Dinner and Winetasting at the Halyard

I feel remiss if I didn't blog about a trip we took to Long Island to visit our friends, Charles and Ursula Massoud. We have been going there to visit them since 2011 and this year Charles floated several possible dates including one which was a wine tasting of old Long Island wines at the Halyard on December 15. We couldn't pass up this opportunity! Their son Kareem and wife Karen teamed up with Jeff and Nora and arranged for the tasting. We all gathered at the Halyard at 6:00 and appetizers and food were ordered and the tasting commenced with the 2009 Paumanok Blanc de Blanc, followed by 4 other white wines. I tried my best to take photos of the wines that were being poured. Here are the white wines that we tasted:

We were given four glasses from which to drink our tasting and it was no problem when there were only four wines, but the wines kept on coming. After the 5 whites were served, the reds were poured and the dilemma was which of the white wines to jettison in order to accommodate the red wines. The highlight was the 1988 Hargrave, but really, all of the wines were highlights. The reds were all hanging in there and there was not a dud among them. Throughout the evening, I held on to the 2009 Paumanok Blanc de Blanc and was amazed at the change in aroma and flavors. Initially, I thought that the sparkling was a bit austere but as the evening progressed, the sparkling evolved and the flavors were one of fruit and spice and it was delightful. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that for any of the other wines, which would have been nice to do.

The red wines were still being poured and we also tasted wines from Pelligrini, Bedell, Lenz and Macari. By this time, the passing along of the wines slowed to a crawl and some of the red wines didn't make it around the table. Also, my photo taking might have slowed to a crawl as well. We did end the evening with some late harvest wines including the 1997 Paumanok Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc and our 2021 Botrysized Chenin Blanc. I have to say the 1997 Paumnok Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc was complex, honeyed, delicious and a fitting end to a very memorable evening. My husband and I believe that we must have sampled around 25 wines! The staff at the Halyard were very attentive and the food was delectable!

We ended the evening at the inn next to Paumanok and spent a relaxing morning with the Massouds. We "talked story", met their son Salim and grandson Alexander. Ursula prepared a delicious brunch of labneh, tomatoes, fresh herbs, a crustless quiche, and kept on bringing out more things to taste. We felt as if we went on a holiday!