Voted Best Bachelor Party Venue

Best Bachelor Party Venue in Long Island 2024 - LI Vineyard Tours

Long Island Wine Tours – Not just for Bachelorette’s Anymore

2024: Long Island Voted Long Island Vineyard Tours – Freeport Best Bachelor Party Venue!

Best Bachelor Party Venue in Long Island 2024 - LI Vineyard Tours

Long Island Vineyard Tours – Freeport
111 Albany Ave, Freeport
(516) 946-3868

Long Island Vineyard Tours aka LI Vineyard Tours® adds a sophisticated and memorable touch to bachelor parties & bachelorette parties, providing a unique and luxurious experience for the bride and groom’s entourage. Based in Freeport, this service offers exclusive guided tours through Long Island’s esteemed vineyards and wineries. The business was first started to ensure that drinking drivers stay off the road when visiting the North Fork wineries. The vineyard tours combine scenic landscapes with wine tasting included, creating an unforgettable day of indulgence. With a fleet of comfortable and stylish limousines, Mercedes Benz Sprinter Party Van’s & Party Bus Vehicles, Long Island Vineyard Tours ensures a safe and enjoyable journey for the group. Elevate the bachelor/ bachelorette party experience with Long Island Vineyard Tours, offering a perfect blend of celebration, camaraderie, and refined enjoyment in the heart of Long Island’s wine country!

Plan Your Adventure With Long Island Vineyard Tours

Luxury Limo's, Sprinter Vans & Party Buses - Long Island Vineyard Tours

Long Island Wineries & Vineyards

If you haven’t been out East to visit the Long Island Wineries & Vineyards then you don’t know what your missing. Who would have thought that Down State New York would have over 40 beautiful Wineries & Vineyard’s in Long Island that you can visit any time of year.

Long Island Grape Vines - Long Island Vineyard Tours
Long Island Wineries & Vineyards – Long Island Vineyard Tours

With Red Wines & White Wines to sample all of over the East End why wouldn’t you want to visit the Wineries? If your looking to Plan Your Adventure With Long Island Vineyard Tours and sample Award Winning Wines in the North Fork Vineyards, you’ll want to schedule your Wine Tours in advance. We have many different types of luxury vehicles to accommodate for any group size including larger groups. In fact, whether you have 7 people or 35 people, pricing is all the same. We also provide a Gourmet Box Lunch if you just want to bring a cooler with you. There are other Winery Tour Packages we offer but you’ll want to call us and discuss it with one of our professional operators as pricing can be a lot higher then our normal LI Wine Tasting Tours Package.

Plan Your Your Long Island Vineyard Tours with The Ultimate in Luxury Transportation

Party Buses, Limousines & Sprinter Party Van Rentals is the safest way to travel if you and your group wants to sample Long Island Wine. What’s better then spending your day with people that make you happy? Sampling Wine with them of course!

All vehicles are inspected by the NYS DOT & local registered inspection repair facilities. Our drivers are top rated and are all older gentleman that have been with LI Vineyard Tours® for over 19 years.

Long Island Grown Grapes - Long Island Vineyard Tours
Long Island Grown Grapes – Long Island Vineyard Tours

For further information on our Wine Tour Packages, or to make Reservations, please call Long Island Vineyard Tours today at (516)-WINE-TOURS / (516)-946-3868

Wine Tasting Tours Long Island

Party Bus Wine Tours Long Island NY - LIVineyardTours.com

The Very Best of Wine Tours Today in Long Island, NY

Interested in Wine Tasting Tours in Long Island NY? Let LI Vineyard Tours® provide you with exceptional service with Luxury Transportation & Tastings included. With 19 years of Exceptional Wine Tasting Tour experience, LI Vineyard Tours® provides the Very Best of Long Island Wine Tours.

Wine Tasting Tours Long Island with LI Vineyard Tours Party Bus Service

Long Island Wineries & Vineyards

Theirs been a lot of change in the East End of Long Island. Old Vineyards being sold, New Wineries opening up. Change is good and so is the Wine that Long Island produces. Many of the Wineries & Vineyards produce there own wine right there on premise. If your in the East End and your on a Long Island Wine Tasting Tours you might just be lucky enough to sample some of this fantastic wine. Depending upon which touring company you select will most likely take you to a no name Vineyard. LI Vineyard Tours® works with Top Rated Wineries on the North Fork of Long Island. In fact we provide Bachelorette Wine Tours in Long Island, Group Wine Tours in the East End and some amazing Wine Tour Packages in the North Fork too.

