Apr 7, 2007

New York Winery Named Best in State

Osprey’s Dominion Vineyards was named “Winery of the Year” during the 2005 New York Wine & Food Classic.

What does it take to be named the best winery in the state? Vineyard manager Tom Stevenson couldn’t quite nail it down.

“It’s hard to say why we win,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll repeat.”

According to www.newyorkwines.org, Osprey’s Dominion received an award for each wine it entered in the competition. Its Cabernet Franc was named best red. Its wines have won dozens of awards in other competitions.

So, that’s how you become top winery – by having lots of good wine. But how do you make good wine? Stevenson had a little more to say about that.

Osprey’s Dominion Vineyards is located in Peconic, N.Y., on Long Island’s North Fork. It has three farms, with 75 acres of vinifera winegrapes between them. The winery – which sells about 12,000 cases a year – is on the biggest farm. Wine tourism is the core of the business, Stevenson said.

Bud Koehler and Bill Tyree own the company. The lifelong friends were in the construction business before they decided to get into wine. They began as growers before they started the winery about 13 years ago. They retired from construction but are still involved in the wine business, Stevenson said.

Stevenson studied viticulture at the University of California, Davis. He said the company is committed to growing its own grapes and adapting them to specific wines.

“We’re not a flashy winery,” he said. “We focus more on production.”

The vineyard manager likes to give his grapes plenty of hang time. He waits until they’re fully ripe (sometimes until they start to raisin) before picking starts. About half of the grapes are machine picked. The rest are picked by hand, which gets expensive.

“All machine picked would be tough,” he said. “Unless machines get great, I don’t see us getting rid of hand labor.”

There are 18 or 19 employees, half of whom work in the vineyards. Harvest usually starts in September and ends in November. The bulk of the grapes are picked in October. The grapes are processed at the winery, where the handpicked whites are whole-cluster pressed and the reds are put through a crusher/de-stemmer, Stevenson said.

The market has shifted toward red wine, and the winery’s new plantings have followed suit.

“We had too much white and not enough red,” he said. “You have to know when you’re overproducing a certain grape.”

Diseases and insects always pose a challenge in Long Island’s humid, maritime climate. Grapes there are subject to five major fungal pathogens: powdery mildew, downy mildew, black rot, botrytis and phomopsis. Major pests include potato leafhoppers, Japanese beetles, grape berry moths and European red mites, he said.

The vineyards also face pressure from larger pests. The number of birds migrating along the Atlantic coast gets “insane,” as does the damage they can cause. Everything has to be covered by nets, he said.

“We’ve been trying out different netting systems,” he said. “We’ve been having success with white nets versus standard black nets. It seems to mess with the birds’ perception.”

Steady development pressure has been pushing deer into the vineyards, which wasn’t a problem in the past. They use hot pepper repellant to scare the deer away and allow hunters on their property during hunting season, but they might be forced to put up fences.

Development pressure makes it difficult to preserve the agricultural character of the North Fork, but Osprey’s Dominion and other local wineries are trying to do just that. Osprey’s uses biodiesel fuel in its tractors and pickup trucks, which doesn’t improve its wine, but does help the environment.

“It’s good for the vehicles and the people driving them,” Stevenson said. “There are less fumes. They’re not sucking in diesel exhaust.”

Doing business about two hours away from New York City has its advantages. Most of the winery’s business comes from the city, in the form of shipments going or tourists visiting. New York recently loosened its shipping laws, allowing wineries to ship their products to other states. Osprey’s will probably take advantage of that, but it also wants to keep its current customers coming back. A wine club, corporate gifts, live music and a family friendly atmosphere help build customer loyalty, he said.

“People come to us when they want to get out of the city and reconnect with the country.”

For more information, visit www.ospreysdominion.com.