The Vendettas Bring Family Friendly Rock and Roll to Bay Street Theater

Publication: The Sag Harbor Express

Posted online 15 December 2014

In print 18 December 2014

By Gianna Volpe

For four years, local Long Island musicians playing together as rockabilly cover band, The Vendettas, have performed a family-friendly holiday spectacular at Bay Street Theater, which will take place at 7 p.m. on Sunday, December 21 this year.

The $15 show features a host of holiday music spanning generations, including some lesser played tracks like “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and Clarence Carter’s “Back Door Santa,” according to the 49-year-old guitarist of The Vendettas and creator of the Rock and Roll Holiday Spectacular at Bay Street, Jay Janoski.

“All the Vendettas shows are really family-friendly because we attract a lot of different ages,” Mr. Janoski said of the group’s fan base. “The music we play is 60 years old but it’s still rock and roll, so it’s got a punk energy to it because that music scared parents in the same way. When you think about guys like Elvis and Eddie Cochran – and especially guys like James Vincent – their music was very dangerous and raw because at the time nobody was doing what they did. So when younger people see our show they can tap into the raw energy that that kind of music has and for older people, it really just brings them back to their high school days. We have such a great time playing, especially when that vibe gets to the audience and goes back and forth, so we’re all really looking forward to it.”

This year female vocalist Erin Doherty will join the Vendettas line-up for the Rock and Roll Holiday Spectacular after she was first introduced to the band at Bay Street’s Philippines typhoon relief fundraiser last November.

“She’s been playing with us going on a year now,” said Mr. Janoski. “She widens the range of material we can do, but she does Elvis songs as well, so that’s really cool.”

In fact, Mr. Janoski said the Vendetta’s holiday spectacular was itself borne from the band’s annual January concert to celebrate Elvis Presley’s birthday.

“It always struck me that we should be doing Christmas songs because of it being so wintery out, so I said we should put together a rock and roll Christmas show since there’s certainly an abundance of material, especially from that 50s and early 60s era,” he said. “We wanted to make it a little more special than the trio, so we added a piano player and horns.”

The band’s line-up changes each year based on who is able to make it for the show and this year, The Vendettas will include keyboardist Mike Ryan, vocalist Erin Doherty, horns section members Bob Hobey, David Elliot and James Micelli, as well as the core members of The Vendettas guitarist Jay Janoski, bassist Dave Doscher and drummer Lenny Brentson.

The show will be an hour-and-a-half long, though Mr. Janoski said the band has prepared additional material should they be allowed to exceed the time limit.

For Mr. Janoski, being part of a rockabilly group is something he’d “been gravitating toward” since 1980 when he saw The Stray Cats play in the gym of his Shoreham/Wading middle school as a youngster.

“It was right before they went to England to make their first album, so at the time they were still Brian Setzer & The Tom Cats, but it was just so powerful,” recalled Mr. Janoski. “Here were three guys that really weren’t that much older than us – maybe just out of high school – and they had such a full, loud sound. We hadn’t really ever seen something like that at the time. My parents were big music fans – my mom listened to a lot of R&B and soul and my dad was a rock and roll guy whose favorite was Buddy Holly – so I did have a frame of reference for it, but here was a guy playing one drum and one cymbal with this amazing, full, energetic sound; it was just a pivotal point in my life.”

The Vendettas Rock and Roll Holidays Spectacular will be held on Sunday, December 21 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15. Visit baystreet.org or call the box office at (631) 725-9500.

 

 

The frEElance Report

Happy almost 2015, my friends!

This blog entry is brought to you by WRIV, where I have just begun my first weekly radio show Thursday mornings between 8:15 and 9 AM

(Download the free tuneinradio app to listen in anywhere in the world!)

Here's a photo from my second show this AM (just before my interview with local musician Jay Janoski of The Vendettas)

 

I have been writing most regularly (as of late) for the Sag Harbor Express and Edible East End (and have continued freelancing for a number of local news organizations), however I plan to make inroads with some national organizations this winter, so wish me luck universe!

