Remembering A Fine Day - 2010 Long Island Wine & Food Festival

I am writing this on a dreary day in March.  I am dreaming of sunny Summer days, planning my 2011 backyard Oasis.  For some reason, I starting thinking of a highlight of last summer - the First Annual Long Island Wine and Food Festival in Greenport, NY.  When I heard about this event I was jazzed! Local wines from virtually all of the Vineyards and Wineries of Long Island and food from some stellar local chefs sounded right up my alley!

When we arrived at Mitchell Park, tickets in hand, we were each given a commemorative glass and a bright yellow bag from the retailer Scoop!  I picked the right color dress to match the bag!  There were two tents where we could get our tasting on!  We started in the smaller tent and had many samples of wine.  The lines for the food were packed so we kept to drinks at first.  It was a unique opportunity to sample quality wines and to decide who we would become fans of and who we would pass by on our future wine tastings!

There was fab wine and food in this tent.  We met the chef from Comtesse Therese Bistro.  I am really looking forward to visiting them this Spring!  We had a huge beer from Blue Point (Hoptical Illusion = Yummy).  We tasted lovely Lieb Cellars wine.  We had wonderful soft shell crab sandwiches from Bistro M (Glen Head, NY)!  I was frustrated that we missed out on Noah's food offering.



We took a short break to catch some lovely Greenport views.  Greenport is one of our favorite towns and we are actually considering retiring there.

Above is Claudios Clam Bar - happening all summer!

On to the big tent!  We met John Ross - author of 'The Food and Wine of the North Fork'.  (Of which, we have a signed copy - given to Andrew for a Christmas Present by his wonderful Mom).

We were lucky enough to get to the Love Lane Kitchen's table (twice! - I got my greedy little hands on the last plate - Score!) to completely enjoy their duck leg with Israeli couscous.  We ate these on the park benches while chatting with the fifteen year old skateboarders from town.  By the way, this was the best food offering of the day!  Delicious!

We were fortunate to try great wines in the big tent from Macari - we were blown away by their wine!  I'll admit I went back for more.  I was particularly impressed by their Early Wine.  I was reluctant to try this before - early, to me, meant green.  But this was anything but the case.  Loved it!

We also met a wonderful woman from Wolffer.  (I am sorry to have forgotten her name - I think it might be Melissa)  I am partial to this Vineyard - its a long story about my Honeymoon.... Wolffer has the world's greatest Rose!

We tried champagne from Sparkling Point.  It is now a favorite.  I can't wait to visit their tasting room to try more of this ambrosia. 

We had a bunch of Cabot Cheeses.  Andrew is partial to the Habanero Cheddar and I am a huge fan of their White Sharp Cheddar (another long story about family holidays in Vermont).  The ladies working the table were friendly and fun.

This picture, above, is an example of the fun.

There was a great fondue made by Bruce's of Greenport and across the aisle there was the pasta pefection from Il Mulino (Yes - that Il Mulino!- another place that I should eventually post about - good times).  While waiting, we had a wonderful conversation with a few wonderful ladies from Brooklyn, NY!  They were fabulous and they complemented my dress!  Happy Day!

This is my wonderful designated driver Andrew!

Not my ride!

But we did get a prime parking space.  I love Greenport!

P.S. I have to add these comments - just in case anyone organizing 2011s event reads this post. It will be more successful if you add at least another tent and an option to purchase food (Food trucks) - there was too much wine and not enough food at the 2010 event.  We ended up eating at Claudios afterwards.