Island wine country

August 29, 2010|Patricia Harris and David Lyon, Globe Correspondents

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Niche farming is also flourishing on the North Fork. In East Marion, Serge and Susan Rozenbaum grow 20 varieties of lavender plants on 10 acres. The bloom season is over now at Lavender by the Bay (it peaks in July), but the shop sells virtually every imaginable lavender product, including dried blossoms and live garden plants.

Goat cheese from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic is the perfect complement to North Fork wines, and its fresh chevre is ubiquitous at tasting rooms and farmstands. The farm also has its own little shop and a pen full of exuberant kids. Visitors who stop around 4 p.m. can watch the 98 dairy goats being milked. Retail manager Debbie Slack, who identified herself as coming from “out west’’ (meaning Amityville in western Long Island), celebrates the rural idyll of the North Fork. “We do have a McDonald’s in Mattituck,’’ she admitted. But of chain development, “that’s as far as we want to see it go.’’ The farm shop offers its antidote to fast food with a “picnic special’’ of two goat cheeses, a block of goat milk fudge, and a box of crackers.

We took our special to Paumanok Vineyards, established in 1983 by Charles and Ursula Massoud. There were already a few chenin blanc vines on the potato farm when they bought it, and their Loire-style chenin blanc sells out quickly every year. Right now, it’s only available at the vineyard, so we each ordered a glass to sip on the shady back deck overlooking 73 acres of vineyards.

The opportunity to sip and survey a wine-country idyll is the ultimate appeal of the North Fork. On another day we bought grilled tuna sandwiches at Southold Fish Market and proceeded to nearby Corey Creek Vineyards, which is frankly designed to offer the Napa-like garden tasting experience. It doesn’t hurt that this second vineyard of well-established Bedell Cellars produces a bracing reserve chardonnay and an Alsatian-style gewurztraminer. As we ate lunch and sipped gewurz on the porch, we chatted with Frank and Patricia Farello, who had added fresh peach slices to their white wine. “It’s the Italian way,’’ said Patricia.

They drive an hour from West Babylon “a couple of times a year, just to relax,’’ said Frank. “It’s beautiful here.’’

Patricia Harris and David Lyon can be reached at harris.lyon@verizon.net.

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