Right now I'm headed to Sag to interview Todd Jacobs of Fresh Hamptons for a biz piece in next week's Express and with any luck tomorrow I will figure out how to extract the audio files of my first two shows so I can podcast them on my digital portfolio: www.agentjanefox.tumblr.com

I have been waiting to receive PDFs of some of my favorite pieces this year, however I may just end up scanning them at my local library! 

Hope you've all been very good this year 

I'm super excited for what 2015 will bring.

"Little Gerrys" raise money for ALS

Fresh Chickens, or “Little Gerrys” on Sale at North Fork Table and Browder’s Birds

July 15, 2014 | By Gianna Volpe | Photographs by Gianna Volpe

Holly Browder gives the Little Gerrys scraps for North Fork Table. 

You’ve heard about farm-to-table, but what about farm-to-table-to-farm-to-table? That’s right, the North Fork’s Browder’s Birds have begun a locavore poultry project that is sure to have you singing, “It’s the circle of life,” in no time. Mattituck’s organic free-range chicken farmers are currently feeding two of their flocks scraps from the highly touted North Fork Table and Inn and the chickens will ultimately appear on the restaurant’s menu on the weekend of July 25. The well-fed fowl are dubbed “Little Gerrys” in a playful synthesis of Seinfeld fame with the name of the North Fork Table’s executive chef, Gerard Hayden. “We’ve been working with North Fork Table for five years,” says Holly Browder. “They were the first restaurant we sold eggs to, and we’ve always talked about doing a local chicken for them, but it’s taken us five years to get to the point where we could do it, so we’re really excited.”

Lucky birds, for now. 

Through October, flocks of 100 Little Gerrys will be processed every two weeks with 40 chickens per flock to appear at Hayden’s table. The chickens will also be available at the Browders’ farm stand at 4050 Soundview Avenue in Mattituck, which is open every Friday through Sunday, this weekend. They will be sold fresh. Though these chickens will also appear on the menus of other East End hot spots, such as Greenport’s First and South and Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor, Browder says she is hoping to be able to retail some Little Gerrys to the public. A portion of the proceeds, including the difference in the wholesale and retail price of Little Gerrys will be donated to aLove Shared. A Love Shared is a collaborative fundraising effort formed by the region’s brightest culinary stars to promote research for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and provide care for Hayden, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2011. More than 15 A-list chefs will be featured at a Love Shared’s River Cafe reunion tomorrow night, including Nick & Toni’s Joe Realmuto.

About Gianna Volpe

Gianna Volpe is a freelance multimedia reporter on the East End of Long Island and 2013's New York Press Association Rookie Reporters of the Year. She received her bachelor degree in journalism with an emphasis in photojournalism at the University of Missouri in 2010 and grew up at the foot of the Palisades in New Jersey, which overlook New York City. She now lives in Riverhead.

All Posts By Gianna Volpe

Follow Gianna Volpe on: twitter

Post-Sandy aerial photo coverage

Some of my coverage from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy: 

As seen on the Suffolk Times website:

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Slideshows

Sandy’s aftermath — a view from the sky

by The Suffolk Times |

11/03/2012 10:00 AM

 
 
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Suffolk Times reporter Gianna Volpe took to the air Friday to document some of the effects of Hurricane Sandy on the shores of the North Fork, which was thankfully spared some of the more widespread destruction seen in other areas like the Rockaways and Long Beach.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | Damage to Paradise Point in the Bayview area of Southold Town.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | Damage to Paradise Point in the Bayview area of Southold Town.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | Damage to Paradise Point in the Bayview area of Southold Town.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | A view above Shelter Island.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | A view above Rabbit Lane in East Marion following Hurricane Sandy.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | A view above Rabbit Lane in East Marion following Hurricane Sandy.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | A view above Rabbit Lane in East Marion following Hurricane Sandy.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | A view above Rabbit Lane in East Marion following Hurricane Sandy.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | A view above Rabbit Lane in East Marion following Hurricane Sandy.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | A view above Rabbit Lane in East Marion following Hurricane Sandy.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | A view above Rabbit Lane in East Marion following Hurricane Sandy.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | A fallen sailboat in the Bayview area of Southold Town.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO |

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO |  A view above Rabbit Lane in East Marion following Hurricane Sandy.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO |  A view above Rabbit Lane in East Marion following Hurricane Sandy.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO |  A dock partially submerged.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | Erosion along the shore in Wading River.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | Erosion along the shore in Wading River.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | Sand being removed from a South Jamesport Town Beach parking lot.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | Sand being removed at a South Jamesport Town Beach parking lot.

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO |

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | A plane damaged at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton.

aerial photos, East Marion, Hurricane Sandy, north fork, paradise point

Mermaids of Montauk

As seen 8/12/14 on Sagharboronline.com 

Montauk bartender, Sag Harbor Gym trainer and women’s roller derby star Samantha Duane, as photographed by photographer and Montauk local James Katsipis for his “Mermaids of Montauk” series.

By Gianna Volpe

Before in-water surf photographer James Katsipis had even arrived at the Montauk Beach house for last Friday’s opening of “Mermaids of Montauk,” one of the show’s 18 photographs had already been sold.

“Mermaids” is the babely black-and-white portrait series already barreling through East End’s social media waves this summer, even though its photographer—lifetime local Mr. Katsipis of Montauk—hasn’t yet finished shooting it.

“I made a Facebook artist page, an Instagram and a Twitter and as soon as I put up, ‘For booking and info, please contact montaukmermaids@gmail.com,’ my phone would not stop buzzing,” said Mr. Katsipis. “I can’t even go through all the messages because it would take too long, it’s crazy… Everywhere I go people are telling me they love the series. In fact, after Mike Williams—a huge fashion photographer—saw it, he personally called me and put it on his site, Imagista, so now you can go there to check out the updated ‘Mermaids’ works.”

The shots are dramatic – many a model immersed in murky waters—but that’s exactly how Mr. Katsipis likes it.

“These aren’t the Tahitian blue underwater shots you see of girls swimming,” he said. “This is real deal Montauk—cold, dark and moody.”

And though these gorgeous “Mermaids”—most of whom are nude or near so—may be splayed across Montauk’s rocks or appear at rest as they look coyly into the camera, they are by no means beach bunnies.

Mr. Katsipis, 31, said the series is an homage to the surfers he grew up surfing alongside, so when it comes to his subjects, these are generally women who know how to lean in.

“Growing up in Montauk all the guys would surf, but the girls were out there, too,” he said. “They were right there with us when the waves got big—taking off charging, getting their ass handed to them and going back for more. They’re not sitting on the beach going, ‘Oh my God the waves are too big.’ They’re watermen just like us—true mermaids—like Ariel Engstrom. She’s gorgeous and she surfs pipeline in Hawaii…. A lot of these girls are great swimmers, so it is really easy to shoot with them.”

Mr. Katsipis said he’s been shooting “Mermaids” nearly every afternoon this summer after his neighbor, hair and make-up artist Chris McCracken of Montauk’s C.M. Hair Studio, works his water-proofed magic on the models.

“We do the dry stuff first so their hair doesn’t get messed up, and then toward the end we’ll put them in some really sexy outfits that’s really just sheer cloth and we’ll get them wet so it’s pretty much see-through,” said Mr. Katsipis. “I like to make sure the girls are comfortable…. I’ll be talking to them because I want to know about my subject and I’m always asking them questions to get their mind off of the camera. Some girls are a little apprehensive at first, but once we start swimming, everyone loosens up.”

He said the awkward nature of aqueous photography makes breaking the ice all the easier.

“We’ll make a joke of it because water is going up our noses,” he said. “It’s not as glamorous as the photos might make it look sometimes. You can ask the girls—it is a lot of work and the water is unseasonably cold, so some of the girls are shivering, blue—you know—hypothermic… We had to start bringing robes to the shoot so we could get them in the robes, stick them in the car with the heat on and start again after they warm up.”

