Amid the 60 or so wineries on the North Fork, there’s a somewhat secretive, one-of-a-kind winery in Cutchogue. Behind a nondescript brown wooden door in the understated offices of North Cliff Vineyards on Route 48 is what owner Edmund Power calls a speakeasy.
He welcomes curious connoisseurs only one day a week — Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. — in Unit 15 of a red brick commercial mall off Cox Lane. There’s a faded sign on the front door of the office, which is tucked between a neighboring cheerleading school and a home remodeling business.
Guests open the plain office door and enter a large, dimly lit warehouse with a dark wood bar and stools on the right, where most of the 10 guests gathered on a recent Sunday afternoon.
Power personally greets everyone as he stands at the bar, chatting and tending to customers. Atop a gray concrete floor are various tables of different sizes, with seating for about 25 people. Tall wine glasses, a burning candle, and bags of potato chips and pretzels await guests.
‘Socialization’
First-timers Grace and Artie Meltzer of Cutchogue discovered the speakeasy on Instagram.
“I was planning on watching the NCAA today, but my wife needed a driver,” Mr. Meltzer joked.
They are members of several other vineyards, but the experience of spending time with the owner face to face is what they appreciate.
“We feel really comfortable,” Grace Meltzer said. “Ed is very welcoming, and unlike some of the other places, here you’re being served by someone who’s very knowledgeable.”
“It’s socialization,” Power said. “We talk about the wine. People really want the experience of learning about the wine and how the grapes are grown. That’s the advantage I have because I grow the grapes and create the wine.”
Focused only on red Bordeaux grapes, it’s a small operation in contrast to other vineyards on the North Fork. The wines are hand-harvested and naturally fermented, with no herbicides or restricted chemicals. By hand, Power said, he and his one employee, Jose, slice the vines with a hedger carried on their shoulders.
“We don’t let the bad clusters of grapes go in, and we don’t put sulfur on them to kill bacteria like other farmers do.”
‘It’s done old-world here’
Standing apart from much of his mass-produced competition on the East End, Power practices a nonmechanized method of winemaking rooted in French tradition, where winemakers are referred to as vignerons. He said he knows the season, month and day when he created his wines and believes winemaking is driven by passion, not profit.
“I’m the little guy who grows grapes and is obsessed about it.”
The grapes are brought into the warehouse through a garage door and loaded into a destemmer mounted on the wall, with the next stop being the fermenter.
“It’s done old-world here, just like some French and Italian winemakers still do.”
Regulars since December, Jack and Carol Barry of Southold have introduced many of their friends to North Cliff.
“It’s like a community here. Ed is very personable. He’s so eager to talk about everything from the vines to the bottles to drinking it,” Carol Barry said.
It’s done old-world here, just like some French and Italian winemakers still do.” – Edmund Power
“He — meaning Ed — is the attraction,” her husband Jack said. “He is different, unique.”
In the back corner are about 20 empty barrels soon to be filled with hand-pressed wine. Some will contain what Power calls his bourbon barrel-aged merlot, a drink that’s unique on the Long Island wine circuit.
The 53-gallon bourbon barrels, shipped from Kentucky, have been heavily charred inside. Next, they’ll be filled with crushed grapes to be fermented.
“It goes in clear, comes out brown, and you can taste and smell that sweet bourbon.”
Unlike their predecessors during Prohibition in the 1920s, smoking is prohibited at this speakeasy.
“We don’t have any girls walking around with short skirts selling cigarettes,” Power said.
‘A local flavor’
And while loud customers in that era were told to “speak easy” to deter police from shutting down underground establishments, today’s version offers an atmosphere of conversation, laughter and, in some cases, new friendships formed over wine.
Power’s grapes come from his 20-acre farm in Mattituck. He opened in 2019 and said he needed to offer something different to compete with what he calls “the big guys.” The location also sets North Cliff apart.
“I needed an industrial space that is reasonable, and everything today is in the millions. Commercial property is very limited,” he said.
Only two banners outside the storefront serve as advertisement. Power said the term “speakeasy” is meant to intrigue people and help market the business. He offers free tastings, a nod to the early days of winemaking on the East End.
“I could never really handle the kind of volume other wineries attract, and it’s nice to keep a local flavor.”
For more information, visit northcliffvineyards.com.