Macari Vineyards, 2021 “Lifeforce” Cabernet Franc, North Fork of Long Island AVA, New York, USA
Cab Franc du Jour #132
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. Of Italian heritage, Joseph was introduced to wine from an early age and began making it with his grandfather in the 1930s and 40s at the family home in Corona, Queens. Seeing the strong potential for viticulture and winemaking on Long Island, his son Joseph T. Macari Jr. made the decision to relocate to the island with his wife Alexandra and their four children in 1995 and began planting grape vines on the property. Today, third-generation Joseph M. Macari manages the estate’s vineyards, Gabriella Macari serves as Director of Operations, and winemaker Byron Elmendorf, who spent time making wine in France, Italy, and California following his studies at UC Davis, has been with Macari since 2020.
As is the case with many Long Island wineries, Cabernet Franc plays an important role at Macari. Of the estate’s 155 acres of grape vines, 23 acres (about 9.3ha) are planted with the variety. It appears in several of the estate’s blends, and more recently in a 100% Cabernet Franc rosé pét-nat, but the variety also stands alone in two single-varietal red bottlings: the Lifeforce Cabernet Franc and the Estate Cabernet Franc.
Long Island
Long Island is a low-lying peninsula stretching about 180km from Brooklyn in the west to just past Montauk on the South Fork in the east, situated on the northeastern coast of the United States. It 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 to the east, which divides the peninsula’s North and South Forks.
These bodies of water, combined with the peninsula’s low elevation, exert a defining influence on the growing environment, which is broadly characterised as cool maritime. The surrounding water moderates harsh winters and tempers summer heat, delaying budbreak in spring and extending the growing season well into fall, giving Long Island a relatively long, gentle, and moderate season that is well suited to ripening later-maturing red varieties like Cabernet Franc.
Most of Long Island’s viticultural activity is concentrated on the eastern end of the peninsula, which is home to three AVAs: the Hamptons, the North Fork of Long Island, and the Long Island AVA, which encompasses the entire peninsula.
The North Fork of Long Island AVA
Macari Vineyards is located within the North Fork of Long Island AVA. The North Fork extends about 45km to the northeast and is a notably narrow peninsula, ranging from about 10km wide at its broadest to just over 3km at its narrowest, with elevations of only 6 to about 20m above sea level. The Long Island Sound lies to the north and the Great Peconic Bay to the south. While the influence of the Atlantic Ocean is still present, it is somewhat more muted on the North Fork than on the South Fork, which absorbs the brunt of the ocean’s influence.
Growing season temperatures are warm but moderated by constant southerly breezes off the Atlantic, and fall temperatures cool gradually with very little frost risk through October and into November. That extended, frost-free autumn allows for longer hang time and a gradual, even development of sugars and phenolics heading into harvest. At around 233 days, the North Fork has the longest growing season of any AVA in New York State.
Long Island’s soils are predominantly silt-loams and sandy-loams with a subsoil of sand and gravel, deep and free-draining with low to moderate fertility and moderate water-holding capacity. Soils tend to be heavier toward the centre of the island and become lighter and sandier as you approach the water.
The Vineyard
The Lifeforce Cabernet Franc is sourced from about 1 acre of vines across two blocks planted between 1995 and the early 2000s. Though only a hundred metres or so apart, Byron notes that the Cabernet Franc from each block is quite distinctive. The G block has a slight southern exposure and a mix of two soil series: Riverhead sandy-loam, which has a somewhat gravelly texture, and Sudbury sandy-loam, derived from crystalline rock. The other block, NP4, is dominated by Riverhead sandy-loam and is oriented ever so slightly to the north. For this bottling, Byron’s fruit selection centres on the florality and perfume that is particularly distinctive to the G block, while the NP4 block contributes classic Cabernet Franc varietal character to the blend.
In the Cellar
In the 2021 vintage, all fruit was hand-harvested and fully destemmed. Fermentation takes place in concrete eggs, with one egg fermented with ambient yeast and the other with cultured yeast. The wine spends approximately 18 days on skins before aging in concrete egg on fine lees for around eight months. Total production for the 2021 vintage was approximately 2,000 bottles.
Wine Details
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%