My friend insists the best burger on the North Fork of Long Island is at Jamesport Country Kitchen. A charming little café on the Main Road, their wine list emphasizes local wines, including the largest collection of library Long Island wine I’ve ever seen. Two local red wines from the mid-90s were even offered by the glass.
I ordered a glass of the 1995 Merlot from Gristina out of morbid curiosity: Gristina Vineyards have had two more owners since this wine was made. I don’t have a lot of experience with older Long Island wine but I’m happy to commit to a glass.While it was open, Gristina’s wines garnered attention from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and Robert Parker. Gallucio Family Wineries bought Gristina in the summer of 2000 and continued to co-opt the Gristina name for a short time. Gallucio planned to expand production but was advised against it by his Bordeaux consultant Michael Rolland right before September 11th happened.
The property was on the market for a few years before Macari Vineyards bought half of it in late 2007 (the other half was sold to the Peconic Land Trust earlier in the year.)
This 15-year old wine was medium (-) intensity of garnet with a little bricking showing on a thin rim. The aromas were medium intensity and included dried plums, raisins, green herbs like parsley, and then a slight dank earth & cinnamon. The aromas didn’t evolve after the first five minutes, though that was partly because the day’s special was a fried flounder sandwich so when that arrived to the table next to me, all I could smell was Long John Silvers.
The flavors were dominated by sour dried plums, cocoa, and bitter espresso beans, with a somewhat short finish. There was a low amount of stalky tannins still in the wine that were a bit distracting. Acid was a little less than a medium amount, so I suspect the tannins from the stalks (or maybe there was some barrel age?) was what was helping to hold this wine together through the years.
The burger was interesting. I had the ‘Jamesport Burger’ which comes topped with Boursin Herb Cheese (the Velveeta of France, no?), a vaguely Dijon-mustard flavored sauce, and served on a pizza-slice wedge of Focaccia Bread. The fries were crisp, hot, and perfect.
I'm salavating for the burger -- and the fries now! I hope you splurged (that extra dollar!) for the Half Pound Jamesport Burger . . .
ReplyDeleteBoursin as Velveeta?
ReplyDeleteJe pense que non!
Boursin is high brow compared to Alouette:
http://www.alouettecheese.com/
And France being France, even Alouette is a billion times better than Velveeta!
You've just taken me down memory lane, since Galluccio Family Wineries was my first job in the wine business, as eventgs & marketing director. The '95 Gristina vintage was before my time, but I would be very surprised if those wines held this long; although they were good in their day. The gems, if they can still be found, is from the 2000, 2001 vintages of the Galluccio 'Cru George Allaire' Meritage. During the Galluccio era the production team was French, headed by Charles Girard, who is now back in the Loire Valley. And..I lived down the road from Jamesport CC for awhile, and was friendly with Matt the owner....great memories...thank you!
ReplyDelete