A classic oaked chardonnay from the North Fork and a chardonnay based ice wine from the South Fork: Long Island is strutting its stuff with this go-to grape.
Long Island: Lenz Chardonnay, Wolffer Ice Wine
Chardonnay is the world’s best selling wine, the one that gets the cash registers ringing. While chardonnay has not lost its incredible popularity over the years, the cash registers have changed. In this electronic age they click and buzz and whirr, rather than ring, but whatever the noise, chardonnay is responsible for a lot of it.
Chardonnay along with merlot accounts for much of the production on Long Island, and just about every Long Island winery produces at least one chardonnay. Some produce as many as four different ones, ranging from crisp, zippy, steel-fermented renditions to more sophisticated, complex, barrel aged renderings, and even sweet, dessert wine versions. I recently tried two new chardonnay releases from local vineyards, and both are noteworthy.
Corey Creek, on the North Fork, has released its 2005 Reserve Chardonnay, and the critics are paying attention. In August it won a best-of-class award for chardonnay at the 2006 New York Wine & Food Classic, a Finger Lakes competition for New York State wines. My initial thought on opening a bottle recently was “Is this Long Island?” I am used to—and I like—a Long Island style of spirited, sprightly chardonnays. But it was apparent that Corey Creek was aiming to express something more weighty and significant. They are not the only ones. Lenz and other wineries produce big, serious chardonnays that at their best remind you of estate produced white Burgundies. Long Island has room for more than one signature chardonnay taste.
There seemed to me a lot of oak on sampling the Corey Creek, but when my palate recovered from the surprise—or perhaps when the wine opened up a bit—other flavors came through. Peach, apricot, and such floral scents as honeysuckle predominated, and the expected citrus seemed minor. The oak undertones stood fast without overpowering. Going back to the bottle a few hours later, and being more familiar with the contents, I came to enjoy the wine. Food brings out the best qualities in this wine, rather than just sipping.
If you favor this sort of rich, integrated chardonnay, and are comfortable about spending $35 for it, by all means try the Corey Creek. It’s more expensive than your everyday Long Island chardonnay, but priced in line with comparable bottles from France and California, and would be an impressive wine to uncork with an important dinner.
Another interesting and prize winning chardonnay—it won a coveted best-of-category award at the upstate competition—is the 2005 Late Harvest Ice Wine from Wolffer Estate Vineyard. Ice wines are made from frozen grapes. Freezing concentrates the sugars and solids and reduces the water content. In Germany and Austria, the home of ice wines, and in Canada, now the world’s largest producer, winemakers must wait for the grape clusters to freeze naturally on the vine. In this country mechanical freezing known as cryoextraction is permitted, and that is the method used by Wolffer.
It is a slow, difficult fermenting process for any winery, but Wolffer has mastered the technique. Roman Roth, the winemaker, has been at it for a number of years and is certainly the foremost producer of ice wines on Long Island and perhaps in the state. In this case, he has achieved a terrific balance of sweetness with acidity, soft and honeyed, but also clean, refreshing and layered. It has a medium body, intense fruit and a strong mouth-feel. The wine sells for $37 for a half bottle. Serve it chilled with (or in place of) dessert, or after dinner. You’ll find that a small bottle goes a long way.