Long Island Vineyard Tours with LI Vineyard Tours

Top Rated Wineries & Vineyards in Long Island NY

So your into Wine and you want to visit a Vineyard. You’ve never planned or been to the East End-North Forks Vineyards and you want to go. We’ll you’ll need a reliable company that is not to expensive and knows there way around the Wineries. Theirs only (1) One Top Rated Company for Wine Tours in Long Island and that us!! For the Best Rates & Best Transportation available try LI Vineyard Tours® TODAY..

For further information on our Long Island Wine Limo Tour Packages, or to make Reservations, please call Long Island Vineyard Tours today. Call us at (516)-WINE-TOURS / (516)-946-3868

Long Island Grapes

Growing Grapes on Long Island

How to Grow Long Island Grapes in Your Backyard

You don’t need to live on a winery to grow Long Island grapes for making jams and wine. Or maybe you just want to pop them in your mouth for a snack! Learn how to plant and harvest juicy grapes in your own garden by following these instructions.  

Long Island Grapes - LI Vineyard Tours

Discover how to grow grapes, and you’ll enjoy the amazing pleasure of picking a grape fresh off the vine and popping it into your mouth. When you bite into a grape that’s warm from the sun and bursting with juice, you’ll be hooked on growing grapes on your own.

When we think of growing grapes, we dream of green or purple table grapes (the kind you eat fresh), jams and jellies, raisins, or perhaps a good wine grape, just in case you want to make your own Cabernet.

Knowing how to grow grapes successfully means selecting the right variety for your region. Grapes will grow in almost any part of the country but you need to choose one that suits your local conditions of summer heat and winter cold. Your local extension office can suggest a specific variety, whether it be table or wine.

Grapes need full sun all day no matter the region you live in, and well-drained soil that’s free of weeds and grass—you don’t want any competition for water and nutrients. Think of all those pictures you’ve seen of the Long Island vineyards—that’s what you’re aiming for.

Planting Long Island Grapes

Long Island Grapes - LI Vineyard Tours

Plant grapes in early spring, when you’ll find bare-root varieties available. As you plant, cut the existing root back to 6 inches; this will encourage feeder roots to grow near the trunk. The root system of a grapevine can grow deep, so well-cultivated soil is best. You will probably need to do some pruning at planting time, too. Prune off all except for one stem, and then look for the buds on the stem; cut the stem back to only two buds. You’re on your way.

Fertilizing Long Island Grapes

Long Island Grapes - LI Vineyard Tours

The first two or three years, each early spring, apply a nitrogen fertilizer. You may not have to do this as the vines mature; it all depends on your observation. Do the vines look vigorous and healthy? Maybe you don’t need any fertilizer.

Pruning Long Island Grapes

Pruning Grapes in Long Island NY

Learn how to grow grapes trained on a vertical trellis or on an overhead arbor. You can decide which method fits into your garden better, but be sure to have the supports in place before you plant the vines. On a vertical trellis, branches from the previous year’s growth are selected to grow along the wires of the trellis or fence. The buds along the stems will flower and set fruit. Just like a fence, the trellis can have two or three levels, and the center stem is left to grow up to the next level.

If you’d like to see your grapes hanging down from overhead, you can train the vines that way, still shortening the branches and selecting just a few to secure to the metal or wood arbor.

The technique for how to grow the most productive grapes is good pruning practices. Pruning grapes and the training techniques may sound complicated, but they don’t need to be. Each dormant season, keep a few stems that grew last year, and train them on the wires or trellis. You’ll probably have to shorten them to fit your space. Prune everything else off. It’s shocking to see how much you will cut off, but your grapes will grow better because of it. You’ll see buds on the remaining growth; each of those buds will produce several shoots that grow leaves and flowers.

Vines can overproduce grapes. This isn’t a case of too much of a good thing, because overproduction leads to poor-quality fruit. Avoid this by thinning flower clusters that look misshapen and cutting off fruit clusters that develop poorly.

Don’t jump the gun on harvesting; grapes won’t improve in taste after you pick, so sample a grape or two occasionally until they are ripe. Then get busy picking!

The Best Wine Tours Provider

East End Winery Tours

The #1 Best Long Island Wine Tours Company since 2004

We are NOT Long Island Wine Tours the company but offer The Best Long Island Wine Tours to the East End, North Fork of Long Island. Our company is LI Vineyard Tours.® An exciting service offering the opportunity for Tastings and Tours to the outstanding Wineries at the East End of Long Island. Using our Limousines, Limo/Party Buses and our experience in providing quality service-since 2004, you are sure to enjoy the many wonderful packages LI Vineyard Tours® has to offer. We offer exciting wine tour gift packages for any occasion. Holidays, Birthdays, Anniversary’s, Mothers Day, Bachelorette Parties, Romantic Endeavors or just a Beautiful Relaxing Day of atmosphere, tasting and enjoyment.

