Author Archives: Donna

Pindar Winery Experience

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The tasting room and bar service.

For this Beverage Production Experiential Learning Analysis, I was able to visit Pindar Vineyards with my classmates. Pindar Vineyards is located in Long Island and one of the many vineries within the Long Island Wine Country Company. Within the text, The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil stated, “By the late 1900s, Long Island has twenty-four wineries, and today it boasts about sixty-three.” What a growth in wineries!

Owner of Pindar: Pindar Vineyards was founded in 1979, by one of the original pioneers ‘Dr. Herodotus “Dan” Damianos’, who is part Long Island Wine Country Company.

What is so special about this Pindar Vineyard?  It is special because they provide a personal, first-class service to their guests, and are also specialized for their selection of wines “from bold red blends, to steel fermented, fruit-forward whites.” As expressed on the Pindar Vineyard brochure, “The nod to the tradition and every-present air of experience is evident when you enter Pindar Vineyards’ tasting room and winery.” Till today they are still up-to-date with this tradition. If you ever like to visit the Pindar Vineyard, the exact address is 37645 Main Road Peconic, N.Y. 11958.

Pindar Vineyards Fermentation tanks used for crush grape juices.

During my visit, I was able to observe what a vineyard actually looks like. There was an employee called Terry, she told us that there are 15 grape varieties that are grown in this vineyard and she also pointed to us what wines most wineries have. There was also the tasting room manager, Rose Faiella there that day. Pindar’s white grape wines offered are: Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, and Chardonay. A few red grape wines offered are: Petit Verdot, Malbec, Gamay Noir, and Sauvignon Carbernet. A proprietary blend wine is Sevyal. A few wines on the “sweeter side” are Riesling and Moscato. A dessert wine offered is Gewurztraminer. Unfortunately, we were not able to tour the production facility itself, but we were able to grasp the concept that, the aging process such as aging in oak or bottled-aging are decided by the owners. Pindar is known for their “blending traditional wine making” practices.

 

The Turbine used as a power course of many vineyards.

A few approaches to agriculture this vineyard utilizes in their business are going green and using wind turbines. By going green I meant, turning lawn clippings from dozens of landscapers, fish parts from a local seafood wholesaler, and their own grape skins for creating a rich compost of their vineyards, instead of using pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Thus, making use out of garbage or in other words, “recycling.” As stated from Pindar Vineyards website itself, “We are always looking for new ways to lessen our environmental footprint, and we are tapping into Long Island itself to do so.” Pindar Vineyard also partnered with the L.I. Power Authority, to install a Turbine at the North Fork Winery location. This turbine will create power for “80% of all winery operation.” How environmental friendly is that?

In this picture there is a picture of the vine “bud- breaking”. The outside of the production facility, and the outside sitting area of Pindar.

It was very eye-opening to see a vineyard upfront because I was able to witness the viticulture process of the vineyard. I was able to see the concept of how the scion, which is the varietal grape that is grafted onto the rootstock. The day I visited the vineyard was on May 10th, at this time I believe I was seeing the vines “bud-break” process, if I am correct. Bud-break is when the leaves and shoots start to grow on the vines.

This region’s climate is moderate because of it is surrounded between two body of waters; the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Long Island Sound to the north of Long Island. Within this region, the soil variety is sandy loam, which contributes to the ability to producing vinifera (a type of grape vine) wines.

One of a market format of L.I. Wine Country to inform us about the numerous Wineries.

 

Pindar Winery’s most unique blends.

Terry introduced to us that their 2016, Viognier for $18.99 would be her personal recommendation because it is a “unique wine and extremely good.” She also recommended a red wine that is on the sweeter side called for $12.99 Sweet Scarlett, for my father.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Long Island Wine Country, Long Island Wine Council ‘Touring Guide’ Brochure, www.liwines.com

MacNeil, K. (2015). The wine bible (Revised Second ed.).

Pindar Vineyards website, https://www.pindar.net. © Copyright 2017 Pindar Vineyards· Winery, Ecommerce by Vin65

Pindar Vineyards Brochure, info@pindar.net

 

 

Retail Beverage Shop Analysis – Donna Chow

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The following Retail Beverage Shop I visited was called Heights Chateau. It is located in Brooklyn on 123 Atlantic Ave.

This is a visual of the the outside of WIne Shop. “Heights Chateau”. Taken on Atlantic Avenue.

They had this post-stand outside of the store on a Friday, that stated there were those drinks during those hours that they were promoting.

Another way this wine shop promotes their beverages is by holding tasting events. Which I witnessed that day of, there was an employee advertising to customers about Gin.(even me, but I kindly said no.

At first, this project made me quite nervous because I have never been to a Wine Shop before. Afterwards, I found that it was not as bad, because we have discussed over the questions that could be asked at the Wine Shop. Other than that, I found that the process was not very difficult at all. The first reason is because the employees are very customer friendly. A couple employees came over and asked if I needed any assistance a couples times. Another reason was that I found the store very cozy and calming. The interior design of the store appearance kind of stunned me because instead of aisles of groceries, they were many many different types of wine.  I was very fascinated about how organized and how each category of wines were placed. Correct me if I’m wrong, I think the store placed their wines very distinctively according to the locations, in a specific order.

I was very excited, when I noticed the wines of the countries our class has spoken about such as New Zealand wines, South Africa, Europe, places in the U.S.A., or even the wine variety names such as Sauvignon Blanc, Sparkling Wines, Zinfandel, and numerous more. I did acknowledge that within a country, there are different variety of grapes produced, therefore there were different wines coming from that specific location.

Heres an example of how they label the type of wine or origin of the wine. They also show a sample of how to distinguish whether the wine is Biodynamic, Organic, from Washington/ Oregon, or from New York

There was an employee who kindly answered my questions. With no hesitation she answered my questions without even having to think. She appeared to explain with very understanding way, so I understood her.

The first question asked was,

  • Which wine is most popular and why? The employee explained to me Italian wines because the owner of the shop is Italian and also because of the local customers. She also, stated that the shop was family owned.

Another question asked was

  • How much is a customer paying for a bottle of wine everyday? She stated around $15-$20. I thought to myself, “Wow, this industry must make a lot of income.” There are also, weekly specialized deals as low as $12.99.

When I asked,

  • What temperature do you store/ serve a certain wine? She said our store does not serve wine and they mention because we are “off-premise” which triggered my wine vocabulary. It is a regulation that they are not supposed to serve wine. However, they hold events where you can taste beverages.
  • As for the temperature, they have a cellar underground which they keep at 55 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the temperature of the store is around 68 degrees.

As for, How do you choose the wine you sell?

  • She stated, “We taste them first.” I believe that would be firsthand knowledge to know your stores beverages in order to sell them to customers. To precisely make decisions in promoting your wines especially during on-premise locations or special events.

I kind of regretted that I forgot to ask for the employees name and a little about her for me to share. With her experience, she knew what I came here for, she also asked what college I was from. I thank her very much for answering my questions.

I would definitely introduce the shop Heights Chateau to my classmates and maybe to others who are interested in wine to go there.