The Winemaker Studio

Delicious wine at very affordable tasting prices and delicious, but overpriced, sandwiches. They have coffee and a little market, too.

We’ve been exploring a little more and more of the North Fork lately hoping to find and experience those little, tucked out of the way places that no one and the Rock means NO ONE) has heard of. I hate it when people ask you the obvious:
«Hey! Have you been to Martha Clara’s? Hey, have you been to Claudio’s?»
Done and done. We want to go down the rabbit hole. We want to find the little places that are so good that it pains us to let other people in on our secret. The Winemaker Studio (and Sannino Vineyard, review to follow) are two such gems.
The Winemaker studio sits just north of the railroad tracks on Peconic Lane as you head south into Peconic. Maybe you’re heading to the Greenport Harbor Brewing Company’s tasting room and, by all means, GO. But stop here first.
The studio shares space with Provisions and Ingredients– a cool little market offering meats cheeses, squid ink pasta and other seemingly artisanal fare. Pannini sandwiches are crafted by «sandwich artists» so it takes a little time to get one over the counter but they are well worth the wait and the price.
I had the Hot Hot Hot and my wife, the Southern Italian. My sandwich was predominantly salty but appropriately spicy and ultimately satisfying. The stuffed peppers that accompanied it were… a mouthful.
We had our snacks at a small table in the studio proper. A small clean bar also offered two craft beers on tap. Being a #craftbeer geek, I appreciated this immensely. Local, interesting artwork decorated the walls. I want to buy one. I know they must hear this all the time but I really do. Wines from TINY winemakers we had never HEARD of before fill the racks. The prices (per bottle and per glass) were very reasonable.
I had «La Strega» and my wife «Bordo». I wish I had made notes but I didn’t. I do remember that it was very enjoyable. So much so that we bought a bottle of each to bring home.
The ambiance is cozy, country chic and cool. It’s QUIET (or was when we were there) which is something I treasure. It’s a great place to go and sit and talk. Or not talk.
Small places like this, places that focus on the wine itself and not on the marketability of being a destination, are what make the North Fork great. Come here and have a glass. Then seek out other places like it to get as feel for what our wine country should be.

I stopped in for 2 sandwiches at Provisions this weekend. I read great reviews, so wanted to try this «hidden gem».
It shouldn’t take 20 minutes to get 2 sandwiches.
The problem was there were only 2 ladies working on a busy holiday weekend — 1 was waitressing the Winemaker Studio and 1 was working the deli counter.
There was only 1 person in the shop when I arrived. When he was done buying $ 80 worth of stuff, the deli counter lady took some orders from the café next door before serving me — when I was waiting there for some time already, before the café orders were placed.
Then I got an attitude when I ordered a sandwich that wasn’t on their 8 item pre-​determined list. But it was as basic as basic can be– ham and cheese. A basic sandwich any deli in the world could handle. I ordered one sandwich from the menu, and 1 ham and cheddar sandwich. The lady stopped, looked at me… gave me a look like she was going to refuse… looked at the menu… looked at me… looked back at the menu… looked back at me… saw I wasn’t going to fight this one if she was going to DARE object. she rolled her eyes, sighed, and started slicing meats. Really?
This is a deli couter. Call it whatever you want. Put it next to a winery. It is a deli counter. You are slicing meats and putting them on bread. Deli. Call it what it is. Are you telling me a deli can’t slice meat from #3 and put it with cheese from #4, with none of the other speads and junk my husband will not want to eat?
Plus, the $ 12 sandwich had literally 3 slices of meat and 1 – 2 slices of cheese. Seriously.
Add in that is took 20 minutes to get 2 sandwiches. In Manhattan, they pump out hundreds of sandwiches in 20 minutes.
Maybe the café and the wine are lovely, but I would NEVER return to the Provisions store next door.

This place sells wines from several different winemakers, and has it’s own tasting area as well. Low key and casual. Staff was friendly and even helped out in picking the best vineyards for us to visit and do more tasting. They are connected to the food store next door, so you can order some food as well.

We biked quite a few miles to get there and it was well worth the trek. Our servers were fantastic. Try the Anomaly (a white pinot noir)– best glass of wine I’d had in ages.

Just finished dinner: pulled pork, rice and beets. Had the dodici wine from Winemaker Studio. Could not have been more pleased. It is an excellent stand alone wine but even better when it complements good food.

Very well curated collection of wines and cheeses. A warm atmosphere– like going over to the house of a friend with excellent taste! The dogs are adorable. Highly recommend.

One of my favorite places on the north fork. A seasonal rotation of wines from small batch vineyards is what awaits you. The provisions market connected is fab. All sorts of cheeses and meats, crackers and sandwiches are available.

I have been here several times, most recently this past Saturday. We took advantage of the Fall Special — 3 great bottles of wine for $ 35 that if purchase separately would have been $ 53! Then we sat at a little table outside and shared a delicious bottle of Anomaly white wine. We also had a little snack plate of 2 delicious cheeses with speck, and spicy Italian sausage and little slices of bread. Awesome. Most relaxing place to go for an hour or two. Staff is friendly and efficient. Sweet dog works there too and is totally chill.