The Best Long Island Wine Tours - LI Vineyard Tours

When Only The Best Will Do

When you travel, you want to make good choices after all, there are only so many wines to taste and so many wineries to visit.  Therefore, poor choices are much more consequential than they would be if you where to visit the vineyards every weekend. So you want to choose the right wineries to visit when you make your choices. That’s why LI Vineyard Tours® put specific  wine tour packages together.

The Best Long Island Wine Tours - LI Vineyard Tours

We offer the Best of the best when it comes to our wine tour packages. Try our Silver Packages, Gold Packages and Platinum Wine Tour Packages. Our most affordable bachelorette tasting package is our Gold Package. We offer 3 Vineyards or 8 hours which ever come first. All wine tour booking come with the transportation included as always. We do not offer sedans or van service. All of our vehicle are either limousines or party buses. You are sure to enjoy the  #1 Champagne of Wine Tour Providers, LI Vinegar Tours.®

Call us today for a fast, free quote at (516)-WINE-TOURS & (718)-WINE-TOURS

How To Make Grape Juice/Wine

#1 Way to Make Your Own Homemade Grape Juice/Wine

Clearly there’s nothing better than to make your own homemade grape juice unless your changing it into wine. Here’s a great article from ELISE BAUER. Step-by-step instructions with photos on how to make your own grape juice from scratch. If your looking to make wine, well here’s a good starting point. Changing grape juice into wine now that’s a tricky process. Late September and early October is Concord Grape season in Long Island’s North Fork’s – East End.

How to Make Your Own Homemade Grape Juice - Wine Grapes - Long Island Vineyard Tours

We used to make Grape juice from Welch’s frozen concentrate; sometimes the lid didn’t come off so easily and splat there went a purple goopy mess all over our shirts.

How to Make Your Own Homemade Grape Juice into Wine  - Grape Juice – Long Island Vineyard Tours

If you have never had fresh, homemade grape juice, I assure you, you are missing out; it’s nothing like anything you can buy in a store. It’s more like nectar than store bought juice, thick and smooth. We like to dilute it with sparkling water. Over the years we’ve learned that to make your own  homemade grape juice it doesn’t really freeze well; it just doesn’t taste nearly as special upon defrosting. So when it’s in season, we drink it up.

This recipe uses Concord grapes which, according to my friends in Concord, Mass, still grow wild around those parts. I’m pretty sure you could use this grape juice recipe with any kind of sweet grape you like. Home Made Grape Juice Recipe

INGREDIENTS

Equipment needed

  • A colander for rinsing the grapes
  • 1 large, 12-quart pot
  • 1 large 6 or 8-quart pot
  • A very large fine mesh sieve, or cheesecloth

1. Pick the grapes. Get a large basket, wear long sleaves and a hat, bring clippers, and fill up the basket with grape bunches. Keep in mind that a pound of grapes will yield a little less than a cup of juice.

Pick Your Grapes – LI Vineyard Tours®

2. Rinse and de-stem the grapes. Put grapes in a basin filled with water. Then rinse the individual grapes, picking them away from the stem, collecting the grapes in a large bowl, and discarding the green unripe and old shriveled grapes.

How to Make Your Own Grape Juice into Wine - LI Vineyard Tours®

3. Mash the grapes. With a potato masher, mash away at the grapes so the juice begins to flow. If you have picked a lot of grapes, you may need to work in batches. We have found it easiest to mash about 4 lbs of grapes at a time.

How to Make Your Own Homemade Grape Juice into Wine - Grape-Juice - LI Vineyard Tours®

4. Cook the grapes. Put the mashed grapes into a large stockpot. Slowly heat the grapes and juice to a simmer on medium heat and then simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally so that the grapes don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Halfway through cooking mash some more, breaking up as many of the remaining grapes as possible.

Grape Juice into Wine - LI Vineyard Tours

5. Prepare sieve or cheesecloth. Get another large pot, place a large fine mesh sieve over it. Alternatively you can cover it with two layers of cheesecloth, secure with a rubber band. Make sure pot is sitting on a plate to catch any juice that may run over.

Grape Juice Smash into Wine - LI Vineyard Tours®

6. Strain grape mixture. Ladle grape mixture over fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth to strain. Let sit for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator to strain completely.

