Welcome to Laurel Lake Vineyards

NEWSDAY - Sunday March 6, 2005

Wines of Long Island

Laurel Lake Vineyards adds to Long Island's growing repertoire of syrah with an appealing 2002 wine:

The 2002 Laurel Lake Syrah is an easy-on-the-palate red. It's on the light side for syrah, but has ripeness and arrives ready to drink, The wine is food-friendly, too, especially with prime rib, beef stew organic. A bottle of the '02 syrah is about $20.

Also new from the Laurel winery is the 2003 Laurel Lake Chardonnay, a re-freshing and uncomplicated steel-fermented white wine. Enjoy it as a sipper or with light preparations of chicken and fish. A bottle of the '03 chardonnay is about $11.
PETER M. GIANOTTi
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JANUARY 23, 2005

LONG ISLAND VINES

Low Profile But Big Taste

MIDPRICED wines from Chile I have acquired a reputation for immediate drinkability. That inviting trail can also be found In wines from Laurel Lake Vineyards, purchased by Chileans about six years ago. All three wines tasted - the 2003 chardonnay, 2002 syrah and 2000 merlot - were smooth and pleasurable. Laurel Lake's owners are Francisco Gillmore, the proprietor of the Gillmore Estate winery in the Maule region of Chile, Alejandro Parot, a wine producer; and Juan Estaban Sepuiveda, the executive director of Vinos del Sur, a Maule winery. Claudio Zamorano is the chief operating officer and winemaker at the 17-acre estate in Laurel, on the North Fork.

Although Laurel Lake has kept a fairly low profile among its peers, Its soft 2000 winter-season merlot ($16) is anything but modest. A beautiful dark garnet color, it is somber, spicy and meaty, even a little gamy, and moulh-filling. This winsome merlot opens steadily after being poured, especially when you use a broad and deep glass, which allows the wine to show off it; aromas and flavors of kitchen-garden herbs and licorice.

The amiable syrah ($20), which Is about half the weight of the merlot, seems more hesitant, more of an experiment, although the fruit was spicy and oaky, and the tannins firm. (Syrah Is not an entrenched grape on Long Island; relatively few wineries plant it.) In light of the density and typical assertiveness of syrahs from the West Coast, Australia and the Rhone Valley In France, Laurel Lake's version seemed timid and tame, but not uninteresting. Although creamy California style chardonnays generally seem less and less worth trying as time goes by. Laurel Lake's 2003 shone, especially when moderately chilled. Although It had the air of barrel fermentation, Tom Sidor, the tasting room manager, said it had been reared wholly in steel tanks.

A good value at $11 Laurel Lakes Chardonnay is the sort of white that Invites a second glass. The wine is alive with the swirling flavors of pineapple, figs, butterscotch, spice and apple pie.

Grapes from old vines tend to yield wines that are more full of character than those from young ones. Laurel Lake's were planted in 1980, old by Long Island standards, considering that Its wine industry was born in 1973.

The winery, at 3165 Main Road (Route 25) in Laurel, is open dally from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. through March. For more Information: www.llwines.com.

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Laurel Lake Vineyards
3165 Main Road (RT 25)
Laurel, New York 11948
Tel. (631) 298-1420
Fax. (631) 298-1405
For additional information please e-mail us at czamorano@llwines.com

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