Tag Archives: RGNY

RGNY: On a Winter’s Day

Posted by nofowineaux in Tasting and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 19, 2024

It is quiet on the North Fork in February. Snow fences stretch across fields, farm stands have “See you in the Spring” signs, and roadside platforms have little stacks of firewood, $5 per pile. However, our visitors found plenty to do, including a trip to Tanger and an odyssey to the end of the island, where we had a cold, windy, but invigorating hike along the trail in Orient Point County Park and participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count (34 seagulls, three little ducks, and two immature cormorants).

The end of the North Fork and some birds.

Then it was time to do a wine tasting.  Where to go?  I realized we hadn’t been to RGNY since 2021, and it is close to our house, so off we went.  The main entrance now seems to be the one to the right, as you face the building, so we opened that door and were greeted by John, whom I recognized from other wineries!  He quickly showed our party of six (4 adults, 2 children) to a nice round table in the high-ceilinged, wood-beamed tasting room (which one young guest noted “smells like wood”—sort of like a cabin on a lake), where a QR code on the table sent us to the menus.    

Don’t be fooled by that sunshine; it was cold outside!

There is a fairly typical menu of snacks, with more substantial choices available on the weekend, but we had just had a delicious and very filling lunch of sandwiches from Ammirati (on Love Lane in Mattituck), so we went straight to the menu of flights.  There are four choices of flights, all featuring four wines: the RG Reserve for $34, the Scielo for $24, the White Wine for $27, or the I (Heart) NY for $27.  Since the last one includes non-North Fork wines, we opted for the first three, planning to do some sharing of tastes.  Well, even with sharing we left some wine in the glasses, because you get a VERY generous pour there.  The youngsters in the group were not forgotten, as Donna, our pleasant waitress, offered them glasses of orange juice—served in tall sparkling-wine glasses—as they had leftover OJ from a brunch on Sunday (no charge!).

Donna gave us a quick overview of the wines in our tastings—there were a couple of overlaps—and then left us to ourselves, checking back at regular intervals.  At the end, we had an interesting discussion with John about the wine philosophy of RGNY—low intervention, nature-friendly practices.  Overall, there were no wines we disliked, and several we liked very much, though our group had some differences of opinion (As the French say, to each his own.).

Some of the special events that are available at RGNY.

I started out trying to keep the wines from each tasting separate, but that didn’t work out, so here are the wines as I took note of them.

Tiny cacti decorate every table, perhaps a nod to the Mexican origins of the Rivero Gonzalez family.
  •  NV Sparkling Rosé        $41

I like starting a tasting with a sparkler, as it feels very festive.  This has the typical rosé aroma and flavor of strawberry, and is dry, with definite minerality and tiny bubbles.  There’s also a slight flowery aroma.  This is a pleasant, cocktail-time bubbly, though I think the price is a bit high.

The Reserve flight
  • 2021 Sauvignon Blanc  $29

“Melon on the nose,” says one of our guests, and I agree, though I try to eschew “wine words.”  Speaking of “eschew,” he also describes the wine as a bit chewy.  It has more body than one would expect from a sauvignon blanc, with what I describe as a silky mouth feel, and a taste of lemon zest.  It is aged in neutral oak. I like it, but our other guest says her appreciation of this wine is lessened due to “unmet expectations,” as it lacks the grassiness she likes in New Zealand sauvignon blancs.  Not being a cow, I’m perfectly happy to drink this. 

  • 2022 Sparkling Riesling               $31

However, she very much likes this next wine, a cloudy (because not disgorged) sparkler with lemon/lime and kiwi flavor, very dry.  I am not as fond of it, but agree it would be good with some local oysters (like the Peconic Bay ones we had the night before) or even fried calamari or fish and chips.

The Scielo flight
  • 2021 Viognier    $41

Donna explained to us that most of the wines here that are aged in wood are aged in second use (also described as neutral) oak barrels, which means that the wood plays less of a role in the taste of the wines than if they had used new barrels.  Though this is only slightly oaked, which smooths it out, it also has not much taste.  I say it is inoffensive.

  • 2019 Riesling    $28

I will almost never order a riesling unless I have tasted it before, since they can be too sweet for me, but this is a riesling I would order.  It is dry, with pleasant minerality and some taste of herbs.  We discuss the typical “cat pee” smell, which one guest suggests could more appetizingly be described as “musky.”  I compare it to the smell of water in which cut flowers have sat perhaps a day too long.  Fortunately, it doesn’t taste like that!

The White Flight: note the cloudiness of the Sparkling Riesling on the left.
  • 2019 White Merlot         $38

We have quite a divergence of opinion on this wine, a white wine made from red wine grapes (Wine color comes from the grape skins, so if you don’t let red wine grape juice sit on the skins at all, you get white wine; sit briefly, rosé; longer, reds.).  My husband doesn’t like it at all, I think it is nice, and one guest notes it has some of that “Long Island foxiness” one used to get more frequently with merlots.  It does have lots of flavor, including some earthiness and an aftertaste of mandarin orange.

  • 2021 Rosé          $25

Strawberry aroma and flavor, light, dry, minerality, pleasant…I say meh.  Still prefer Croteaux!