You can check out the series by searching @montaukmermaids on Twitter, or by searching “Mermaids of Montauk” on Facebook or Instagram.

More photos from “Mermaids of Montauk” by James Katsipis:

Straight UP: Take One

(As seen on the Edible East End website: http://www.edibleeastend.com/features/straight-take-one/)

Hi, I’m Gianna (Hi Gianna) and I serve alcoholic beverages. I am a writer, first and foremost, but I’ve been doing the bartender thing for the better part of a decade now, so my very first series will chronicle my adventures doing, well, the bartender thing.

In honor of the theatrical release of the new Ninja Turtles feature film on August 8, I’ll be using my maiden column to tell all y’all about the Ninja Turtle Martini I mixed up this month.

Background: I began learning my craft at the Blue Fugue, an eclectic bar/venue that was moved from Pirate’s Alley in New Orleans to the college town of Columbia, Missouri, where I was helping manage a costume, magic and theatrical supply store while pursuing my degree in journalism. Though I wasn’t very girly, I seemed to have a particular gift for mixing up drinks for the ladies. “Make me ssssomething fruity,” they’d slur in sorority speak. “Jusssst make me sssssomething good.”

There are three colleges in Columbia, one of which is an all-girls liberal arts college, so I couldn’t have avoided those girl if I tried, even if my bar was almost entirely populated by gonzo journalists and crusty alternative types.

There was a fraternity bar next door and because folks tend to wander all sorts of strange places when wasted, there she would be – Mary Lou, Lizzy, Brittany, Katie, whatever – telling me to make, “I don’t know – jussssssssssssst make me something good.” I’d mindlessly throw together rum punches and electric lemonades and watch their eyes light up as they gripped their martini glasses.

“OH MY GUUUUUUUUUUUUHD,” they’d say. “IT’S SOOOOO GUUUUUUUUUHHHHD.” And that’s how I learned I had the gift – how I fell down the mixology rabbit hole. Totally involuntarily.

I would have much rather served them a beer. We had 200 different brews at the Blue Fugue and up-charged our Budweiser to punish the unimaginative souls who dared stand in front of our selection and  order a Bud, but most girls with a sorority slur don’t like to drink beer that wasn’t Natty Light served in a funnel.

Fast forward to 2014. I’m standing behind a bar halfway across the United States at Brewology, a gastropub that opened last month on Montauk Highway in Speonk. Our executive chef, Lia Fallon, formerly of Amarelle, Jedediah Hawkins and the Riverhead Project, had just juiced a whole mess of cucumbers and watermelons to use in the development of our specialty cocktail menu.  I’m handed a tupperware full of each one to to play with.

I put them in the fridge and get back to poking around. as I figure out where everything is and how everything works. Suddenly one of our busers sidles up with a plastic quart container and says, “Lia wants to see what you’ve mixed up with the cucumber juice.” This was show time, the kind of moment that makes or breaks a man.

The ice goes in first and then the cucumber juice, but what now?

Like the Who adding Pinball Wizard to their rock opera, Tommy, knowing music critic Nik Cohn is a fan of the game, I go for Hendrick’s Gin next and finally, lemonade, because that’s a favorite cocktail ingredient of my own. (Then I throw in some agave nectar for good measure.) I taste the stuff, which glows green like radioactive waste. My eyes widen. I’ve just struck sewage green gold. But what to call it? Cactus Juice and Cucumbertini describe what I’ve just created, but as suddenly as the thought pops into my head, the final decision is made.

“Nah, dude,” I say to my gathered co-workers. “I’m calling it the Ninja Turtle.” With the blessing of my two bosses, Kazi and Roger, the Ninja Turtle is born.

Last week it evolved to its final incarnation. It now includes a thin slice of muddled jalapeño to offset the sweetness of the agave nectar. And I even couple a slice of cucumber and jalapeno together on the rim to make it extra purty.

