The Hamptons Wine Weekend, From Wölffer Rosé to North Fork Bubbles
Start with Wölffer at sunset, spend Saturday on the South Fork, then cross to the North Fork for chenin blanc, old vines and one final glass facing the water.
Long Island wine began with a wager. In 1973, Alex and Louisa Hargrave planted the island’s first commercial vineyard in the North Fork, in Cutchogue, betting that the same East End climate responsible for potatoes, duck farms and exceptionally expensive hydrangeas could also ripen European grape varieties. Other growers followed. The federal government eventually recognized two distinct wine regions: The Hamptons, Long Island American Viticultural Area on the South Fork and the North Fork of Long Island AVA across Peconic Bay.
For visitors, the distinction matters less in the glass than behind the wheel. The Hamptons wineries form a small constellation around Bridgehampton, Sagaponack and Water Mill. The North Fork is a proper vineyard belt, stretching east from Aquebogue through Mattituck, Cutchogue, Peconic and Southold toward Greenport. Treating both as one continuous wine trail is how an agreeable weekend becomes a prolonged study of Route 25.
The sensible approach is to give each fork its own day. Arrive Friday and begin with a glass at sunset. Spend Saturday among the South Fork’s three principal estates, leaving room for lunch and whatever summer traffic has planned for you. On Sunday, cross through Riverhead and choose three North Fork stops, four at the outside. Travelers staying farther east can take the more scenic route from North Haven across Shelter Island to Greenport using the South and North ferries.
More pro tips: Reserve seated tastings before the weekend, appoint a driver and do not confuse finishing every pour with good manners. A flight is a sampler, not a dare. Spit buckets are there to be used, while water and a proper lunch will improve the later wines far more than heroic commitment to the earlier ones. Most tasting rooms offer cheese, charcuterie or other small plates, but few should be mistaken for restaurants. With the practicalities settled, ease into the weekend the way the Hamptons prefers: slowly, outdoors and with a cold glass at sunset.
The Best East End Vineyards
Friday Evening: Start With Sunset in Sagaponack
The least strenuous way to begin is at Wölffer’s Wine Stand, a walk-in outpost set across Montauk Highway from the main estate. It pours the winery’s bottles and ciders by the glass overlooking one of its oldest merlot fields, with the vines catching the late light and the crowd gradually forgetting whatever happened on the Long Island Expressway. The stand is currently open daily, though the winery calendar is worth checking for music and special events. Summer in a Bottle rosé is the inevitable first order. Wölffer introduced the label in 2013, turning its flower-wrapped bottle into an unofficial Hamptons house flag. Its blend changes by vintage and draws on several local grapes, but the proposition remains uncomplicated: dry, pale wine designed to disappear at roughly the speed of daylight.
Saturday: Taste the South Fork
South Fork wine country is compact enough to cover without converting the day into a rally stage. Begin in Bridgehampton when the tasting rooms open, break for a real lunch and work west through Sagaponack toward Water Mill. Three wineries show the region’s range, from experimental Italianate whites to polished estate wines and a château where blueberry port remains defiantly on the menu.
First Stop: Channing Daughters Winery
Channing Daughters is the right place to begin because it scrambles most assumptions about what Long Island wine is supposed to be. The Sculpture Garden Vineyard dates to 1982, and the winery works with more than two dozen varieties, including tocai friulano, ribolla gialla, blaufränkisch and lagrein. Roughly half its fruit comes from selected North Fork vineyards, giving winemaker Christopher Tracy a broader palette than the South Fork alone could provide. Start with the tocai friulano, a brisk, saline white that suits the nearby Atlantic better than its northeastern Italian origins might suggest. Follow it with Ramato, Channing Daughters’ copper-colored, skin-contact expression of pinot grigio. “Ramato” refers to the historic Friulian method of leaving the lightly pigmented grape skins in contact with the juice, producing a wine that sits somewhere between white, rosé and orange wine.
Channing Daughters Winery
Second Stop: Wölffer Estate Vineyard
After lunch, return to Wölffer for the more serious version of the estate. Founded in 1988, the sustainably farmed Sagaponack vineyard is the South Fork’s most complete wine operation, with a seated tasting room overlooking the vines and a portfolio that extends well beyond the rosé seen beside every pool from Southampton to Montauk. Order Summer in a Bottle (again) because withholding it would be needlessly doctrinaire, then move into the Gold Label wines. The cabernet franc is especially useful for understanding one of New York’s most persuasive red grapes, with moderate weight, bright fruit and enough savory character to remind you that wine can accompany dinner rather than incapacitate it. The range also includes estate rosé, chardonnay and Harvest Red.
Wölffer Estate Vineyard
Final Stop: Duck Walk Vineyards
End at Duck Walk in Water Mill, where the grand Normandy-style building belies one of the South Fork’s most relaxed tasting rooms. The Damianos family opened the estate in 1994, and its range covers familiar dry wines alongside two less predictable signatures: Vidal Ice Wine, made from grapes frozen on the vine, and Blueberry Port, made with wild Maine blueberries. Flights currently cost $18, with wine also served by the glass or bottle on the patio. Groups of six or more need reservations. Weekend music and the easygoing lawn make this a useful final stop when not everyone in the party has developed an opinion on malolactic fermentation.
