Bringing home the gold: a young, frisky steel-fermented, slightly unconventional and quite affordable chardonnay is winning awards.

Long Island: Peconic Bay Chardonnay

In my travels around the vineyards of the East End I am constantly impressed by the seriousness and the dedication of the people involved with the Long Island wine business. What might have been considered a novelty or an experiment not too many years ago has evolved into a wine production industry that now his its eyes on the prize.

And the prizes are literally coming in from various wine competitions around the country. Peconic Bay Winery, in Cutchogue, just won a double gold medal at the 18 th annual New York Wine and Food Classic for its 2001 Steel Fermented Chardonnay. The same wine recently won a gold medal at the Indy International Wine Competition. “Indy” is the largest competition in the country outside of California, and one of the most diverse, with 3,300 entries from 15 countries, and 70 judges from across North America. Since Peconic Bay was the only Long Island winery to bring home the gold, it seemed reason enough for me to investigate this chardonnay.

I spent a recent humid morning with Greg Gove, the winemaker at Peconic Bay, and in those hours I came to feel that he just about summed up the seriousness and dedication that I keep seeing. Trained as a chemist, Greg took an early interest in Long Island winemaking, and began working for Hargrave Vineyards in the still pioneering mid 1980s. The knowledge of a good winemaker like Greg is encyclopedic, and beyond the myriad technical facts are the sensibilities only an experienced professional can summon—that still small voice that guides him in the right direction in his quest for complexity and balance.

While people like Greg watch over the process, all the way from the grapes in the field through the crushing, to various kinds of fermentation and aging, and on to bottling, it is that bottle at the end of the process that counts for us, as consumers. My expectations for this wine were high. The harvest was exceptional in 2001, so the potential for a top- notch chardonnay was high, and fermenting in steel vats as opposed to oak barrels would emphasize the clarity and purity of the grape.

My first tastes were encouraging. I felt it to be cleanly made, elegant, lively, with lots of fruit, and a lovely texture in the mouth. Without an oak underpinning, the dry citrus tastes were clear, the softer notes were distinct, and mineral hints were satisfying. The wine is fresh and designed to be drunk now, but it still exhibited a certain charm that improved in the glass, limited only by the crispness of its youth, as you would expect.

Don’t expect a noble white Burgundy, say a Chablis or Côte de Beaune. The goals of the winemakers are different, and few American wines strive to achieve the extraordinary complexity and deep richness of those top-flight French regions. But compare the styles rather than the final product, and you will find that the Peconic Bay chardonnay evokes a frisky version of that style and seems a happy departure from standard chardonnays.

In any case, at $12.99 a bottle, purchased at the winery or on their website, I felt I was getting my money’s worth and more. Not only is this a good wine for the money, it is a good wine on any objective standard. Try it for your late summer and fall drinking—for sipping, for a refreshing aperitif, and because of its very balanced acidity as a good partner with food. The price is inexpensive enough to use for entertaining larger groups, a Labor Day dinner, for example.

Peconic Bay makes a dozen or so different wines, all at affordable prices. Their other chardonnay, “La Barrique,” is aged half in French oak and half in steel, giving it a subtle oak background that matches well with many seafood dishes. Priced at $16.99, it is an excellent choice for people who want a refined and smooth oak taste.

Those who prefer the zingier, fresher taste of the steel fermented chardonnay should consider stocking up at this reasonable price. I would advise drinking it within a year or so, while the vintage still exhibits its abundant sprightly qualities.