I’ve been serving that neon green martini for about two weeks now — to ladies and dudes alike — and in true turtle power fashion, the Ninja Turtle is beginning to garner a cult following. When someone starts doing excited little claps after they sip your concoction, you know you’ve done something right. “It’s so refreshing,” folks tell me with excitement. “What a great summer beverage!”

Nothing makes me happier than making my customers so excited that they clap at me or use the P-word: perfect. So yeah, ladies and gents, you are so welcome. It was the absolute pleasure of this amateur mixologizing (new verb) hero on a half shell.

Sag Harbor’s George Hirsch Just Wants Food Done Right

As seen on Sagharboronline.com

Posted on 15 April 2014

By Gianna Volpe

Local chef George Hirsch is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his popular public television program, “Living It Up” with a new WLIW series featuring some of the East End’s brightest culinary artisans.

Ninety-percent of the new public television series “George Hirsch Lifestyle” features Hirsch’s instruction on creating a dish, whether that be an appetizer, entrée or dessert, from his Sag Harbor kitchen studio, but Hirsch said his instructional approach is more focused on technique than on recipe.

“If I’m making an apple strawberry rhubarb pie, I’m not going to be teaching you how to make an apple strawberry rhubarb pie, I’m really going to be showing you how to make a pie,” he said. “Ninety-nine and nine-tenths of chefs, for example, don’t prepare pies right. If you look at the bottom of the slice, is it baked on the bottom? Chances are, it’s not. I give very, very simple tips on handling the dough; the actual process and foundation of making the dish.”

Mr. Hirsch, disappointed with the majority of modern culinary programming, said he hoped to spark a reformation with the creation of “George Hirsch Lifestyle.”

“I just felt like I needed to bring cooking shows back to what cooking shows are about – teaching people about food,” Mr. Hirsch said of the new program, which features “field trips” to the kitchens of East End chefs, vintners, bakers and turophiles alongside his classic instructional recipe demonstrations.

“Today you’re more likely to see confrontational, competition-based shows…it takes the emphasis away from trained chefs who have spent years honing their craft.”

Though Mr. Hirsch’s first TV series, “Living it Up,” had East End segments peppered throughout,

Mr. Hirsch’s new public television series is throwing an exclusive spotlight onto those dedicated to honing their craft in Long Island’s agricultural enclave.

“Lately there’s just been an explosion of artisans on the East End,” he said. “Producers, brewers, vintners, cheese-makers, farmers markets; the so-called appetite in people to really get to the core essence of food really has grown.”

To meld instruction with Mr. Hirsch’s excursions along the North and South Forks, he said instructional segments would correspond to his visits to local producers.

“If I’m showing you how to make a pie then I’ll be visiting Halsey Farms with John Halsey,” he said. “How do you get any better than going to a family that’s farmed since the 1600s?”

So far, Mr. Hirsch has already visited Sag Harbor’s own Cavaniola’s Gourmet Cheese Shop and will again highlight Sag Harbor in his next program when he visits the Sag Harbor Baking Company’s ‘M&M girls,’ life-long friends and founders Mimi Yardley and Margaret Brooks. Mr. Hirsch has also visited local soda maker, Theo Foscolo, of Miss Lady Small Batch Root Beer, which recently released a new cream soda.

“We went through the actual process of making a root beer,” Mr. Hirsch said of his time spent with the head of the entrepreneurial soda start-up. “He could be the next Brown’s Soda.”

Another East End mainstay on the culinary scene featured in the show is executive chef of the 1770 House, Michael Rozzi, who Mr. Hirsch called a culinary “jewel” in the region.

“It’s not just the food that is so amazing to me, but the stories and passion behind them,” he said of those who are featured in his new locally-focused series, adding he has found pleasure in exposing the public to the gorgeous and historic area he calls home.

“We live in the most beautiful place in the world, not even the country, and while the Hamptons is known as the eight-to-ten week summer playground, it’s the other 42 weeks of the year that are absolutely magical.”