Grape Juice Smash Strain into Wine - LI Vineyard Tours®

7. Finishing. Remove sieve or cheesecloth.* Note that sediment will have formed on the bottom of the container. Rinse out the sieve or cheesecloth and strain the juice again, to filter out some of the sediment. Pour or ladle juice into containers. Enjoy your juice!

Grape Juice into Wine - LI Vineyard Tours®

* Note that the grape mash can be composted. NOW if your looking to make wine here’s a great video

HOW TO MAKE WINE

Have you ever wanted to make homemade wine? Here’s how.

Grape Juice Into Wine - Red Wine and Carafe - LI Vineyard Tours®

Red wine and carafe | Photo by Meredith

In theory, making wine is very simple, especially if you have already made your grape juice.  Now yeast meets grape juice in an environment that allows fermentation. It’s such a natural process that wine was probably first discovered by happy accident thousands of years ago: Natural yeasts, blowing in the wind, settled down upon a bunch of squashed grapes, whose juice was pooling in the shaded bowl of a rock. After fermenting, some lucky passerby stops and stoops down for a taste…and likes what he discovers.  From there, the process of winemaking will be refined, as you can imagine, and the environment carefully controlled, to the point where winemaking becomes both science and art.

And DIY home winemaking? Well, it probably falls somewhere between the curious stone-age wanderer and the modern vintner who applies artful science to the process.

At any rate, winemaking at home requires several pieces of inexpensive equipment, serious cleanliness, and a mess of patience. Turns out, Tom Petty was right: “The waiting is the hardest part.”

Equipment Checklist:

  • One 4-gallon food-grade-quality plastic bucket and lid to serve as the primary fermentation vat
  • Three 1-gallon glass jugs to use as secondary fermentation containers
  • A funnel that fits into the mouth of the glass bottles
  • Three airlocks (fermentation traps)
  • A rubber cork (or bung) to fit into the secondary fermentation container
  • Large straining bag of nylon mesh
  • About 6 feet of clear half-inch plastic tubing
  • About 20 wine bottles (you’ll need 5 bottles per gallon of wine)
  • Number 9-size, pre-sanitized corks
  • Hand corker (ask about renting these from the wine supply store)
  • A Hydrometer to measure sugar levels

Ingredient Checklist:

  • Lots and lots of wine grapes
  • Granulated sugar
  • Filtered water
  • Wine yeast

To the above basic list you can refine the process by adding such things as Campden tablets to help prevent oxidation, yeast nutrients, enzymes, tannins, acids, and other fancy ingredients to better control your wine production.

Making Wine

Part 1

  • Ensure your equipment is thoroughly sterilized and then rinsed clean. (Ask at the wine supply store about special detergents, bleaches, etc.). It’s best to clean and rinse your equipment immediately before using.
  • Select your grapes, tossing out rotten or peculiar-looking grapes.
  • Wash your grapes thoroughly.
  • Remove the stems.
  • Crush the grapes to release the juice (called “must”) into the primary fermentation container. Your hands will work here as well as anything. Or go old school and stomp with your feet. If you’re making a lot of wine, you might look into renting a fruit press from a wine supply store.
  • Add wine yeast.
  • Insert the hydrometer into the must. If it reads less than 1.010, consider adding sugar. If you’re adding sugar, first dissolve granulated sugar in pure filtered water (adding sugar helps boost low alcohol levels). Stir the must thoroughly.
  • Cover primary fermentation bucket with cloth; allow must to ferment for one week to 10 days. Over the course of days, fermentation will cause a froth to develop on top and sediment to fall to the bottom.
Grape Juice Into Wine - Mashed Grapes and Twigs - LI Vineyard Tours®

Making Grape Juice into Wine| Photo by Meredith

Part 2

  • Gently strain the liquid to remove the sediment and froth.
  • Run the juice through a funnel into sanitized glass secondary fermentation containers. Fill to the top to reduce the amount of air reaching the wine.
  • Fit the containers with airlocks.
  • Allow the juice to ferment for several weeks.
  • Use the plastic tube to siphon the wine into clean glass secondary fermentation containers. Again, the purpose here is to separate the wine from sediment that forms as the wine ferments.
  • Continue to siphon the wine off the sediment periodically (this is called “racking”) for 2 or 3 months until the wine is running clear.

Part 3

  • Run the wine into bottles (using the cleaned plastic tubing), leaving space for the cork plus about a half inch or so of extra room.
  • Insert corks.
  • Store the wine upright for the first three days.
  • After three days, store the wine on its side at, ideally, 55 degrees F. For red wine, age for at least 1 year. White wine can be ready to drink after only 6 months.

We hope you enjoyed these 2 articles that we put together and hope you’ll try either to make your own homemade grape juice or turning it into home made Wine yourselves. Lets not forget if you want to do some wine tastings then LI Vineyard Tours® is the transportation company for you.

