Riverhead’s Wineries and Breweries 2019

One activity that is really nice to do on Long Island is to visit one of its many vineyards and go wine tasting. The majority of these vineyards can be found in the eastern end of Long Island. Starting in Riverhead, NY and extending to the North and South Forks. Additionally, there are many breweries throughout the island. This time of year, many of the vineyards and breweries are hosting events during the fall time. Some of these events include fall festivals, food pairings, and live musical events. Here are just a few exciting events occurring at vineyards and breweries in eastern Suffolk County, Long Island.

Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard

This Calverton winery has been running for 12 years now, and animal lovers will especially enjoy this property. The Bating Hollow Farm Vineyard has a horse farm on the property with horses that were rescued by the owners over the years. The winery hosts tours of the horse stables, and profits from their wines go towards horse rescue efforts.

The wine tasting itself occurs in their tasting house, where you can enjoy varieties such as rieslings, chardonnays, rosé, and even gewürztraminer, a German dessert wine. It also produces a cabernet franc rosé dessert wine called Cheval Bleu.  Among the winery’s newest offerings are a dry rosé called Pink Satin and a second run of the very popular Sam’s Legacy Merlot.

Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard features live music year round on weekends and has added beer and hard cider service and an artisanal cheese bar. Attached to the tasting house, you can find a gift shop for purchasing souvenirs.

Jamesport Vineyards

One interesting treat when visiting this Jamesport estate is that guests can actually watch the wine being produced while they taste. Guests can often see the winemakers pressing grapes and bottling the wines themselves. Jamesport Vineyards has been operating for over 30 years and at this point have become experts at providing the perfect wine pairing experience.

To make things even more exciting, attached to the vineyard is NOFO Pizza. Opening just a couple months ago, the winery now has a wood fire pizza place located in the renovated Milford T. Benjamin farmhouse.

Guests can get the opportunity to taste a variety of wines including chardonnay, Albariño, riesling, cabernet franc, ligroin, teroldego, and petit verdot.

RGNY

A brand new winery opened this summer in Riverhead, taking over the previous Martha Clara Vineyards. The Rivero Gonzalez family plans on having new products and a new approach to wine as it established it’s own brand.

This vineyard places high priority to it’s wines value in including quality, heritage and innovation. They have focused on a reduced product range, with quality as it’s main focus. They plan on doing a six-course “Holidays in the Vines” dinner to bring a complete pairing experience for its guests.

Wölffer Estate Vineyard

Perhaps the most popular vineyard in Long Island, Wölffer Estate offers delightful tastings in both of its locations in Sagaponack as well as the North Fork. The tasting room at Wölffer Estate is both a center of activity and place of tranquility.

Newly renovated in March 2017, guests are welcomed with wonderful views overlooking the lush vineyards to the east and the gently rolling Hamptons landscape to the west. Operating for over 30 years, Wölffer Estate offers award winning wines, ciders and spirits in their tasting room and outside on their large pergola. They offer many events each month including tours, live music, educational workshops, cellar barrel tastings and more. They have live music every Friday and an annual fall festival every October.

Wölffer wines stand in the company
of the world’s nest, earning excellent scores and reviews from some of the most prestigious voices in wine. Recent accomplishments include a nomination for American Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast and outstanding scores from Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator.

Riverhead Cider house

For anyone in Riverhead who favors hard cider, the Riverhead Cider house is the place to go. They offer an exciting variety of unique ciders both locally made, and from around New York. They take pride in using New York’s finest apples to produce interesting and quality brews for their guest. Some flavors they have for their ciders include ginger, prickly pear, Rosé and even a PB&J infused cider.

Additionally, they offer gourmet pizza, flatbreads and other snacks to enjoy along with your cider. They have a Bingo Night every Monday and live music every weekend through the fall season.

Long Ireland Beer Company

For the beer lovers in Riverhead, a visit to the Long Ireland Beer Company is a must. This brewery offers specialty Irish ales. They have different season beers every year and this fall you can order pumpkin ales and even an oktoberfest brew. Additionally, they host a Halloween costume party every year. This year, the Halloween event will occur on Saturday October 26th.

The fall is an especially nice time in Long Island to go to breweries and vineyards. The weather is nice and crisp, and the atmosphere out east is more calming than it would be in the summer. It’s important to remember to plan ahead to make sure someone has agreed to be the designated driver should you plan a visit. When driving around the Long Island Wine Region, there is a risk of coming face to face with a driver who may be intoxicated. If you think you have found yourself in that situation, please follow these tips to get home safely.

Take note of the signs of a drunk driver. Teach your children who may now be driving as well so they can learn to drive defensively as well. A driver may be drunk if he/she is:

  • Driving 10 mph or more below the speed limit
  • Drifting between traffic
  • Signaling incorrectly
  • Illegal or abrupt turns
  • Driving over center lane marker
  • Delayed response to traffic signals
  • Quick acceleration
  • Swerving or zigzagging
  • Driving without headlights
  • Driving somewhere other than the road
  • Nearly colliding with objects/cars
  • Tailgating

How You Should Respond to a Drunk / Dangerous Driver

If you see some of these things taking place, it is likely you are sharing the road with a drunk driver. First and foremost you want to stay safe, and then do what you can to report the driver. Follow these steps:

  • Slow down or pull over. It might be tempting to want to speed past the driver but it is better that you are aware where the driver is rather than hoping you got far enough away to be in danger.
  • Record information. Try and remember the vehicles make, color and model as well as the license plate. Don’t put yourself in a dangerous situation trying to get this information, but this is what the police needs to get the dangerous driver off the road.
  • Do NOT try to get the driver to pull over yourself. This greatly increases your risk of getting in a car accident. Remember an average of 29 people die every die from a drink driver. Do not put yourself at risk, just get information if you can safely do so.
  • Report the driver. If you were able to get information, pull over and call 911 and report what you saw. Even if you missed a detail you can still give additional details like what road you are driving on and what intersections the driver passed.You should also explain what you saw that made you think that the driver was drunk.

About the Author


Steven Palermo is the managing partner for Palermo Law, Long Island’s Personal Injury Law Firm. He has been helping people receive compensation for their injuries for over 21 years. He focuses on cases involving car accidents, truck accidents, construction accidents and slip and fall injuries.

His book The Ultimate Guide to Handling New York Car Accident Claims details the ins and outs of a car accident claim in a simple, easy-to-read manner.