Mr. Hirsch, who has lived in Sag Harbor for almost 15 years, has an extensive resume as both a chef and educator. The Culinary Institute of America graduate was even picked out of 500 to serve as the private executive chef for the late chairman John “Jack” Bierworth of Grumman Corp., where Mr. Hirsch often served meals to various heads of state and high profile guests.

But despite his culinary pedigree, Mr. irsch, who was raised in a very Italian household, said he tries not to let accolades go to his head.

“I think it’s because of my upbringing – my family roots – that my philosophy is, ‘You’re only as good as your next dish’,” he said. “But the end of the day I don’t take it too seriously. I’m just a cook; I’m just trying to bring a little bit of joy, a little bit of pleasure into peoples’ lives.”

George Hirsch Lifestyle can be seen Sundays at 2:30 p.m. on WLIW/21.

This week: Baby's first Island-wide publication cover story

Hey guys! If you pick up a copy of the Long Island Business News on stands right now, you will notice this busy little fox has the cover story this week. I wanted to write the real story of Long Island wine country - worry and hard work included - something I believe has been sorely underreported in the media. So I did. And that's awesome! 

LI'S Struggling Wine Country Gets Better With Age

By Gianna Volpe

It’s been 40 years since Long Island Wine Country rose from the ashes of the Island’s dying potato farm industry, and some local vineyard owners are looking to cash out.

Others are looking to transition management to the next generation – not an easy dream to sell to outside investors, or even to one’s own children.

Turning a profit by growing grapes and producing wine is challenging enough, with everything from extreme weather to insect infestations working against you. Add the high price of doing business on Long Island, where land and labor costs soar, and even the most hopeful vigneron’s head will spin.

“There’s a saying out here on Long Island,” noted certified sommelier Pascal Zugmeyer, who’s held leadership roles at several East End wineries and currently manages operations at Sannino Bella Vita Vineyard in Peconic. “‘If you want to make a million dollars in the wine business, start with two million.’”

Bad label

For sure, the winery business – on Long Island and everywhere else – is not for the faint-hearted. Some people “like the challenge,” according to Zugmeyer, and others find vineyards to be useful tax breaks. But if you don’t have “the backbone to sustain what you spend,” he noted, the wine industry will crush you like a grape.

That goes double on Long Island.

“Here on Long Island we don’t seem to have two good growing years in a row,” Zugmeyer said. “You can do very well if you’re smart, but you need to start small and take baby steps. The ones that go too fast, they crash.”

He has seen this firsthand. Before Sannino Bella Vita, Zugmeyer managed operations at Peconic Bay Winery, which closed its doors in 2013 after transferring its tasting-room operations to its Riverhead wine outlet, Empire State Cellars. According to the former manager, Peconic Bay Winery failed because of General Manager James Silver’s fiscal-management policies, including the 2011 opening of Empire State Cellars at Riverhead’s Tanger Outlets, where the rent alone cost $20,000 per month.

Silver, who now lives in California, countered that Zugmeyer wasn’t privy to the company’s complete financial situation, and said Peconic Bay Winery failed because of a “sustainability issue that’s inherent to the region.”

“I was hired to save a dying business,” Silver said. “Just because I couldn’t save it doesn’t mean I’m bad at business.”

According to Silver, the East End’s high input costs made it virtually impossible to sell Peconic Bay Winery products at a high enough price to create a sustainable business model. Even a burgeoning local tourism industry proved problematic, Silver noted, as more winery visitors increased labor costs.

“The nature of the business overall is to break even if you’re lucky,” he said. “The nature of the business in New York is to lose money. The only way the Long Island wine industry can succeed is if their bottles cost $60 to $80 each and they shed their inferior reputation.”

