Kontokosta Winery

Kontokosta is the only winery on the North Fork with a true waterfront vineyard — 62 acres on the Long Island Sound bluffs in Greenport.

Founded in 2010 by Michael Kontokosta on a 62-acre bluff his family has farmed for over a century, Kontokosta is the only winery on the North Fork with a true waterfront vineyard — the Long Island Sound is visible from every row, and the property is bordered by a wind turbine that supplies most of the cellar's electricity. The maritime climate is more extreme here than further inland: constant breezes lengthen ripening, preserve natural acidity, and push the team toward a distinctly cool-climate portfolio. In the cellar The Kontokosta house style leans cool, restrained and Old World — closer to the Loire than to Napa. Whites are fermented predominantly in stainless to preserve acid drive, with a smaller barrel-fermented Chardonnay program that uses neutral and seasoned French oak rather than new wood. Reds get small open-top ferments and modest oak; the Cabernet Franc, which is the calling-card red, is bottled with deliberate transparency — no over-extraction, no oak crutch, just the peppery, herb-lifted profile the variety gives when it's farmed on a windy bluff. The Orient méthode champenoise spends three-plus years en tirage and is hand-disgorged on site. What I order in the tasting room Start with the Sauvignon Blanc, move into the stainless Chardonnay, then the barrel-fermented Chardonnay for contrast, then the Cabernet Franc, then a pour of the Orient sparkling at the end. The two Chardonnays back-to-back is one of the most educational tastings on the trail — same fruit, two completely different cellar treatments. The Cabernet Franc is the bottle to take home; the Orient is the bottle to bring to a dinner where you want to surprise someone. Best time to visit Go for the late-afternoon sunset slot, any season. The bluff faces northwest across the Sound, which means the room turns gold for roughly an hour before sundown — there is no other tasting view like it on Long Island. Summer Saturdays book out two to three weeks in advance for the sunset window; Sundays and weekdays are easier. Off-season (November through March) is genuinely beautiful here, with weather rolling in across the water and the room mostly to yourself. The signature bottle The Cabernet Franc is the wine to buy. It's hand-picked from the windward blocks on the bluff, fermented in small open-top tanks, and aged roughly 14 to 16 months in mostly neutral French oak. The result is a cool-climate Cabernet Franc with classic Loire markers — black pepper, dried herb, raspberry, graphite — and a fine, savory finish that drinks well on release and gains for five to seven years in the cellar. If you only have one sunset slot on your itinerary, spend it here; the Cabernet Franc is the bottle to take home, and the bluff view as the light goes down over the Sound genuinely doesn't exist anywhere else on the trail.

Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Orient Méthode Champenoise

If you only have one sunset slot on your itinerary, spend it here. The Cabernet Franc is the bottle to buy, and the bluff view as the light goes down over the Sound genuinely doesn't exist anywhere else on the trail.