Long Island Longevity

Recently, we had our friends over for dinner to share with them two wines from Long Island, one of which we brought back from our visit to the Massouds who own Paumanok Vineyards. These friends were supposed to go with us to visit the Massouds in December 2021, but they had a conflict so we went solo.
The two Long Island wines were the 1993 Paumanok Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Vintage and the 1997 Palmer Merlot.

How we came to acquire a 1993 Paumanok Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Vintage really began in 2011 when we had our first Visit with Charles Massoud at Paumanok Winery. It was a delight meeting Charles for the first time and talking with him was so easy to do. We learned a lot on that day in 2011. Fast foward to 2021 when we visited Charles and his son, Kareem, now head winemaker for our annual get together. We again talked of all kinds of wine and non-wine related topics, time flew!
We talked about wine tastings on Long Island and how vintners would get together and taste each other's wines and lamented the fact that it didn't happen in Connecticut. We mentioned that we always felt that it would be a good thing for our area winemakers to get together to critique each other's wines.
That's when Charles went to his cellar and brought up this 1993 Paumanok Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Vintage. The label was different and Charles explained that his early vision was to have "Paumanok" in block letters with the background going from dark red to light red like the flow of red wine. However, the graphics at that time couldn't accomodate his vision.
Charles said that we should share this wine with our friends who were unable to come on our trip. We also had a 1997 Palmer Merlot in our cellar that we could pair with the generous offer from Charles so, on April 8, we tasted these two wines.
For dinner, my husband made elk burgers from elk which our hunter had given us. It was a simple meal but it showcased the two red wines that we paired with it. The 1993 Paumanok, almost 30 years old opened up with red cherries with a hint of cigar, tasting youthful, well balanced and mellow. The 1997 Merlot was still full of dark cherries, licorice and tobacco. The two wines took center stage. We were in awe flavors of the wines and the incredible of the longevity they exhibited!
When I wrote to Charles and Kareem to thank them for their generous gift, Charles said it is a little like the saying from Forrest Gump: life is like a 1993 Paumanok Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Vintage, you never know what you're going to get!
What we got was simply breathtakingly awesome. Thank you so much Charles!