Not to far away, if you can handle the LIE, is the Long Island Wine Country. Its maritime climate, geography and soil characteristics provide ideal conditions for producing wines of exceptional quality.

On a recent visit with friends to LI Wine Country we stayed at my favorite B&B…The Harvest Inn our hosts Darolyn and Chris Agusta are wonderful!

We arrived in the North Fork early, before meeting up with our friends, we made a few stops. One was at Lenz and the other at Osprey’s Dominion. At both tasting rooms we enjoyed our tastings. Most notable was Ospreys Dominion’s Chardonnay. If you like oaky with a butter finish, you will like theirs. Once we met up with our friends, it was off the beaten path we went…

Our first stop was Sherwood House Vineyard. We enjoyed our tasting outside looking at the vineyard. Barbara was a great and so was their Cab Franc. Our next stop was Shinn Estates. This was the most educational tasting and tour I was on. I learned so much from Barbara! Their philosophy with sustainable and organic techniques in vineyard management was very interesting. I learned about downy and powdery mildew, which you don’t want in your vineyard. If it does appear it can be taken care of so there is no damage. Barbara’s wine were by far the best we tasted and purchased on the Island!

That evening after a quick swim in the ocean we dined at Scrimshaws . We had a wonderful meal. Their cuisine is Modern American with an Asain flare.

The following day after Chris made us a wonderful breakfast ( I can’t forget Darolyn’s delicious blueberry muffins) we headed out. We stopped at the Village Cheese Shop and picked up some lunch for a picnic that we would have later.

We stopped at Waters Crest Winery which took us a little time to find. They are actually located in a strip mall. Yes…tanks, barrels and all. Jim Waters took his passion and turned it into a dream in 2003. His wines were very good. While were were there the Long Island Wine Press came in to do an article on him.

Next we went to Leib. His wines are very good. We left with a magnum. We ended our day at Vineyard 48. I have to say, I wasn’t impressed at all with their wines.

If you would like to see pictures of our trip you can view them by clicking here.