine making methods together the Channing Daughters team come up with a one and only unique wine. These two methods are unique because they use ½ of one grape production and blend it with another, then with that half they blend another half of it to another wine, continuously creating their over & over wine. Since, they blending different wines their grapes consist of Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Tocai, Sauvignon Blanc, Tocai Friulano, and many more.

In addition, their customer service from their staff is pretty well considering we only saw one person the whole time we were there for. He was in charge of preparing tasting wine for customers and explaining the knowledge of how and what each wine is made of. For every wine he poured for each customer was very explanatory and in details that showed the importance of each wine we tasted. Throughout the time we were at the winery we got to taste more than the two I mentioned earlier; we tried the 2014 Scuttlehole Chardonnay which consist of 100% Chardonnay, 2013 Sauvignon, 2013 Tocai Friulano- Sylvanus Vineyard, 2013 Vino Bianco, and the 2012 Brick Kiln Chardonnay. In the 2012 Brick Kiln Chardonnay, it had a very floral taste to it.

Last but not least, I want to talk about the way the whole winery was designed. It was being once you entered you would drive between two fields of grapes grown on the sides and enter a store with different wooden sculptures all around you. Since each wooden sculpture was made by Walter Channing, he wanted every customer to see what he has made and where his inspiration all came from. Each wooden sculpture had its own meaning to it. Thanks to the Channing Daughters Winery, I experienced something new and gained a lot of knowledge that I didn’t have before.

I decided to go to Millbrook Vineyards and Winery. It is considered one of the top wineries in New York State and is located in the Hudson River Valley. They have been in business since the 1970’s. They have an extension of 130 acres where only 30 are planted with few varieties. Less than half of the vineyard is planted with Chardonnay, the rest is Cabernet Frank, Riesling, Pinot Noir, and Tocai Friulano. This vineyard produces wines with French and Italian wine making techniques. This area used to be a dairy farm. They have been making wines for 30 years with the first commercial vintage in 1985.

The employees were very attentive from the time I entered the attendant ask me if I would like to attend the tasting or the tour. I chose both. I am glad I was able to tried the 6 wines they offered. I liked the blend of Riesling, Traminette, Tocai Friulano, and Pinot Grigio. It had notes of peach and melon on the palate, however I enjoyed more the 100 percent Riesling they offered because it was not as sweet as the previous one. The attendant of the tasting room was very knowledgable about the different wines, grape varieties , and food pairing. I asked him if the wines were organic and he said the vineyard do not use Fertilization or Irrigation but sometimes they have to use Fungicide. I also was surprised about the third wine Pinot Noir on the nose you can feel the strawberry and cherry with notes of violet, so on the palate you also can taste the same combination of berries. It was unusual because normally with wine you feel one thing in the nose an another thing in the palate. I told the attendant what I was experiencing and he told me I was right. At the end of the tasting of the wines we also tasted olive oil with bread produced in Tuscany, but bottled here. It was really good. This experience made me realize that because I study wine now I am able to critique wine in a professional manner. The glasses we used for the tasting had the logo of I Love New York on one side and the logo of the vineyard on the other side. It was ours to keep as a souvenir.

We continued the tour on how they make the wine. We entered in an area where they have the stainless steel tanks and then the area where they keep the barrels. The tour guide first told us how they hand pick the grapes then the fermentation process lasts from 6 to 20 months. He showed us how the color of the grape juice changes from one day to the next day when they make red wine and the skin is kept with the juice for color. I saw a barrel where you can see the inside through a glass and ask him about it, he explained to us about the Malolactic Fermentation and the sediments, Leeds that form on the bottom of the barrel. The tour guide also told us how Cold Stabilization in white wine forms crystals in the wine called Tartaric Acid. The winery removes it and sells it to another company to be processed as a tartar powder. Then we went to see the bottling process where they bottle 270 bottles at a time in a machine in circular motion and they only used solid corks.
I really enjoyed this experience. I definitely would like to come back to Millbrook Vineyard. They said the best time to come is in the summer and fall. It would have been nice if the restaurant had been open for visitors all year round.

Life cicle of the vine

Vineyard

Marketing of the wine

Tasting room

Wine making

Vineyard from above