Duck Walk Vineyards
Sunday: Cross to the North Fork
The following morning, resist the urge to repeat yesterday in different shoes. The North Fork deserves its own day. From the Hamptons, the most efficient route passes through Riverhead and enters wine country from the west. Begin in Aquebogue, then work east through Mattituck, Cutchogue, Peconic and Southold before ending near Greenport. Travelers arriving by ferry from Shelter Island will land in Greenport and should reverse the order.
Begin in Aquebogue: Paumanok Vineyards
Paumanok sits at the North Fork’s western threshold, making it the natural first appointment after crossing Riverhead. The Massoud family founded the estate in 1983, planted 85 acres and still runs the winery today, farming certified-sustainable vineyards with the help of solar power. The estate built its reputation around chenin blanc long before the grape became fashionable among American sommeliers. Paumanok describes itself as New York’s original and leading producer of the variety, which takes on a bright, mineral character in the region’s maritime climate. Try it before moving to Assemblage, the Bordeaux-inspired red blend, or one of the age-worthy Grand Vintage bottlings.
Paumanok Vineyards
For the Middle of the Day, Choose Your Mood:
For a Guided Experience: Macari Vineyards
Macari occupies a nearly 500-acre waterfront farm that the family has owned for more than half a century. Since establishing the winery in 1995, the estate has followed organic and biodynamic principles, using homemade compost and farming without herbicides long before sustainability became standard tasting-room vocabulary. Sauvignon blanc is a particular strength. Lifeforce offers a more textured expression of the grape, while Bergen Road is the cellar’s more imposing Bordeaux blend. All tastings are guided and require reservations, with seating on the covered deck, in the barrel cellar or inside a private tasting suite. Macari rewards attention, so this is not the place to wedge into a 25-minute opening before lunch.
Macari Vineyards
For a Quieter Barn: Rose Hill Vineyards
Formerly known as Shinn Estate, Rose Hill Vineyards occupies the quieter end of the North Fork spectrum. The tasting room sits inside a 125-year-old barn, and the property includes an inn for guests who prefer to solve the designated-driver question without flipping a coin or relying on rideshares. The 28-acre estate grows 13 varieties and powers its winery, vineyard, cellar and farmhouse with solar panels and a wind turbine. Try Coalescence, a lively white blend built around sauvignon blanc, or the Bordeaux-style Wild Boar Doe red. The mood is relaxed, the setting pastoral and the group policy admirably firm.
Rose Hill Vineyards
For the Broadest Cellar: Bedell Cellars
Continue east to Cutchogue. That’s where Bedell Cellars has made wine for more than four decades and operates one of the region’s most polished tasting rooms. Sustainable farming anchors the estate, but the draw is the cellar’s broad command of the North Fork’s better grapes. Musée, a powerful merlot-led red blend made in select vintages, is the flagship. The list also makes a persuasive case for cabernet franc, malbec, albariño and sauvignon blanc, preventing the visit from becoming a prolonged seminar on merlot.
Bedell Cellars
For Old Vines and Older Bottles: Lenz Winery
Founded in 1978, Lenz Winery belongs to the North Fork’s surviving first generation. Old vineyard blocks and a deep library of mature bottles give the estate something younger wineries cannot manufacture: evidence of how Long Island wine behaves with time. The house typically holds its reds until their fourth or fifth year and maintains library vintages stretching back to the late 1980s and early 1990s. Old Vines Merlot is the bottle to seek, alongside traditionally styled cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay. Lenz welcomes visitors year-round for flights, glasses and bottles.
Lenz Winery
Choose the Ending: Bubbles or the Bluff
For Traditional-Method Sparkling: Sparkling Pointe
Sparkling Pointe has spent more than two decades pursuing one idea with uncommon discipline: estate-grown sparkling wine made by the traditional method, with secondary fermentation in the bottle. Its 40 sustainably farmed acres are planted primarily with chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier, the classic Champagne trio, though the finished wines belong unmistakably to the North Fork. Begin with the flagship Brut, then move through the copper-pink Topaz Impérial or a Reserve Blanc de Blancs to understand what additional lees aging contributes.
Sparkling Pointe
For the View: Kontokosta Winery
For the final stop, continue toward Greenport and save Kontokosta Winery for last. Its modern timber tasting hall sits atop bluffs that drop toward Long Island Sound, giving the North Fork one of its most dramatic wine settings. The family-managed estate produces sauvignon blanc, viognier, riesling, cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon, while the Anemometer blends offer a broader look at the cellar’s range. Wines are served as tastings or by the glass in the tasting room, meadow and bluff area. After a weekend of flights, the sensible order is one final glass and a seat facing the water. There is no prize for finishing the list.
Eric Striffler