Kathy LeMorzellac: “It’s not hard to sell a winery because people don’t love the concept. It’s hard to sell the work that goes along with having a winery.” PHOTO: Gianna Volpe/LIBN

Family matter

Peconic Bay Winery is by no means the only Island vineyard to feel the pinch, or the only one whose owners have considered greener pastures. Pindar Vineyards, the region’s largest producer, went on the market in 2013 for $65 million, which would get a hypothetical buyer some 500 winemaking acres and operations at four different wineries, including the Southold spinoff Duck Walk Vineyards.

Meanwhile, first-generation winemakers are looking to transition operations to subsequent generations, who aren’t always ready to take the reins – or vice-versa.

Twenty-seven-year-old sommelier Gabriella Macari is absolutely ready to jump into her family’s business, but her mother – Alexandra Macari, owner of Macari Vineyards in Mattituck and Cutchogue – has her doubts.

The Macari matriarch said she loves having her four children involved in the family business, though she does occasionally worry about their future when considering the hefty investment of time and money it takes to make Long Island wine.

“Having a vineyard is a very big undertaking,” Alexandra Macari said. “Is anybody making money out here? Absolutely not. Is it something that you want to pass on when you know the burdens of paying taxes on this land and payroll of a crew of this size? You worry, no doubt about it. Can they do it? Can they afford it?”

No matter how bad a rap Long Island Wine Country might have, Gabriella Macari sees a bright future – not only as a saleswoman for her family’s vineyards, but for the Island’s wine region and the U.S. wine industry in general.

Citing a 2011 Wine Spectator study that showed the United States becoming the planet’s largest national wine consumer by 2011, Gabriella Macari said now seems an excellent time to ply the family trade.

“New York wines are better than they’ve ever been before,” she noted. “Even my friends are trying to learn more about wine. Joining the family business, having it actually be relevant and being able to educate people my own age, and a little older and younger – that’s really exciting.”

                                  The Big Picture: Wine Across the Nation

She’s not the only Island winegrower who’s enthused. According to the Long Island Wine Council, local winery tourism is up 10 percent over the last year, rewarding the faith of vintners like Ron Goerler Jr., owner of Jamesport Vineyards and a longtime Wine Council member.

Goerler said it costs between $15,000 and $18,000 to plant a single acre of grape vines, but even that hefty buy-in doesn’t mean a Long Island vintner can’t squeeze out a profit. He himself began planting Jamesport Vineyards in 1980, after his father’s $150,000 land investment, and three-and-a-half decades later he still believes the future is bright for those serious about producing wine here.

“Macari’s got kids,” he said. “I’ve got my family. You’ve got Wölffer, Paumanok … the big players of the future out here are going to be the ones with the kids and the ones with financial staying power. Anyone that’s got that generational thing.”

Staying power

For others, though, even an optimist like Goerler admits the wine industry – particularly on Long Island – can be daunting.

“For everyone else, it’s an investment,” he said. “At some point they’re going to want out, and it’s very difficult to sell a wine business.”

That has certainly been the experience of Kathy LeMorzellac. Five years after the death of Robert Palmer, her father and the founder of Riverhead’s Palmer Vineyards, LeMorzellac is still searching for someone passionate enough to continue the dream.

“It’s not hard to sell a winery because people don’t love the concept,” she noted. “It’s hard to sell the work that goes along with having a winery.”

In that way, running and simultaneously attempting to sell Palmer Vineyards “is what it is,” LeMorzellac added. The 48-acre Riverhead vineyard and winery is on the market for $5.3 million, with an additional 60 acres of vineyards in Cutchogue available for $2.6 million (55 acres for growing, LeMorzellac noted, with space left over for a new tasting room or other operational facility).

The deal is not for everyone, she admitted – “You can’t just want the business, you need to be the business” – but one thing is certain. Come hell or high water, these vineyards are here to stay.

“We won’t sell it to someone that’s going to level it,” LeMorzellac said. “Either someone is going to come here and fall in love with the place and buy it because this is what they want their life to be, or not.”

Read more: http://libn.com/2014/05/23/lis-struggling-wine-country-getting-better-with-age/#ixzz332CUucu3