Long Island’s Newest Head Winemaker Is A Creative Force To Be Reckoned With

Marin Brennan has been on Long Island’s wine scene for a minute. But, since she’s been there, she has been raising the bar on the North Fork AVA — and let’s be real, Long Island winemaking in general. Her tenure at Corey Creek Taproom, of which she’s been winemaker since 2019, saw her create unique renditions of rosé and Malbec, as well as a white version of Long Island’s flagship grape, Cabernet Franc (which scored 93 points). This wine has become a fan favorite and a cornerstone item. She followed this up with Coquillage, a wild foraged, sea-shell aged Chardonnay that received the highest score for a dry white wine from Long Island at 94 points.

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Marin Brennan promoted to winemaker at Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue

It’s early March, and the 75 acres of grapevines at Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue lie dormant.

While the vines take a winter respite, the cellar throbs with activity. On the bottling line, Marin Brennan watches as pastel pink Old Vines rosé fills slim bottles, a harbinger of summer fun ahead.

Brennan, who often dons a pair of neon pink rain boots that she finds "empowering," feels most at home in the cellar where she has trained alongside winemaker Rich Olsen-Harbich since 2011.

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New Winemaker Appointed at Bedell Cellars: Marin Brennan

Bedell Cellars (www.bedellcellars.com), a leading winery on the North Fork of Long Island, is pleased to announce the promotion of Marin Brennan to the position of Winemaker for Bedell Cellars and Corey Creek Tap Room.

Brennan, who joined the Bedell winemaking team in 2011, has emerged as a rising star in the North Fork winemaking scene. Her journey saw her appointed as the winemaker at Corey Creek Tap Room in 2019, where she introduced the highly successful Small Batch, a collection of boutique wines produced in limited quantities.

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How Long Island's Wine Region is Maturing on 50th Anniversary

Head far enough east and you’ll find yourself smack dab in the middle of Long Island’s wine region. It’s celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, which means it’s old enough to have an Old Guard and new enough to want to shake things up. It’s an intoxicating mix.

Standing on a patio adorned with string lights and hugged by robust bursts of magenta rhododendron, you can see the gently rolling fields at Corey Creek Tap Room spread out in an emerald sea. On this North Fork spring morning, Marin Brennan, Corey Creek’s soft-spoken mad scientist of a winemaker, is talking through her philosophy of making small-batch wines in Southold. With a glass of tap rosé in hand — all of Corey Creek’s wines are on tap, a first in the region — it’s hard not to drink in the surrounding beauty and marvel at how far the Island’s wine country has come in half a century.

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The Best Long Island Wineries to Visit Right Now

New York State is full of surprises. You know you’ve hit the rural bits of Long Island’s North Fork—and, therefore, wine country—when you see a giant inflatable strawberry jiggling in the wind, like the one outside Bayview Market & Farms in Riverhead. The hamlet of Flanders’s Big Duck, whose innards house a poultry store, serves as a similar landmark at the mouth of Long Island’s South Fork.

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Bedell Cellars and Corey Creek Tap Room’s winemakers have been breaking the boundaries of traditional winemaking — and their efforts have not gone unnoticed. 

Bedell Cellars Winemaker Rich Olsen-Harbich and Corey Creek Winemaker Marin Brennan have both produced wines that have recently been highly rated by esteemed publications like Wine Enthusiast and Vinepair, earning scores in the nineties that place their wines on the “Outstanding” and “Excellent” tier. 

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Corey Creek Winemaker Marin Brennan Blazes New Trails on the North Fork 

When Marin Brennan brought her curiosity and passion for winemaking to Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue 12 years ago, not too many women were entering the local winemaking industry. But Brennan says that may be changing.

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Bedell Cellars is celebrating a historic feat with a dinner at the Bedell Cottage

A decade ago, Bedell Cellars was bestowed an honor that made history for Long Island’s Wine Country. The Cutchogue-based vineyard’s 2009 merlot was poured at former President Barack Obama’s second inaugural luncheon. Selected by NY Senator Chuck Schumer, it was the first New York State wine to have ever been showcased at this historic event. 

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How to Choose the Right Wine Gift

IT’S THE SEASON of giving, and wine lovers know what that means: You’re likely to give, and to get, a bottle of wine. View Clipping

The Best Vineyards to Visit an Hour Outside New York City

A family-owned winery with a commitment to sustainable farming and hand-crafted wines, Bedell has been a North Fork staple since its first vines were planted in 1980.

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Hitting the North Fork Wine Trail

Founded in 1980, Bedell helped put Long Island on the American wine map, with consistently well-made wines that set new benchmarks for the region.

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Haute Eats - The Buzziest New Hamptons Restaurants & Pop-Ups Serving Stunning Views & Killer Bites

Thanks to a host of seriously talented chefs, restaurateurs, sommeliers and other hospitality pros, the Hamptons dining scene looks more promising than ever this season. And with Memorial Day weekend just around the corner, it’s time to start making your must-eat list.

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White Cabernet Franc Is the Easy-Drinking Wine You Won't Want to Miss This Summer

With a crisp acidity and various floral notes, depending on where it's made, this light white has a bit of fruit and is excellent to sip on the patio or pair with a variety of foods.

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How a New Drink is Born

For Bedell Cellars Winemaker Rich Olsen-Harbich and Assistant Winemaker Marin Brennan, winemaking is a balancing act of agriculture, science and art. "Take one of these factors away and quality is greatly reduced."

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Return to Long Island

I caught up on my blind tastings in Wine Spectator’s New York office earlier this spring, and since it’s rare to get a breather from the tasting grind, I seized the opportunity to head east to the North Fork of Long Island for a quieter work-from-home vibe.

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Back to the Soil: The Return to Regenerative Farming

Getting back to the land is nothing new. It doesn’t take a pandemic to appreciate the peace and quiet of the countryside and the healthy lifestyle a sustainable existence provides.

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Meet Circumference, the Sustainable Beauty Brand Changing the Game With Its New Waste-Not Initiative

Jina says of the impetus for their new waste-not sourcing initiative, which was inspired, in part, by the book Radical Matter: Rethinking Materials for a Sustainable Future, and, specifically, a chapter titled “Playing with the perception of waste as a future quarry—a starting point rather than an end point.” “It got us thinking,” recalls Chris. “Can we find value in what is seen as waste to be used towards a valuable skin-care resource?”Such a question—along with a pro tip from a sommelier at Eleven Madison Park—eventually led the duo to Bedell Cellars, a sustainably farmed vineyard on the North Fork of Long Island

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Long Island’s Wine Scene Has Few Rules and Incredible Potential

New York’s Long Island is a small wine region with a broad scope and surprisingly short history. Though the area has been agricultural for years, wine production didn’t begin until the early 1970s. In the 1980s, producers lobbied for the region to be formally recognized.

Over the past five decades, the region’s wine has increased in both volume and quality.

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2019 LI Food Lovers Guide

It was an overcast, muggy August morning when Alice Wise barreled a golf cart down a dirt road behind her Calverton offce. I gripped a low bar next to the driver’s seat as we sailed over a bump toward a few dozen rows of grapevines. As we hopped out, Wise, a spry figure in loose khakis and a t-shirt, talked fluidly about the economics of wine.

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Winemaker Rich Olsen-Harbich of Bedell Cellars Talks Petit Verdot and Long Island Wine

Rich Olsen-Harbich has been dedicated to winemaking in Long Island since the region's first vines went into the ground. He currently makes the well-regarded wines of Bedell Cellars, some of the region's most awarded and expensive. View clipping.