Please call us at (516)-WINE-TOURS / (516)-946-3868 anytime to schedule a Long Island Wine Tour.

 

Tasting Long Island Wine

Wine Tasting Long Island - LI Vineyard Tours

Learn How to Taste Wine on Long Island

Here is a GREAT article on learning how to Taste Wine. Their are generally 4 basic steps to learn how to taste wine. The following wine tasting tips are practiced by sommeliers to refine their palates and sharpen their ability to taste and recall wines. Even though this method is used by pros, it’s actually quite simple to understand and can help anyone to improve their wine palate.

Wine Tasting Long Island NY

Anyone can taste wine, all you need is a glass of wine and your brain. There are 4 steps to wine tasting but lets not forget, not to drive when you are tasting wine.

  1. Look: A visual inspection of the wine under neutral lighting
  2. Smell: Identify aromas through orthonasal olfaction (e.g. breathing through your nose)
  3. Taste: Assess both the taste structure (sour, bitter, sweet) and flavors derived from retronasal olfaction (e.g. breathing with the back of your nose)
  4. Think/Conclude: Develop a complete profile of a wine that can be stored in your long term memory.
Wine Visual Chart Long Island

How to Taste Wine

1. Look

Check out the color, opacity, and viscosity (wine legs). You don’t really need to spend more than 5 seconds on this step. A lot of clues about a wine are buried in its appearance, but unless you’re tasting blind, most of the answers that those clues provide will be found on the bottle (i.e. the vintage, ABV and grape variety).

2. Smell

When you first start smelling wine, think big to small. Are there fruits? Think of broad categories first, i.e. citrus, orchard, or tropical fruits in whites or, when tasting reds, red fruits, blue fruits, or black fruits. Getting too specific or looking for one particular note can lead to frustration. Broadly, you can divide the nose of a wine into three primary categories:

  • Primary Aromas are grape-derivative and include fruits, herbs, and floral notes.
  • Secondary Aromas come from winemaking practices. The most common aromas are yeast-derivative and are most easy to spot in white wines: cheese rind, nut husk (almond, peanut), or stale beer.
  • Tertiary Aromas come from aging, usually in bottle, or possibly in oak. These aromas are mostly savory: roasted nuts, baking spices, vanilla, autumn leaves, old tobacco, cured leather, cedar, and even coconut.

3. Taste

Taste is how we use our tongues to observe the wine, but also, once you swallow the wine, the aromas may change because you’re receiving them retro-nasally.

  • Taste: Our tongues can detect salty, sour, sweet, or bitter. All wines are going to have some sour, because grapes all inherently have some acid. This varies with climate and grape type. Some varieties are known for their bitterness (i.e. Pinot Grigio), and it manifests as a sort of light, pleasant tonic-water-type flavor. Some white table wines have a small portion of their grape sugars retained, and this adds natural sweetness. You can’t ever smell sweetness though, since only your tongue can detect it. Lastly, very few wines have a salty quality, but in some rare instances salty reds and whites exist.
  • Texture: Your tongue can “touch” the wine and perceive its texture. Texture in wine is related to a few factors, but an increase in texture is almost always happens in a higher-alcohol, riper wine. Ethanol gives a wine texture because we perceive it as “richer” than water. We also can detect tannin with our tongue, which are that sand-paper or tongue-depressor drying sensation in red wines.
  • Length: The taste of wine is also time-based, there is a beginning, middle (mid-palate) and end (finish). Ask yourself, how it takes until the wine isn’t with you anymore?

4. Think

Did the wine taste balanced or out of balance (i.e. too acidic, too alcoholic, too tannic)? Did you like the wine? Was this wine unique or unmemorable? Were there any characteristics that shined through and impressed you?

Long Island Wine Tasting - LI Vineyard Tours

Practice With The Video!

Grab a glass of wine and practice the 4-step tasting method guided by sommelier, Madeline Puckette.

Taste Wine the Right Way

Getting past the “wine” smell: it can be difficult to move beyond the vinous flavor. A good technique is to alternate between small, short sniffs and slow, long sniffs.

Learn to Swirl: The act of swirling wine actually increases the number of aroma compounds that are released into the air.

Find More Flavors When You Taste: Try coating your mouth with a larger sip of wine followed by several smaller sips so that you can isolate and pick out flavors. Focus on one flavor at a time. Always be thinking from broad-based flavors to more specific ones, i.e. the general “black fruits” to the more specific, “dark plum, roasted mulberry, or jammy blackberry.”

