Lenz Winery
Long Island, New York

Visit Date: January 2005

The Lenz Winery is one of the oldest wineries on Long Island, with the vineyards dating back to 1979. The weathered grey wood building that once held a potato farm's harvests now provides the tasting room and working winery for one of the highest quality wineries on the island. Winemaker Eric Fry watches over his creations with a careful eye to every detail, and with a constant thirst to achieve ever increasing levels of quality.

We met up with Eric on a frosty morning in January 2005. On a day that most other wineries were either closed or enjoying a rest while the vines lay dormant, Eric was busy running chromatograms. It was just the first hint of many we saw during our visit to indicate that Eric often chose the long, difficult path for his wines, putting in that extra effort to ensure every drop was the best quality it could be.

Eric's many years at the winery means that he is quite in tune with the grapes and their potential. "I've been here for 16 years with the same grapes and vineyards," he explained as we walked through the tasting room towards the winemaking area. "Going into the harvest, I have a pretty good idea of what lies ahead."

Eric explained his chromatogram work while he finished up his tests. It highlighted his philosophy of winemaking as an exercise in balance. While most wineries malolactic ferment their wines in large, stainless steel tanks for quick and easy processing, Eric instead chooses to ferment his wines for 2 long months at 63F, in small oak barrels. This gives his wines a richer flavor, but also adds a great deal to the maintenance. Instead of simply adjusting the temperature of the tank's outer sheathe, he literally has to get the entire barrel room to the ideal temperature, and then go from barrel to barrel monitoring each one's progress. He also has to individually top off each barrel, to ensure it stays full and that no air contaminates the process. When fermentation is done, every barrel then has to be racked to remove the excess yeast and sediment.

The same care can be found in his overall production. Most wineries in the region will take all grapes from a type of vine - say Chardonnay - and work it through the system in bulk. They will ferment, age and then bottle that Chardonnay as best they can, as one large unit. Instead, Eric works on a layered approach. He might send one portion of his Chardonnay through a long, slow fermentation to bring out certain flavors, and another portion of his Chardonnay through a faster ferentation for body or texture. Yet another portion of the Chardonnay might get a type of ageing to bring out hints of spice. At the end, Eric will perform blending experiments with all of his components, to find the ideal blend to give his finished wine a multitude of layers and textures.

We were very impressed with the juices we drank at the different stages in the process. Eric explained, "in my opinion, if a wine's going to be a great wine, it should be great at every stage of the process ... it's just logical."

Winemaker Eric Fry Rotates his Sparkling Wine

Eric illustrated how Long Island has many advantages over other wine regions of the world. "Color's not a problem on Long Island. Californians tend to make a canopy to hold off the sun, because it gets too hot. In our climate, we shave the canopy and expose the grapes to as much sun as possible. That gives a tan. In wines, color is the grape's suntan. Our grapes get a nice, long, even tan."

Eric's background is in microbiology, and his first job at Mondavi was to rid that winery of their Brett problem. Brett is a wild yeast that can easily contaminate a winery if the winery is not extremely clean. Eric has found that Brett will not survive at a pH lower than 3.4 and ensures that his wines stay below that level. In fact as we visited other wineries with Eric, one of his first questions was often, "What's the pH of this wine?" At low levels, Brett can seem to add complexity or spice flavor to a wine, but at higher levels it can bring on flavors of plastic, metal or even a barnyard funkiness. Brett also tends to mute the natural fruity flavors of a wine. Many wines from Burgundy have the Brett "flaw" - and some people have even come to expect those flavors from certain of those wineries.

Eric's wines are not designed for quick glugging. They are often released many years after other nearby wineries would have released their same harvest year products. For example, Eric talked about the years 2000, 2001 and 2002 being a "hat trick" for Long Island, each providing excellent fruit. But Eric's 2001 Old Vines Merlot is still a monster wine, and he is giving it further ageing before releasing it. This is when most other wineries of the region are already selling their 2003 Merlot. Even of the 2000 Merlot, Eric says "This is on the young side, it needs a little more time but it's getting there. It will still improve."

The wines of Lenz are crafted with care and are much sought after by those who appreciate that level of complexity and character in a wine. They easily stand up to fine wines from California, France and other high quality wine regions. If you're looking to try a Lenz wine, your best bet is to visit the winery. Eric explained that 95% of all of his wines were sold between the winery and the Hudson River. I highly recommend a visit to the winery itself, to see the grapes and experience where these fantastic wines are created!

Lenz Winery Photo Album
Lenz Winery Main Review Page

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All content on the WineIntro website is personally written by author and wine enthusiast Lisa Shea. WineIntro explores the delicious variety and beautiful history which makes up our world of wine! Lisa loves supporting local wineries and encouraging people to drink whatever they like. We all have different taste buds, and that makes our world wonderful. Always drink responsibly.