Behind the Bottle: The Rise of Wine on Long Island

by Eileen M. Duffy

Profiling owners, winemakers, and personalities from around the country and the world, Behind the Bottle is a fun and intriguing look at the people who have made Long Island into one of the hottest wine regions in the country.

Long Island has been a leader in winemaking since 1975. In the last forty years, Long Island's rise has been meteoric. Long a rural region famed for their duck and their potatoes, Long Island, now visited by 1.3 million people each year, has carved out a wine country second to none. With highly acclaimed wines garnering rave reviews from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications, Long Island wines have been celebrated around the country and across the Atlantic ocean. Here, Edible East End editor Eileen M. Duffy profiles winemakers and wineries that have received this high acclaim, and shares their stories. Men and women from as far away as California, France, even New Zealand have come here to create a wine country whose wines, including Chardonnay, Sauvingon Blanc, Merlot, and Meritages among others, are second to none. BEHIND THE BOTTLE illustrates the fascinating story from the region's birth to its zenith.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2014

Reviews

[Naturegirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really wonderful and comprehensive look at wine on the east end of Long Island. The names are familiar to me, but the stories were new. The book covers specific wines from vineyards on the north and south forks, plus tells the stories of the winemakers while including some vineyard history. Certain years were good for wine (hello, 2013), others were not so good due to storms or seasons with excessive rain. I loved learning about how the Cornell extension has been a vital resource for viticulture in the area, along with finding solutions to local pests like birds and deer (bird netting is now standard). Anyone who is interested in learning more about Long Island wine will find much of what they need to know in these pages.

I was relieved to see a female winemaker highlighted, Kelly Urbanik Koch from Macari, but was disappointed that One Woman was not featured in any way.