A few Wednesday’s ago, I walked into my local wine shop, Ye Old Grape Cellar in Rocky Point, and I went straight to the Long Island section.  Looking around, I saw some new stuff but then I found this, Pumphouse Red 2007.  This bottle of wine struck me and made me pick it up for two reasons, well maybe three.  The first reason, this was a 2007 red from Long Island, Mattituck to be exact.  Secondly, this bottle had a “Stelvin” or screw cap closure.  And lastly it was affordable at $13.95.

For those of you who don’t know 2007 was a perfect year for growing grapes on Long Island.  It was hot, not too humid and there was just the right amount of rain fall.  Most of the fruit from this year, 2007, will be looked at and admired for years to come as it showing the most fruit forward wine.  This vintage year will be a benchmark for Long Island.

Back to Pumphouse, this is a series of wine that is produce from Premium Wine Group in Mattituck, NY.  Their major goal is to bring together a group of varietals and blend them together to make a premium fruit forward wine.  This wine is meant to be approachable and memorable while going easy on the wallet, which in my opinion, is what Long Island wine is and should be all about.

It took me a little time to get some information about this wine, but thanks to Lenn Thompson at The New York Cork Report, he put me in touch with Peter DeMeo, co founder of Premium Wine Group, which bottles Pumphouse Wines.  Pumphouse Red 2007 is made up of 84% Merlot, 9% cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot and 2% Syrah.  All of which, are grown on Long Island.

On the first pour I was getting aroma of black cherry, some leather and nice aroma of tobacco.  When I say I got the aroma of tobacco, the best way for me to describe this is the smell of a freshly opened cigar box.

There were some nice tannins on the palate.  I got some spice, a little black pepper on the finish which was pleasant.  I enjoyed that part.

I had this with chicken, mushroom and sun dried tomato ravioli with a brown garlic sauce.  This wine was perfect for the meal.  I could have had this will steak too and it would be wonderful.

After dinner, the wine continued to be poured and my wife and I were loving this.  Hours later we were getting some plum and black berries with a nice spicy finish.  The fruit was up front and the spice was at the end at it was a perfect blend.

I really enjoyed this wine and would highly recommend this to anyone.  Don’t sweat the screw cap, it is no big deal.  It’s kind of cool, and you just have to learn a new technique to open the bottle.  If you are looking for an everyday Long Island table wine that will go with almost anything, than this Pumphouse 2007 Red will keep the wine “Pumping” and not put you in the poor house.