Improve Your Tasting Skills Faster: Comparing different wines in the same setting will help you improve your palate faster, and it also makes wine aromas more obvious. Get a flight of “tastes” at your local wine bar, join a local tasting group, or gather some friends to taste several wines all at once. You’ll be shocked by how much side-by-sides of different varieties will show you!

Overloaded With Aromas? Neutralize your nose by sniffing your forearm.

How to Write Useful Tasting Notes: If you’re someone who learns by doing, taking tasting notes will be very useful to you. Check out this useful technique on taking accurate tasting notes.

Long Island Wine Tasting - LI Vineyard Tours

A Detailed look at the 4 Steps for Tasting Wine:

Long Island Wine Tasting - LI Vineyard Tours

Step 1: Look

How to Judge the Look of a Wine: Color and opacity of wine can give you hints as to the approximate age, the potential grape varieties, the amount of acidity, alcohol, sugar, and even the potential climate (warm vs. cool) where the wine was grown.

Age: As white wines age they tend to change color, becoming more yellow and brown, with an increase in overall pigment. Red wines tend to lose color, becoming more transparent as time goes on.

Potential Grape Varieties: Here are some common hints you can look for in the color and rim variation –

  • Often Nebbiolo and Grenache-based wines will have a translucent garnet or orange color on their rim, even in their youth.
  • Pinot Noir will often have a true-red or true-ruby color, especially from cooler climates.
  • Malbec will often have a magenta pink rim.

Alcohol and Sugar: Wine legs can tell us if the wine has high or low alcohol and/or high or low sugar. The thicker and more viscous the legs, likely the more alcohol or residual sugar contained in the wine.


how to taste wine in Long Island NY

Step 2: Smell

How to Judge the Smell of Wine: Aromas in wine nearly give away everything about a wine; from grape variety, whether or not the wine was oak-aged, where the wine is from, and how old the wine is. A trained nose and palate can pick all these details out.

Where Do Wine Aromas Actually Come From?

Aromas like “sweet Meyer lemon” and “pie crust” are actually aroma compounds called stereoisomers that are captured in our noses from evaporating alcohol. It’s like a scratch and sniff sticker.  A single glass can have hundreds of different compounds, which is why people smell so many different things. It’s also easy to get lost in language though, since all of us interpret individual aromas in related, but slightly different ways. Your “sweet Meyer lemon” may be my “tangerine juice”. We’re both talking about a sweet citrus quality in the wine. We’re both correct–we’re just using slightly different words to express the idea.

Long Island Wine Tasting - LI Vineyard Tours

Wine Aromas Fall into 3 Categories:

Primary Aromas: Primary aromas come from the type of the grape and the climate where it grows. For instance, Barbera will often smell of licorice or anise, and this is because of compounds in Barbera grapes themselves, not because of a close encounter with a fennel bulb. Generally speaking, the fruit flavors in wine are primary aromas. If you’d like to see some examples, check out these articles:

  • Identifying Fruit Flavors in Wine
  • 6 Common Flower Flavors Found in Wine
  • Red & Dark Fruit Flavors in Several Wine Varieties

Secondary Aromas: Secondary aromas come from the fermentation process (the yeast). A great example of this is the “sourdough” smell that you can find in Brut Champagne that is sometimes described as “bready” or “yeasty.” Yeast aromas can also smell like old beer or cheese rind. Another common secondary aroma would be the yogurt or sour cream aroma that comes from malolactic fermentation. All-and-all, some of these aromas are quite bizarre.

Tertiary Aromas: Tertiary aromas (sometimes referred to as “bouquets”) come from aging wine. Aging aromas are attributed to oxidation, aging in oak, and/or aging in bottle over a period of time. The most common example of this is the “vanilla” aroma associated with wines aged in oak. Other more subtle examples of tertiary aromas are the nutty flavors found in aged vintage Champagne. Often, tertiary aromas will modify primary aromas, with the fresh fruit of a youthful wine changing to be more dried and concentrated as it develops.


how to taste wine in Long Island NY

Step 3: Taste

How to Judge the Taste of Wine: With practice you could be able to blind taste a wine down to the style, regio,n and even possible vintage! Here are the details on what to pay attention to.

Sweetness:

The best way to sense sweetness is on the front of your tongue in the first moment you taste a wine. Wines range from 0 grams per liter residual sugar (g/l RS) to about 220 g/l RS. By the way, 220 will have a consistency close to syrup! Sweet table wines are only traditionally made in Alsace, Germany, and the Loire Valley from white grapes, so if you’re finding sweetness in a red wine that isn’t dessert-style or Manischewitz, you’ve got something weird on your hands!