This is by far my favorite place to come to on the North fork! Different from all other tasting rooms. I especially like that I can have a beer if I want. A must place to visit when all the traditional tasting rooms are closing their doors as they are open until 7 pm with happy hour pricing on glasses of wine. But be sure to come early and do a complete tasting of the fantastic wines made by Anthony Nappa. You will be sure to leave with several bottles, or maybe a full case.

One of those «hidden gems» in the North Fork. Each time I get to stop by, I am thoroughly impressed. They offer wines from various winemakers and also have beer & cocktails. The «tasting» area is small but I have yet to feel crowded in there. My last (albeit brief) visit featured the owners of Suhru. Very nice people who were helpful with my selections.
Its definitely a cozy spot and a quiet street. You could realistically spend the day here and not realize how fast time went by.

Great find. Friendly service… but I highly recommend getting a sandwich from the little store it’s connected to.

Very tasteful place, cute, great service and strong selection of small batch LI wines. Good service – very friendly. Unfortunately, the panini are not very good. Big hunks of bread.

This is a nice little find. It was described to us that the local winemakers make a variety of wines that are not traditionally marketed. We had one called «Anomaly» which was a light pink colored Pinot Noir. Very nice. They sell tastes, glasses and bottles. They also serve small plates (olives, cheeses, etc…) to go with it. The second bottle we bought was a pinot grigio.
Adjacent to it is a store called Provisions. Cured meats, cheeses, etc… I bought a cured meat called «finocchiona» (Excellent!, with a prominent fennel flavor) and another sweet cured sausage to go with the two bottles we bought.
This is a great spot. Its a nice change from the experience at the more popular tasting rooms at the vineyards.
It is also appeared to be dog friendly (although we didn’t ask specifically) with cushions and toys in the window.

Having visited a similarly named collective tasting room in Oregon this year, I sought out this spot on my recent Long Island visit — and I’m glad I did.
In few other places will you get to chat with the winemaker, and be served by his wife. And they offer not only his wines, but those of other, private-​label winemakers in the area. There’s just something about small-​batch, artisan, hard-​to-​find wines that make me open my checkbook. Every .Time.
They charge by the taste ($ 2 – 3) rather than a flat fee, which given the small quantities and off-​the-​highway location, I find quite reasonable. And at the end of my tasting, I was offered a number of other suggested tasting rooms based on my interests.
I believe they also offer spirit and beer tastings. I think of all my North Folk tastings, this was my favorite!

The Winemaker Studio occupies the space of what was once The Tasting Room. I never had a chance to visit that place before it closed, but I hear it was a great place. The Winemaker Studio is a must go on any trip to the LI wineries. Their website says «The Winemaker Studio by Anthony Nappa Wines is a cooperative tasting room in Peconic New York, featuring Long Island winemakers and their current releases for tasting and for purchase.» That is true, but they are more than a wine tasting shop. They also offer tastings of sprits from NY distilleries, beer, and coffee. Yep, all your liquid vices in one spot. The legal ones, anyway.
The staff is beyond friendly — very open and willing to offer up as much detail about what you’re tasting, the tasting room itself, the area, etc. There are a couple of dogs and a cat there that are so friendly and great to have around. Watch your food, the one called smooch was eyeing some cheese and seemingly working out a cheese thievery plan while I was there.
The studio is hosted by Anthony Nappa wines, so yeah, their wine makes up a decent part of the tasting sheet. That’s great, because their wine is hard to find, and its also pretty damn fantastic.
Tasting prices, like pretty much every LI tasting room these days, might seem to be a little high, but again, not unusual given the trend. I felt like my tastings were worth every penny, and I walked away with two bottles. I’ll definitely be making this a regular stop.

3.5−4 stars
The last stop at our winery tour since it was opened the latest. They feature a selection of LI wines, and since we didn’t make it in time for their wine tastings, we opted for a bottle of the Leo Family. The ladies enjoyed the bottle of wine while the men caught a break and opted for a local beer on draft (which was good). The worker was friendly and answered our questions about the wine.

The Winemaker Studio, though not a winery itself, was easily our favorite stop of 6 wineries visited during our North Fork trip. This cozy spot features private labels of the best of Long Island’s winemakers. The atmosphere is clean, rustic, modern and local, and it adjoins the North Fork Tasting Room — a wonderful spot for local jams, chutneys, honey, tomato sauce, pottery and the like. We loved both spots, and had some of our best wine of the trip, and nibbles of the trip, in this location. The folks behind the bar are extremely knowledgeable and the wines themselves (tastes from $ 2-​$ 4) are easily some of the most developed and exciting on the island. Happy hour is featured on weekend nights, and if you’re lucky, you’ll catch live music. We heard about the space on a tip from a local winery, and boy are we glad they convinced us to take the right on Peconic Lane. If I lived here, this would be my regular watering hole. It’s fabulous — definitely add it to your north fork wine-​tasting itinerary.