By Jamie Drummond

Located in the less-than-salubrious (but rapidly gentrifying) neighbourhood of Brooklyn’s Redhook is a boutique urban winery that champions the fruit of Long Island’s Grapegrowers. Redhook Winery’s production is without a doubt on the micro-winery scale, with annual production being a mere 500 cases at present. However, where they may be lacking in quantity, they undoubtedly excel in quality… and then some!

The man behind this astonishing project is Mark Snyder (Angel’s Share), a Brooklyn native, who saw such potential in Long Island wines that he invited his Napa Winemaker friends Abe Schoener (Scholium Project) and Robert Foley (Robert Foley Vineyards) to tour the region’s vineyards and see for themselves. Both Schoener and Foley were so impressed by Mark’s vision that they now regularly fly in from California to act as Executive Winemakers for the Redhook Winery.

As the pristine fruit arrives from the meticulously-sourced Long Island vineyards, it is divided equally between the two Winemakers, but from this point onwards both Schoener and Foley are free to treat the grapes as they see fit, and this is where things get really interesting. Both Winemakers have vastly different philosophies when it comes to crafting the best wine from the Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Merlot, and Cabernet grapes that make their way to Redhook. Barrel and tank tastings showed some truly extraordinary wines that despite the minuscule production runs are certainly worth tracking down, as they show two distinctively disparate takes upon the best that Long Island has to offer… albeit made in deepest, darkest Brooklyn.

A closer look at the wines of Long Island can be found in the week after next’s issue.

Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge and educator Jamie Drummond is the Director of Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution… and he is now certain that Winemakers are wholly immune to the sound of pumps…

This video is made possible through the kind support of Fortessa Canada/Schott Zwiesel