  • Dry Wines Most people would draw the line for dry wines at around 10 g/l of residual sugar, but the human threshold of perception is only 4g/l. Most Brut Champagne will have around 6-9 gl/. Your average harmoniously sweet German Riesling has about 30 or 40 g/l.
  • Acidity Matters Wines with high acidity taste less sweet than wines with low acidity, because we generally perceive the relationship between sweetness and acidity, not the individual parts. Coke has 120 g/l but tastes relatively “dry” because of how much acidity it has! Coke’s really high acid is why you can also melt teeth and hair in it. Coke’s total acidity is way higher than any wine.

Acidity:

Acidity plays a major role in the overall profile of a wine because its the mouth-watering factor a wine has, which drives wine’s refreshment factor. You can use these clues to determine if the wine is from a hot or cool climate, and even how long it might age.

Acidity Refers to pH: There are many types of acids in wine, but the overall acidity in wine is often measured in pH. Acidity is how sour a wine tastes. You generally perceive acidity as that mouthwatering, pucker-ing sensation in the back of your jaw. High acid wines are frequently described as “tart” or “zippy”. pH in wine ranges from 2.6, which is punishingly acidic, to about 4.9 which is barely detectable as tart, because it’s much closer to the neutral 7.0 measurement.

  • Most wines range between 3 and 4 pH.
  • Highly acidic wines are more tart and mouth-watering.
  • High acidity can help you determine if a wine is from a cooler climate region or if the wine grapes were picked early.
  • Low acid wines tend to taste smoother and creamier, with less mouth-watering qualities.
  • Super low acid wines will taste flat or flabby.

Tannin:

Long Island Wine Tasting - LI Vineyard Tours

Where grape tannin comes from

Tannin is a red wine characteristic and it can tell us the type of grape, if the wine was aged in oak, and how long the wine could age. You perceive tannin only on your palate and only with red wines; it’s that cotton-ball-like drying sensation.

Tannin comes from 2 places: the skins and seeds of grapes or from oak aging. Every grape variety has a different inherent level of tannin, depending on its individual character. For example, Pinot Noir and Gamay have inherently low-levels of tannin, whereas Nebbiolo and Cabernet have very high levels.

  • Grape Tannins Tannin from grape skins and seeds is typically more abrasive and can taste more green.
  • Oak Tannins Tannin from oak will often taste more smooth and round. They typically hit your palate in the center of your tongue.

Tasting for oak tannin versus grape tannin is extremely difficult; don’t worry if you don’t get it right away. Here is a detailed article on the topic of tannins.

Alcohol:

Alcohol can sometimes tell us the intensity of a wine and the ripeness of the grapes that went into making the wine.

  • Alcohol level can add quite a bit of body and texture to wine.
  • Alcohol ranges from 5% ABV – 16% ABV. A sub-11% ABV table wine usually means something with a little natural sweetness. Dry wines at 13.5% to 16% ABV are all going to be quite rich and intensely flavored. Fortified wines are 17-21% ABV.
  • Alcohol level is directly correlated to the sweetness of the grapes prior to fermenting the wine. For this reason, lower ABV (sub-11%) wines will often have natural sweetness; their grape sugar wasn’t all turned into booze.
  • Warmer growing regions produce riper grapes, which have the potential to make higher alcohol wines.
  • Low vs. high alcohol wine Neither style is better than the other, it’s simply a characteristic of wine.

Body:

Body can give us clues to the type of wine, the region in which was grown, and the possible use of oak aging. Body usually is directly related to alcohol, but think of body as how the wine “rests” on your palate. When you swish it around in your mouth, does it feel like skim, 2%, or whole milk? That texture will roughly correspond with, light, medium, and full bodiedness in wine. Usually body will also correspond with alcohol, but various other processes like lees stirring, malolactic fermentation, oak aging, and residual sugar can all give a wine additional body and texture.TIP: A great example of “finish” from the world outside of wine is the sappy, oily feeling 20 seconds after taking a sip of Coca-Cola.

Long Island Wine Tasting - LI Vineyard Tours


An example of how you can think about the body of wine and how it changes over time


Long Island Wine Tasting - LI Vineyard Tours

Step 4: Conclusion

This is your opportunity to sum up how to taste wine. What was the overall profile of the wine? Fresh fruits with an acid-driven finish? Jammy fruits with oak and a broad, rich texture?

In a scenario when you are blind tasting a wine, you would use this moment to attempt to guess what the wine it is that you’re tasting. Try hosting your own private blind tasting to hone your skills.

By activating our brains when we taste wine, we alter the way we consume. This, my friends, is a very good thing.

