Three generations of the Macari family have been turning 500 acres of former potato farmland into one of the most consequential winemaking operations on the eastern seaboard. What began in the basements of Corona, Queens, during the Great Depression—when Joseph T. Macari Sr. crushed grapes alongside his father and grandfather, hand-bottling wine to sell among neighbors—has evolved into a biodynamic estate that draws comparisons to the great family-run domaines of Bordeaux and Burgundy. Macari Vineyards doesn’t just produce wine. It produces a philosophy. And in a North Fork landscape now populated by over sixty wineries jockeying for attention, that distinction matters enormously. Food & Wine Magazine has called Macari’s flagship red blends among the most acclaimed bottlings on the North Fork (Food & Wine, 2023), while Wine Enthusiast has recognized the vineyard as a leader in regenerative agriculture and experimentation on Long Island (Wine Enthusiast, 2025). For those of us who have spent decades on Long Island’s North Shore watching the agricultural economy shift from commodity farming to artisan production, Macari represents exactly the kind of multi-generational commitment that separates legacy from novelty.
From Queens Basements to 500 Acres of Sound-Side Farmland
The Macari story doesn’t begin with grapevines. It begins with a young man in Depression-era Queens who learned winemaking the way most Italian-American families learned it—through muscle memory, handed down at the kitchen table, measured not in milliliters but in generations. Joseph Macari Sr. grew up making wine in the family basement in Corona, bottling it by hand, selling it to friends and neighbors in an era when wine was not a luxury product but an extension of daily life (Long Island Wine Country, 2022). In the mid-1960s, with the instincts of a man who understood that the best investments are made in land, Macari Sr. purchased a sprawling 500-acre former potato farm on the waterfront of Mattituck, facing the Long Island Sound. The farm sat largely fallow for three decades. Potatoes gave way to open fields, marshland, and the slow quiet of an agricultural holding waiting for its purpose. That purpose arrived in 1995, when Joseph Macari Jr. and his wife Alexandra moved to the North Fork with their four children and planted the estate’s first vines (Northforker, 2020). It was, in many ways, the most patient real estate play in the history of Long Island agriculture.
The Biodynamic Imperative
What set Macari apart from day one was Joseph Jr.’s conviction that the land should be farmed without synthetic chemistry. He studied under Alan York, the legendary biodynamic consultant who advised estates across California and beyond, and adopted holistic management principles that remain the philosophical backbone of the operation today (Erica Duecy, 2021). All grapes are farmed without herbicide. Homemade compost—produced in part by the estate’s own herd of cattle, along with goats, Sicilian donkeys, and ducks—serves as the primary fertilizer. The estate cultivates over 180 acres of vines across the 500-acre property, with the remaining acreage devoted to wetlands, woodlands, dunes, and composting fields that sustain the biodiversity the vines depend upon (Macari Vineyards, 2025). In a maritime climate as challenging as Long Island’s—where humidity, fungal pressure, and rot are constant adversaries—this commitment to biodynamic farming is not a marketing exercise. It is, as one industry observer noted, a decision that only a family business could realistically sustain (Food & Wine Magazine, 2023). Peter from the Heritage Diner, who has spent a quarter century understanding what it means to source quality ingredients and maintain a neighborhood institution along the Route 25A corridor, recognizes this kind of operational stubbornness for what it is: the refusal to compromise when the stakes are measured in decades rather than quarterly earnings.
The Wines: Bergen Road, Dos Aguas, and the Rise of Cabernet Franc
Macari’s portfolio spans the full spectrum of what the North Fork AVA can achieve—from crisp, mineral-driven Sauvignon Blancs to complex, age-worthy Bordeaux-style red blends—but the estate has become particularly celebrated for its work with Cabernet Franc. Gabriella Macari, the third-generation Director of Operations and a certified sommelier who co-founded Cab Franc Forward—a group dedicated to educating drinkers about the grape—has been unequivocal about the variety’s significance to the family’s identity. She has described Cabernet Franc as the grape that has captured their hearts, noting that even in cooler vintages it produces stunning, elegant results on Long Island’s maritime terroir (Grape Collective, 2023). The flagship Bergen Road blend, a Bordeaux-inspired cuvée typically built around Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Cabernet Franc from the estate’s top-performing vineyard blocks, has developed a devoted following. The 2015 Cabernet Franc earned a Gold Medal and Judges Selection Award at the TexSom International Wine Awards (Encyclopedia Wines, 2023). The Dos Aguas red—named for the “two waters” of the Great Peconic Bay and the Long Island Sound that bracket the vineyard—is a more accessible Bordeaux blend aged for 26 months in French oak. Head winemaker Byron Elmendorf, who joined in 2020 with degrees in plant biology and environmental sciences from Brown University and experience working with viticulturalists across the globe, has pushed the operation toward wilder fermentations, lees aging, and experimental bottlings including sparkling Cabernet Franc, skin-contact Friulano, and chilled Pinot Noir (Wine Enthusiast, 2025). The result is a portfolio that operates on two registers simultaneously: the serious, cellar-worthy reds that reward patience, and the playful, innovative releases that challenge what drinkers expect from Long Island.
