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May 2018 WINES&VINES 75 The wine will spend about a year in Italian oak, and then 6-10 months in stainless steel. Pas- china said he firmly believes in consistency, and chooses his grapes, cooperage and blends with that in mind. Blending is done by taste only, with the winemaker and several associates tasting blind until they find a consensus. The quantity of any one grape in the blend is not as important to Paschina as con- sistency in the character of the final blend. "Never blend accord- ing to plan," he said. The 2012 Octagon contains 49% Petit Verdot, a grape which had never previously made up more than 10%. The 2012 vintage produced 1,215 cases and is cur- rently available from the winery as a library selection for $85. Merlot is 'king' in Long Island Wölffer has 54 acres planted on Long Island's South Fork and owns and purchases grapes from another 150 acres on the North Fork. The sandy soil vineyards average 55 feet elevation and are about 2.5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Roth said he believes Merlot is "king" on Long Island, and those vines were planted in 1990. He too always looks for consistency, and the hand-picked fruit is me- ticulously sorted for quality. "If the grapes don't feel right, you can't make great wine," he said. After sorting and destemming, the must is collected into a 6,000- liter upright, wooden tank, where it undergoes three pump-overs every 24 hours. When fermenta- tion is complete, the grapes are pressed with a modest 1.1 bars of pressure and transferred to bar- rels "dirty," where the wine will remain on its lees for about 9 months before blending. Roth prefers to not taste the wine during its stay in barrels and opens the barrels for topping only. He typically assembles the blend in early August. "I always make my blend for power," he said. "When you make a high-end wine, power is the key." After blending, the wine is aged for 20 months, half in new French oak, half in one- to two- year-old French oak. A final com- ponent to making this wine, according to Roth, is pride, but not arrogance. The winery pro- duced 300 cases of its 2013 Chris- tian's Cuvée wine that had a price of $100 and is completely sold out. "You have to totally believe you can do it," Roth said. Ray Pompilio is a wine writer based in Ithaca, N.Y., and a regular contributor to the Wine East section of Wines & Vines. WINEMAKING 1-800-797-2772 sales@primera.com www.primeralabel.com Print & Apply Your Own Labels Vintage conditions and sensory analysis dictate the composition of each of the blends.