Long Island’s Wölffer Estate
turns potato farm into a first-rate vineyard

By Jane F. Garvey

About 90 miles northeast of New York City’s clamor, you’ll spot stick-andshingle houses and ornate Italian villas on the Empire state’s crab-claw-shaped stretch of land known as Long Island. Lying only a few miles inland from its sandy beaches is a growing winemaking industry, now numbering more than 30 wineries. Most are clustered on the North Fork or the top claw, but only a few tackle the less-protected, but cooler, South Fork. Wölffer Estate is one of them.

Named for its German-born owner Christian Wölffer, the winery has
bloomed during its decade on Long Island’s South Fork. American winemaking in other regions has substantial German roots, as well. Beringer in California comes to mind, and Missouri owes its winemaking traditions to
German settlers, who moved west after the American Revolution. And in upstate New York, Germans brought Riesling to the Finger Lakes in the 19th century. Now the tradition continues with Wölffer Estate’s modern operation on Long Island, focusing on Bordeaux varietals.

Wölffer, a native of Hamburg, began his work life as a 17-year-old bank intern in the mid-1960s, then managed sales forces in Mexico and South America before becoming a real estate entrepreneur in Canada less than 20 years later. Moving to the United States, he founded Euro Investors, a venture capital outfit that finances enterprises from Hawaii to Florida.

Fluent in a half dozen languages, the well-traveled and athletic Wölffer is in constant go-mode. We caught up with him in his car as he was being driven to LaGuardia Airport to catch a plane to Atlanta, where he has real estate interests.

“This was supposed to be a family retreat,” said the 62-year-old divorcé.
Indeed, winemaking wasn’t Wölffer’s original intent when in 1978 he bought a 14-acre potato farm as a home for his family. The property still provides a home especially horses. But over time, he came to believe he could make wine here. So, as on other Long Island wine properties, potatoes gave way to viticulture. In 1988, Sagpond Vineyards, as the winery was first known, planted its first vines and released its first wine in 1991.

Singing In The Cellars
Winemaking today consumes 50 acres of the 170-acre total parcel,
which also houses Sagpond Stables, a world-class equestrian center that the company claims is the largest on the east coast. Some $15 million in capital investment has gone into the property’s winefocused improvements alone. The Tuscan-style winery offers a generous reception and public tasting space, which is set off by its trademark massive double oak doors framed by two conifers. The image also serves as the winery’s label logo.

When he began to give serious thought German wine guru Peter M.F. Sichel on how to put this operation on the radar screen. Now residing in Bordeaux, Sichel, who launched many German wines into the American market, connected him with Jean-Louis Mandrau, former winemaker and technical manager at nearby Château Latour, to become the winery’s consulting oenologist.

But the team needed a winemaker and general manager. Enter Roman Roth, now 37, from Germany’s Black Forest area. “Christian needed a winemaker,” said Roth. “And I wanted to practice an interview in English. Of course, we didn’t conduct the interview in English,” he added laughing.

At just 16, Roth had begun a three-year apprenticeship at the Kaiserstuhl Wine Cooperative in Oberrotweil while attending a technical school in Heilbron. Between 1982, when he began winemaking studies, and 1992, when he joined Sagpond Vineyards, Roth worked at Rosemount Estate in Australia, and polished off advanced studies in winemaking in Germany. He was ready for Sagpond Vineyards, and Sagpond was ready for Roth. The timing was perfect.

Roman Roth, like his boss, has an artist’s side to him, possessing a fine
tenor voice. As a youngster, he sang in the church choir but nevertheless considered a banking career, albeit briefly.

“I couldn’t do banking,” Roth said, explaining that you can’t sing in a cubicle.“But you can in a cellar,” adding that tours love it when he breaks into song down in the barrel room and sends the echo bouncing around.

Although most Long Island wineries opted for the protection of the North
Fork, Roth believes in the winemaking potential of the South Fork. “It’s an
advantage to be on the South Fork,” he said. “It’s two to five degrees cooler than the North Fork.” That cooler temperature, he points out, helps protect acidity. Due to soil conditions, he feels South Fork grapes are healthier and better able to hang on the vine longer, which ultimately adds to a wine’s complexity and depth of flavor.

From Spuds To $100 Merlots
Balance is the major feature of the Wölffer Estate Chardonnays. “That’s
probably the one compliment we get the most,” says Roth. From the well-priced La Ferme Martin ($13) to the Reserve Chardonnay ($20) to the Estate Selection Chardonnay ($28), the wines show clean fruit, structure and elegance. Burgundy is the model, so oak isn’t overpowering, but its presence does increase as the price increases.

Red wines are the leader for this operation, however, especially Merlot. The La Ferme Martin Merlot ($13), Reserve ($22), and Estate Selection ($35) are the precursor for the newly released Premier Cru ($100). If you doubt that a Long Island bottle can sell for that price, only 30 of the 200 six-bottle cases remained this past May.

Besides Merlot, the winery offers the 2000 Wölffer Estate Cabernet Franc,
which displays rich, complex fruit and a silky mouthfeel. In August 2002, the New York Wine and Grape Foundation Classic competition designated this Cabernet Franc New York’s “Best Red.” Roth recognizes the worthiness of this grape and is cultivating an additional six acres.

With the Hamptons right around the corner, you’d think Long Island wineries would make a sparkling wine to add a little class to the summertime gatherings of New York’s elite. Wölffer Estate does with its Cuvée Brut ($27). This sparkler’s yeasty, apple/pear flavos, brisk acidity and outstanding balance would be a hit any on veranda or yacht. A blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the wine is tank-fermented at cool temperatures to keep that tasty acidity, and aged for three and a half years. Judges recently acclaimed it the Best Sparkling Wine at
the first Long Island Wine Gazette East End Food and Wine Awards.

“Never Satisfied”
This spring, Roth received Winemaker of the Year at the East End Food and Wine Awards and the winery unveiled its first vintage of Premier Cru Merlot at the world-renowned Daniel restaurant in New York City. The vines (mere babies) that produced this magnificent Merlot were only planted in 1990 on a five-acre gently sloping parcel. If the Merlot is this good now, one can only imagine what the next couple of decades will hold.

While still a small, quality-focused producer from Long Island, Wölffer Estate wines have been selling well in the South. “We just sent another 75 cases down [to Atlanta],” Roth said in April. “Compared with last year, we’re ahead. We’ve already sent twice as much down as last year.”

As much as the Wölffer Estate team has achieved in the past decade, Christian Wölffer constantly pushes for more. In fact, he’s already at work on his next winery- affiliated project: the Wölffer Farm Stand on Montauk Highway, located on the south side of the vineyards. Enthusiastic about this new venture, Wölffer plans to include specialty items exclusively produced on the property, including an Emmental-style Sagpond Farmstead Cheese made from milk supplied by Wölffer’s cows.

“We are never satisfied with what we’re doing,” says Roth. “That’s what is so exciting. It will not stop. The time is so right for doing this. You don’t want to be so far ahead you’re bleeding, but you sure want to be leading.” The impetus, he says, grinning with anticipation, comes “not just from Christian, but also from the bottom up. There’s so much room. It’s such uncharted territory.”

Jane F. Garvey is an Atlanta-based freelance
writer devoted to the finer things
in life including food and wine.