Taking a chance and putting your name on the label: your wine buyers—and this wine columnist—are going to make the call and pass judgment.

Long Island: Winemaker, Roman Roth

Wines grapes, rather than being produced from seed, are the result of grafting a shoot or a bud of the desired grape variety onto the stem of a rootstock, after which it will fruit and flourish. It seems a fitting metaphor for life and career of Roman Roth.

Mr. Roth was born in Germany to a winemaking family and studied and trained there. His wife, Dushy, is a physician from Australia, and their daughter, Indira, was born in Sri Lanka. Mr. Roth’s major public identification, however, is as a Long Island winemaker. It is here where his growth took place, where he as a winemaker flourishes. He is, in fact, one of a handful of people who can be considered truly representative of Long Island winemaking.

After apprenticeships in Germany, California and Australia, Mr. Roth earned his Master Winemaker and Cellar Master Degrees at a German university in 1992. Within months, he came to Wolffer Estate Vineyards, or Sagpond Vineyards, as it was then called, and produced their first vintage, a chardonnay. They now make, in addition to chardonnay, merlot, cabernet franc, pinot noir, rosé, a sparkling Brut, and Wolffer Premier Cru, a Bordeaux-style merlot.

Mr. Roth has also begun to make a merlot under his own label, Grapes of Roth. I wondered what motivated a successful winemaker to strike out in this new, if parallel direction. After all, it’s a risky business, putting your own name on the label, and in effect daring the world to judge you. It takes courage and conviction as well as a measure of faith.

I found some of the answers when I sat down with Mr. Roth recently to taste his Grapes of Roth wines and talk about his motivations. There is clearly an entrepreneurial spirit at work. Mr. Roth produces only about 200 cases a year of a single vintage, and plans to keep it at that level for the foreseeable future, so he is not attempting to compete in the marketplace with Wolffer or any other Long Island winery.

There is a desire, understandable I think, to produce something for which he is entirely responsible. (Calling his wine handmade is accurate.) It is comparable to an artist putting her name on a painting or a businessman using his name for his company. It is a way of dealing with the world, of expressing who you are in a sustaining, responsible, recognized way. It means you are ready to take the credit but also to take the heat. It is a very human desire that has been repeated throughout history.

Mr. Roth released the first vintage of Grapes of Roth last year, the 2001 merlot, and this fall will release the 2002 vintage. Both years were good growing seasons for Long Island grapes, and both reflect what is coming to be seen as a Long Island style of merlot—closer to Bordeaux than a warm weather New World merlot, but with a controlled richness and expansiveness.

Mr. Roth has been a consulting winemaker to several wineries on the North Fork, and he used grapes grown at Martha Clara for the 2001 vintage. The wine is full bodied, smooth, and intense without being overwhelming, with flavors of cherry and red fruits, mint and delicate flowers. It is an opulent wine but really quite accessible and enjoyable right now and fairly priced at $50.

The 2002 vintage is quite different and for my own palate perhaps even more satisfying. It is evolved and layered, with the depth and seriousness you associate more with classic Bordeaux wines. The fruit is there, abundantly so, but balanced with minerality, cedar, tartness, and undertones of oak and leather, elements that keep it all in perfect proportion. The complexity is rare but perhaps a sign of what is yet to come with Long Island merlots.

I’d love to see Mr. Roth produce a cabernet franc, another grape that has found a natural home here, with the Grapes of Roth label. Time will tell. For now, he can be very proud of making one of the best merlots around.