About Wölffer Estate
Description
Wölffer Estate, an American Winery in the Classic European Tradition in Sagaponack, New York: Here, in the heart of the Hamptons, a collection of quaint villages stretched like a string of pearls on the shores of the Atlantic, is Wölffer Estate, a winery like none other on the east end of Long Island. Owned by Hamburg-born Christian Wölffer, the 55-acre winery, located between Southampton to the west and Easthampton to the east, is at once an American winery but with a decidedly European character, both in its spirit and its wines. The winery currently produces 13,000 cases annually. Under winemaker and general manager Roman Roth's meticulous care, Wölffer Estate wines embody the region as well as a classical style of winemaking, with a rich concentration of fruit and lively acidity born of the unique terroir of these Sagaponack vineyards, similar in some respects to conditions in Bordeaux. In fact, it is the condition of the local soil, called Bridgehampton loam, a by-product of the glacial moraine that formed Long Island, that provides a perfect host for grapevines. The German-born Roth, together with his American vineyard manager, Richard Pisacano, spare no effort or expense in tending to the vineyards and grape production, all to exploit the full potential of the terroir and microclimate, which is constantly bathed in cool breezes from the Atlantic, only a few hundred meters away. It is this winning combination of climate and soil that ensures the ripeness and acidity necessary for producing elegant wines. The entire vineyard staff regards itself as the custodian of the vines, with hands-on care, from the planting, to the growing, to the culmination of the process - the hand picking of the harvest grapes. This painstaking approach to the viticulture can mean sacrificing as much as 40 percent of the grapes during the growing season in order to concentrate plant energy and nutrition for the most promising fruit.
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