Paumanok Assemblage 2010 ($50): The excellent 2010 vintage is a beautifully structured Bordeaux blend with aromas of black cherry, cassis, and spice. Consider buying it in magnums ($105) and double magnums ($215), which will lengthen its aging potential.
Bedell Musée 2010 ($90): This powerful Bordeaux blend is sheathed in a memorable label featuring a daguerreotype by artist Chuck Close. Made by Richard Olsen-Harbich only in vintage years that are suitable for its extracted style, it has dense flavors of blue and black fruit, cedar, fennel, and spice.
Lenz Old Vine Merlot 2007 ($55): This wonderful vintage has flavors of black cherry and raspberry and earthy highlights. Winemaker Eric Fry routinely blind-tastes his wine against Pétrus to prove it is closer in style to Europe than it is to California.
Grapes of Roth 2007 ($44): Winemaker Roman Roth’s 100 percent Merlot received the highest score of any wine in the Long Island region from Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate. This and the 2008 vintage are a beautiful balance of intensity and elegance and can easily age 20 years or more.
Channing Daughters Mudd 2008 ($40): The grapes for this red Merlot blend, featuring flavors of black plums, spice, cocoa, and an overlay of licorice and cinnamon, have been stomped by foot. Extended barrel-aging gives this special vintage excellent further aging potential. Large-format bottles are available.
McCall Reserve Pinot Noir 2010 ($39): One of the few Cutchogue producers growing Pinot Noir, Russell McCall is making an impressive wine with bright fruit flavors of dark cherry and strawberry.
Jamesport Petit Verdot 2007 ($75): This unique limited-edition bottling of 100 percent Petit Verdot, a variety typically used in red blends, will age well. It features raspberry, licorice, and white pepper notes.
Roanoke Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 or 2010 ($38): The owner of a small Riverhead vineyard, viticulturist Rich Pisacano hired Roman Roth to make this artisanal wine, which has amazing stamina and blueberry, spice, and earthy accents.
Wölffer Estate Christian Cuvée 2010 ($100): This Merlot-dominant blend, made since 2000, has amazing intensity, rich texture, notes of leather, spice, and dark berries, and ripe, soft tannins.
Sparkling Pointe Brut Seduction 2003 ($60): Aged eight years before disgorgement, this sparkling cuvée, with its floral and berry notes, lives up to its label’s promise. Winemaker Gilles Martin has the French touch.
Merliance 2010 ($35): A collective Merlot blend from Long Island producers including Clovis Point, McCall, Raphael, Sherwood House, T’Jara, and Wölffer Estate, Merliance is meant to express the East End’s distinctive terroir. The terrific 2010 vintage has received the highest marks yet from Howard G. Goldberg of The New York Times and is a must-have for any Long Island wine collection.
Kontokosta Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 ($22): The Greenport-based Kontokosta brothers hired Eric Fry at Lenz to make their Cab for the last several vintages in a flashy, fruit-forward style, with bright red cherry and dark berry notes.