The UnCorker

2006 Wolfer Estate Reserve Chardonnay

When you think Long Island and wine - and you do by now, right? - you naturally drift towards the North Fork. This is where Bordeaux grapes (especially Cabernet Franc) reign supreme - and a few big names like Schneider and Lenz have carved out a reputation for natural, old-world grace and command high prices for their wines. When you think South Fork & the Hamptons, what you probably don’t think about is Bridgehampton loam - but you really should. Because this is the stuff that is behind the scenes of a true off-the-beaten-path source of unique wines with exactly what the Frenchies dream of - typicity. Long Island itself is one big glacial morraine - which is the big mound of crud that a glacier dumps at it’s terminus. Sensibly, the glaciers in the last ice age decided to stop and turn around just before entering New Jersey. They left behind a giant mound of loamy goodness, perfectly suited for topping with Beaux Arts style waterfront McMansions with helipads. The previous owners at Wolffer Estate also recognized that nature had bestowed a great agricultural opportunity in this soil, so naturally turned to potato growing - and that’s the way they planted the place for a 100 years.

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Weird Wine of the Week: 2002 Damijan Bianco “Kaplja”

From Venezia-Giulia in the far Northeast of Italy comes this unusual beauty- Damijan Podversic is something of a maverick, shunning stainless steel, commercial yeasts, and strives to make “living wines”. His vineyards straddle the Italian-Slovenian border, and his methods are so old, they’re practically new. A blend of Malvasia Istriana, Chardonnay, and Tocai Friulano (now referred to simply as Friulano) fermented on its skins in old upright Slavonian oak, Damijan uses bio-dynamic practices, neither fines nor filters, and bottles under a full moon. The Bianco Kaplja is a cloudy, heady brew- served at cellar temperature, it reveals orange blossom on the nose, and a piercing apricot stonefruit on the palate- from the skins comes a tremendous amount of structure, mostly in the form of tannin, which keeps the wine endlessly interesting- this is a wine to meditate over, sniff, swirl and contemplate- this is what white wine was before stainless steel, refrigeration, and temperature controlled fermentations-