Hop in the car right now! Early summer before the summer crowds stifle eastern Long Island is a great time to head to the North Fork for wine tasting and wandering historic seaside villages. (Forbes just named one of them — Greenport, N.Y. — one of the “America’s Prettiest Towns.”) And you might even get lucky there, gents.
I just wrote a piece for New York magazine about how to spend a romantic weekend on the North Fork. Here’s an excerpt:
Spend a day exploring some newer additions to the area’s slate of 48 wineries. Start out with a tasting ($17 for four wines) at Sparkling Pointe Winery and order caviar ($14 to $26) or Vosges chocolate ($10) from a vineside armchair. Head to Shinn Vineyards for the new vintner tasting ($25), during which owner David Page lets guests sample from the barrel and taste current vintages of reserve wines not available during regular tastings. Call ahead to One Woman Wines in Southold to see if they’re hosting Tastings Under the Stars, a bi-monthly campfire outing from 6 to 10 p.m. with cheeses, tapenades, hummus, and other tapas available ($6 to $10).
