2024 Visit to the Massouds at Paumanok on Long Island

Around this time of the year, we make our annual trek to Long Island to visit our mentor and friends, Ursula and Charles Massoud and their son and winemaker Kareem and his wife, Karen. Last year we were invited to a fabulous Dinner and Winetasting at the Halyard where we tasted more than 25 vintage wines made on Long Island. It was such a wonderful dinner that when we left, we promised that we will come back and make dinner for the Massouds. On Tuesday, we took the Long Island Sound Ferry from New London to Orient Point. We did not make the previous mistake of taking a small ferry and opted for the largest ferry that we could take and that was at 11 a.m. We meandered a bit when we reached Orient Point and went to Greenport where we stopped at the Blue Duck pastry shop where they make their own bread and sandwiches and had a gruyere and ham panini. It was delicious! Our next stop was to see Steve Mudd, and though my husband emailed him earlier he had not responded but we thought we would try anyway. We wanted him to taste our 2019 Chenin Blanc and to thank him for his help in 2013 when his crew laser planted our vineyard. However, no luck, no Steve, so we pressed on.
We reached Paumanok at Aquebogue around 1:45 and let ourselves in to the guest house adjacent to the winery. It was early enough that we were able to rest and then prepared the food that we brought over on the ferry.
The Massouds arrived at their guest house at 6:30 and we began dinner with an appetizer of spanakopita (spinach pie) and tiropita (cheese pie) which we paired with the 2022 Forge Cellars Dry Riesling Classique. We brought the Riesling because Ursula is from the Mosel where her family grew Riesling. She gave the wine a thumbs up! It paired very well with the Greek appetizers.
There was an intermezzo of Greek salad with bread and then moussaka. My husband anted up a 2001 Rocche Barolo and a 2005 Dunn Napa Valley. The wines paired very well with the the moussaka but the Dunn was especially appreciated by all of us. Dessert was one that my husband ordered from Wild Briar, a nussecken, a German nut bar which we still amazingly had room for!
The evening flew by with laughter and great conversation. It was such a memorable evening. Ursula and I think that is the ultimate role of wine!
(Postscript: My husband knew that there was bad weather coming in on Wednesday so he made reservations on the 9 a.m. ferry from Orient Point back to New London, again on the largest ferry that we could get on. The ride was smooth and we reached New London in pouring down rain! When we got home, we learned that the last ferry from either New London or Orient Point left at 10 a.m.!)