The Lenz Winery

The Lenz Winery
RTE 25 - MAIN ROAD
Peconic, New York
USA 11958
Phone: (631) 734-6010
http://www.lenzwine.com/

Contact: Sam McCullough
Email: [email protected]

We are a relatively small winery, making wines to exacting standards. All of our wines are estate bottled, meaning they are made from grapes grown entirely in our own vineyards.

Our aim is that each wine we release will be among the very best of its type, made anywhere in the world. Founded in 1978, the winery has some of the most mature vineyards in the region, or - - given the extensive replanting of California vineyards to avoid further damage from the phylloxera louse - - in the country. We have nearly 70 acres planted with these vinifera grape varieties: chardonnay, gewürztraminer, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, malbec, petit verdot, pinot gris and pinot noir.

At Lenz, our philosophy in the vineyard is high-touch. We are interventionists and we intervene, at great cost in time and effort, to micro-manage each vine to ripeness each year. Leaf removal, shoot thinning, cluster thinning, crop reduction, triple catch wires, super-attentive pest and fungus control (our "open canopy" approach keeps fungus problems to a minimum), all combine to add cost (unfortunately) but to ensure fully ripe grapes of the highest quality.

In the winery, our philosophy is low-touch, though not taken to dogmatic extremes. If a wine needs an acid adjustment, it gets it. If reduction threatens a sulphide problem, we fix it. And we use cultured, not wild yeast to start the fermentation. Beyond that, we want the wines to express the character we've brought out in the vineyard by developing full "varietal ripeness".

One important facet of our approach is the "estate" element. All our wines are "estate bottled" which legally means that the wines are made entirely from grapes grown in our own vineyards or vineyards under our own direct care and control. In general the commitment to creating only "estate bottled" wines signifies an approach that eschews winemaking-as-chemistry. We never add concentrates, flavor or coloring, even where it is technically legal to do so.

Winemaker: Eric Fry

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheLenzWinery

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