Macari Vineyards, 2021 “Lifeforce” Cabernet Franc, North Fork of Long Island AVA, NY
The story of Macari Vineyards begins in the mid-1960s, when Joseph T Macari Sr purchased a 500-acre former potato farm just west of the town of Mattituck on Long Island's North Fork. Being of Italian heritage, Joseph was introduced to wine from a young age, and began making wine with his grandfather back in the 30s and 40s at the family home in Corona, Queens, NY.
Seeing the strong potential of viticulture and winemaking on Long Island, Joseph's son, Joseph T Macari Jr, made the decision to move to Long Island with his wife Alexandra and four children in 1995 and began planting grape vines on the property. Today, the third generation Joseph M Macari manages the estate's vineyards and Gabriella Macari is Director of Operations. In the cellar, winemaker Byron Elmendorf has been with Macari since 2020, having spent time making wine in France, Italy and California following his studies at UC Davis before eventually landing at Macari.
As is the case with many wineries on Long Island, Cabernet Franc makes up an important part of Macari's vineyard plantings and wines. Of their 155 acres of grape vines, 23 acres, that's about 9.3 hectares, are planted with Cabernet Franc. And Cabernet Franc finds it's way into some of the estate's blends, and more recently they did a rosé pet-nat of 100% Cabernet Franc, but they also make two single-varietal red Cabernet Francs, their Lifeforce Cabernet Franc and their Estate Cabernet Franc.
Located on the northeastern coast of the US and stretching about 115 miles or over 180km from Brooklyn, NY in the west, to just past Montauk on the south fork in the east, Long Island is a low lying peninsula that is surrounded by three large bodies of water: the Atlantic Ocean to the south, the Long Island Sound to the north and the Great Peconic Bay in the east which divides the peninsula's north and south forks.
These bodies of water, coupled with the low elevation, have a major influence on the growing environment, which would be characterized as cool maritime. These bodies of water temper the harsh winters and help to moderate the warmer temperatures in the summer, delaying budbreak in the spring, and extending the growing season in the fall, giving Long Island a relatively gentle, long, and moderate growing season, providing ideal conditions for ripening longer season red varieties like Cabernet Franc.
The majority of the viticultural activity take place on the eastern part of Long Island, and the region is comprised of 3 AVAs, the Hamptons, Long Island AVA, the North Fork of Long Island AVA, finally the Long Island AVA which encompasses the entire peninsula.
Macari Vineyards is located in the North Fork of Long Island AVA, and there are some key elements that contribute to the unique growing environment here. The region stretches about 30 miles or 45km towards the northeast, and it is quite a narrow peninsula, about 6 miles of 10km wide at its widest point to about 2 miles or just a little over 3km at its narrowest point. The elevation is quite low, only 6m up to about 20m above sea level.
To the north we have the Long Island Sound, and in the south the Great Peconic Bay. And while the influence of the Atlantic Ocean is still quite evident, its influence is a little less on the North Fork because the South Fork takes the brunt of the influence. The growing season temperatures are warm, but tempered by the constant, cooling southerly breezes from the Atlantic Ocean, and the fall temperatures cool more gradually, with very little risk of frost in October and into November, which allows for longer hang-time, and a gradual ripening of sugars and phenolics leading up to harvest. So the North Fork is a little warmer, and the growing season a touch longer, about 233 days, which gives the North Fork of Long Island AVA the longest growing season of any AVA in New York state.
In terms of soils on Long Island, they are predominantly silt-loams and sandy-loams, with a sub-soil of sand and gravels, which are deep, well-draining with low to moderate fertility, and moderate water holding capacity. The soils tend to be heavier towards the centre of Long Island and get lighter and sandier as you get closer to the ocean.
Looking a bit at the Lifeforce Cabernet Franc a bit closer, this wine is coming from about 1 acre of vines sourced from two different blocks planted between 1995 and the early 2000s. These two blocks, while only a hundred or metres apart, Byron said the Cabernet Franc coming from each block is quite distinctive. The G block has a bit more of a southern exposure, and has a mix of two soil series, Riverhead sandy-loam, which has a slightly more gravelly texture, and Sudbury sandy-loam, which is derived from crystalline rock. The other block (called NP4) is dominated by the Riverhead sandy-loam, and is oriented ever so slightly north. For this bottling, Byron's fruit selection focuses on florality and perfume, which distinct to the G block in particular. While the NP4 block brings classic Cabernet Franc varietal character to the blend.
From a winemaking perspective, the fruit was all hand-harvested and all destemmed in the 2021 vintage. The fermentation is in concrete eggs, and they will do one egg as a wild ferment with ambient yeast, and the other will be with cultured yeast. The wine stays on skins about 18 days, and is aged in concrete egg on fine lees for about 8 months. The total production of this wine in 2021 was around 2000 bottles.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Macari Vineyards
Region: New York State
Sub-Region: Long Island
AVA: North Fork of Long Island
Soils: Riverhead sandy-loam (more gravelly in texture), Sudbury sandy-loam (derived from crystalline rock)
Alcohol: 12.8%