We thank Wine Folly for this article and claim no rights to their name or their mark.

 

 

Wineries and Tasting Fees

Wineries and Tasting Fees on Long Island

Wineries and Tasting Fees on Long Island

Back in 2004, LI Vineyard Tours® had an idea of sending people out east to sample Long Island’s wine in the North Fork. With one limousine and an idea today it has become Big business for all whom own a vineyard. In addition, heading to the wineries and tasting fees at the vineyards didn’t exist. You sampled the wine and if you didn’t like it, you could just walk out. Although if you did like it you would get a great price on a bottle of wine. The only problem was after sampling wine you shouldn’t be driving. That’s when LI Vineyard Tours® s was created.

What better way to sample wine with friends and family without driving intoxicated. So LI Vineyard Tours® put together specific wine tour packages with limousine, party bus & shuttle charter transportation included in the pricing. Who new that 14 years later we would have to change the pricing because the sampling & tasting fees would go thru the roof. This of coarse has limited us to certain vineyards with affordable sampling fees. The whole object is to taste wine you enjoy and perhaps recommend it to a friend or family member. Whether you buy it at the winery or buy it from a liquor store doesn’t matter what matters is you don’t drink and drive.

Wineries and Tastings Fees on Long Island
Wineries and Tastings Fees on Long Island
Wineries and Tastings Fees on Long Island

The Long Island Wine Region

The heart of Long Island is now home to over 40 wineries & vineyards. This was all started by a pioneer who’s name was Dr. Herodotus “Dan” Damianos was a visionary. He saw what could be on Long Island when he planted the first vines and decided to make wine instead of growing potatoes. Dr. Dan was also a compassionate doctor. He truly cared about each person he cared for in his practice. His traditions are carried on daily at the winery and in his tasting rooms.

At Pindar Vineyards, their award-winning wines are quite literally dreams come true. It was the dream  Dr. Herodotus “Dan” Damianos that helped create the wine-making industry on Long Island in the early 1980’s. And that dream has, over 35 years, turned Pindar Vineyards into Long Island’s best-known wine producer. Not to mention their wine tastings are affordable and so are the bottles.

Wineries and Tastings Fees on Long Island

Another fantastic winery is Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyards. Their tasting fees are still affordable and not only can you taste award winning wines but you can also walk their property and see all of the horses they have rescued over the years. In 2007, their old, 1861 farmhouse was renovated and became what is its presently the Tasting House. A top-notch team was hired to oversee and supervise wine making & production as well as vineyard management and so Baiting Hollow Farm became Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard®, which has established itself as a grower of distinction producing many varietals of high quality wines.

Of coarse their are other wineries on the east end of Long Island but we thought we would mention these two. You can also find additional information on other vineyards located on our Wineries page.

Vineyards on Long Island

Vineyards & Winery Tours Long Island

Vineyards & Winery Tours on Long Island

From Manhattan to Montauk, let LI Vineyard Tours ® take you to the East End of  Long Island’s vineyard region. It’s time to kick the summer off right with Long Island Vineyard Tours. These wonderful wine country tours are the perfect stay-cations. Long Island’s wine region is breathtakingly beautiful and the Vineyards are so inviting.

Vineyards & Winery Tours Long Island

Wineries & Vineyards on Long Island

Wine Tastings are beyond popular these days. If your looking for the best North Fork wineries on Long Island then let us take you there. LI Vineyard Tours ® has been servicing the Long Island Wine region since 2004. We offer the best Long Island Winery’s at the east end. Our limousines and buses are available round the clock. All limo wine tours transportation is scheduled in advance. If your scheduling a NYC Wine Tour then its best to schedule early. Furthermore, if you scheduling a wine tour from Long Island, then you can schedule them for 10 am.

Vineyards & Winery Tours Long Island

In addition to sampling Long island wine, lunch can be purchased from our caterer for an additional fee. Also, for you bachelorette parties,  we know exactly what vineyards & wineries you want to visit. You are sure to enjoy the many wonderful wineries that are on Long Island. We encourage you to call our office and speak to a vineyards & winery tour expert. all though we love to hear our phones ring, please schedule in advance. We can not help you if you wake up and decide today, I’m going wine tasting.

Vineyards & Winery Tours on Long Island

Please browse through our website to learn more about our wine tour packages and view the wonderful list of Long Island Vineyards in the East End.

For more information on our Wine Tour Packages, or to make Reservations, please call Long Island Vineyard Tours today. Call us at (516)-WINE-TOURS / (516)-946-3868

Thank you for choosing Long Island Vineyard Tours