  • 2022 Pinot Noir               $41

Because this is fermented in steel, not oak, it has a pure, clean taste.  It has a light red color, with surprisingly nice tannins and an aroma and flavor of cherries.  I say this is easy to drink, and it would go well with roast duck, one of our mutual favorite dishes.  Our guest agrees, and notes that “pinot noir and duck are best friends.”

  • 2022 Tinto          $31

Donna rattled off all the grapes in this blend, but I don’t remember them all, or the proportions:  cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec, etc.  This is a lovely red, very refined, with flavors of blackberry and currant, and lots of tannins.  This could definitely stand up to a hearty beef stew, or even a burger.  I could see ordering it if it appeared on a wine list.

The little gift shop features some objets from Mexico.

Reasons to visit: spacious tasting rooms, plus ample outdoor areas; child-friendly atmosphere (we were not the only ones there with youngsters); some very good wines, all very drinkable; I especially liked the White Merlot, the Pinot Noir, and the Tinto, while our guests bought to take home the Sparkling Riesling and the Pinot Noir; very generous pour; good menu of snacks and other dishes.  If you do the math, you may be wondering how we had three tastings of four wines each, and I only ended up describing nine of them.  Some wines appeared in more than one tasting!

Here’s a great gift idea–a “blending kit,” so one can produce one’s own blended red. Like a chemistry kit for grown-ups, noted John, who nodded when I compared it to the blend-your-own gin experience at Matchbook Distilling Company.

RGNY: Many Changes

Posted by nofowineaux in Tasting and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 3, 2021

From the outside, the winery that used to be called Martha Clara looks much the same, but as soon as we stepped inside, we saw that it looks very different.  And once we tasted the wines, made by winemaker Lilia Perez, we knew that it was not at all the same.  I find it so interesting that the same grapes, grown in the same vineyard, can yield such different-tasting wines.  Martha Clara’s wines, for example, definitely tended to feature some sweetness, while the RG wines (named for the Rivero Gonzàlez family) we tasted were dry.

The shop inside the entrance used to have all sorts of items, including snacks, while now it is much simpler, with just the RG wines and a few Mexican items, such as baskets.  Then we walked into the large tasting room, which used to feature a huge bar, which more or less snaked through the entire room.  Now the bar is only on one side, with the rest of the space taken up by some small round tables with comfy chairs and some couches.  The walls are bare, and the overall effect is rather stark.  I think they could do more to warm up the space, and suggested to my husband that a pot-bellied stove would be a nice focal point.  He looked skeptical.  The side room (where the restrooms are located) is still pretty similar, filled with tables and chairs.    

We were greeted by a friendly server who asked us if we had a reservation.  We looked around the large room, empty except for one other couple, and asked in mock concern, “Oh no, should we have made one?  Will you have room for us?”  She laughed, as did we, and explained that she actually had three reservations for that afternoon, and so wanted to be sure that she honored the process.  (Quite a few wineries are continuing their pandemic-caused practice of requiring reservations, so be sure you check websites before you go.)  Then she presented us with a QR code to scan in order to read the menu.  

We had intended to sit at the bar, but found the chairs there not comfortable, and so moved to a table, where we liked the chairs very much.  We recently had been shopping for new dining room chairs, and my husband commented that these would have worked nicely.  The menu features three different flights, labelled Scielo, White, and RG.  The RG flight, for $22, seemed the most varied, so we opted to share it.  We were glad we were sharing, since the pour, of four wines, is quite generous, and we actually left over some wine!  There’s also a short but creative menu of food items, including chicken tacos, a Mexican PB&J, and paletas, which, Google informed me, are a kind of Mexican ice pop.

With our flight she brought a bottle of water and two cups, a nice touch, and asked if there was anything else we wanted.  We asked her to turn down the very loud music, which she immediately did.  Whew.  Then later, I asked about the vintages of the wines, since that information was not anywhere to be seen.

  •  2019 Sparkling Rosé      $30

Sometimes sparkling rosés are too sweet, but this one is just right, with a refreshing taste of strawberries and pink grapefruit and moderate bubbles.  We like this, and decide that if we wanted a celebratory pink wine, we might get this one.

  • 2018 Viognier    $33

Many of the wineries on the North Fork that grow viognier use it in blends, so I don’t often see it on its own.  Again, this is a dry wine, mouth-watering, with tastes of spice and pears.  The aroma is a bit funky, with some scent of stewed pears.  We like it.

  • 2018 White Merlot         $32

White merlot?  You may ask, I thought merlot was a red wine grape.  And so it is.  But if you ferment it without the skins, you get a white wine.  Anthony Nappa used to make a wine called Anomaly, a white pinot noir, which we liked very much.  This is also good, and is a nice, light, good sipping white, though not very interesting.  I say it tastes like gooseberries.  Some day I will buy gooseberries again and see if the taste I remember is correct…

  • 2019 Cabernet Franc      $37

Lovely aroma—chocolate covered cherries!  This is another easy to drink wine, with soft tannins, dry, and a flavor that makes me think of dried fruit compote, or maybe stewed prunes (which I happen to like very much). 

Reasons to visit:  large venue with plenty of room for groups, including outside areas; pleasant wines and a large pour; the sparkling rosé and the viognier, though all the wines were easy to drink; an interesting food menu.