The Tasting Experience: Barrel Cellars, Bungalows, and Roberta’s Pizza
Macari’s Mattituck tasting room, perched on the edge of the vineyard with sweeping views of vine rows running toward the Sound, operates year-round and requires reservations for all tastings. The seasonal tasting flight offers five curated wines guided by a Macari Wine Educator for $40 per guest, with tables reserved for ninety minutes. The Barrel Cellar Experience—conducted in the wood-beamed subterranean cellar beneath the tasting room—pairs five top-rated wines with custom-curated cheese, charcuterie, and freshly baked local baguette for $75 per guest (Macari Vineyards, 2025). A Private Tasting Suite offers lunch experiences prepared by local chef Lauren Lombardi, beginning with a sparkling wine toast and culminating in a gourmet meal. The estate has even partnered with Roberta’s, the celebrated Brooklyn pizzeria, for a “La Dolce Vita” experience pairing three Macari wines with personal pizzas—a nod to the family’s Italian roots and the vineyard’s philosophy that wine is inseparable from food, from gathering, from the daily rhythms of a life well-lived. Macari earned a Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Award, placing it in the top 10% of properties worldwide (Tripadvisor, 2025), and maintains a 4.5-star rating across more than 440 Google reviews.
Meadowlark North Fork: The Cutchogue Expansion
In 2022, the Macari family reimagined its 20-acre Cutchogue property—located at 24385 Main Road on land originally planted by Jerry Gristina of the former Gristina Vineyards in 1983—as Meadowlark North Fork, a distinct wine bar, event space, and experimental tasting destination. Spearheaded by Gabriella Macari, Meadowlark was conceived as a venue for limited-production wines, innovative winemaking techniques, and experiences unavailable at the Mattituck flagship. The property features sweeping naturalistic gardens designed in collaboration with Tom Janczur of Soil Inc Landscaping, two modern farmhouse-inspired buildings known as the Perch and the Wine Bar, and dedicated spaces for private tastings and celebrations (Dan’s Papers, 2022). The wine bar showcases rotating selections of experimental releases—carbonic-fermented Pinot Noir served chilled, skin-contact Sauvignon Blanc, small-batch Malbec, and single-vineyard Chardonnay sourced from specific vineyard blocks to reveal soil and clone diversity. Meadowlark has also established itself as one of the North Fork’s premier wedding and event venues, carrying a 4.7-star Google rating. The Private Perch experience accommodates parties of twelve or more with a sparkling wine toast, a flight of five premium Macari wines, curated cheese and charcuterie, and a gourmet lunch by Chef Lombardi (Tock, 2025). For anyone tracking the evolution of the North Fork from agricultural corridor to curated hospitality destination, Meadowlark represents a significant statement of intent.
A Family Built to Last
The Macari operation is now genuinely three-generational. Joseph Macari Jr. and Alexandra remain at the helm—Alexandra, a registered nurse who left her career in 1995 to plant vines, oversees both tasting rooms, the wine club, and private group tastings while serving on the Long Island Wine Council, the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, and Slow Food USA (Worth Magazine, 2025). Their son, the third-generation Joseph Jr., has stepped into the role of Vineyard Manager. Gabriella, a Fordham University Gabelli School of Business graduate who cut her teeth in public relations working with accounts including Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Wines from Spain, and Moët Hennessy, serves as Director of Operations, manages education and marketing, co-founded Cab Franc Forward, and sits on the board of Slow Food East End (Worth Magazine, 2025). She has spoken candidly about the challenges facing the wine industry—including a global downturn in wine consumption at the entry level—while arguing that small, family-owned operations like Macari are uniquely positioned to offer something a mass-market brand cannot: education, experience, and a tasting room where visitors feel transported, sipping high-quality wine among the vines just two hours from Times Square. The Macari Wine Club offers quarterly shipments with detailed tasting notes, access to small-production and pre-release wines, and limited library vintages. It is, in the language of the estate, an invitation into the family.
Visiting Macari Vineyards
Mattituck Tasting Room 150 Bergen Avenue, Mattituck, NY 11952 Phone: (631) 298-0100 Website: macariwines.com Reservations: exploretock.com/macariwines Email: reservations@macariwines.com
Hours (Mattituck): Monday–Thursday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Friday–Sunday: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM Reservations required for all tastings.
Meadowlark North Fork 24385 Main Road, Cutchogue, NY 11935 Website: meadowlarknorthfork.com Reservations: exploretock.com/meadowlarknorthfork
Tasting Experiences: Seasonal Flight: $40/guest (5 wines, 90 min) La Dolce Vita Wine + Pizza: From $40/guest (3 wines + Roberta’s pizza) Barrel Cellar Experience: $75/guest (5 wines + cheese, charcuterie, baguette) Private Tasting Suite Lunch: Contact for pricing
Social Media: Instagram: @macariwines
Wine, at its finest, is never just fermented grape juice. It is a record of a place, a season, and the philosophy of the people who tended the land. Macari Vineyards, across three generations and half a century of stewardship, has produced that kind of record with a consistency and ambition that exceeds what most family operations anywhere in the world ever achieve. The North Fork is still a young wine region by global standards—fifty years is barely a footnote in Burgundy or Barolo—but the trajectory of estates like Macari suggests that the best chapters of Long Island viticulture are being written right now, in real time, by families who chose to farm the hard way and wait for the vines to tell them what the land was capable of producing.
— Peter, The Heritage Diner
