Long Island wine

I am always looking for expressive, leaner wines that aren’t dominated by over-extracted fruit and excessive levels of alcohol. One can find these wines in Europe, of course, but in California it’s a rather tall order. Another place to look is the North Fork of Long Island, about two hours from New York.

I recently became more familiar with the wines of Shinn Estate Vineyards, which, in only a decade, has become one of the area’s leading properties and uses mostly organic farming practices. That’s David Page, one of the owners,  in the photo above. For an in-depth look at Shinn, take a look at my latest column on MSNBC.com.