NY Part 4

On the last night we were on Long Island, we went out towards Orient Point and stopped at a few wineries on the way to dinner.  There are more than 30 wineries along one stretch of road.  The owner of the company doing Pete's training lives in the area and gave us a list of which ones were worth checking out.  We stopped at the first one he suggested and each had a flight, with 4 1 oz. samples.  We enjoyed it, but didn't buy any wine thinking we wouldn't be able to get it home easily.  

We stopped at the next place and it was starting to rain.  It was 5 when we finished our flight there and the girl serving our wine was talking about getting things ready to close down for the night.  We ended up buying a bottle of Chardonnay from her thinking we'd drink it in our room that night. We asked her if most of the wineries closed at 5 and she said they did on weekdays, but there was one called Sparkling Pointe nearby that stayed open until 6.    I am so glad she told us about it, we wouldn't have known to stop there.  This was by far my favorite of the 3 places we went.  It was a beautiful building and we were the only people there.  We stood at the bar and talked to the girl working there.  She was very nice and we had a great time.  She suggested we try some Camembert with honey drizzled on top to go with our flight of sparking wines.  It was a fabulous combination.  I never would have put honey on cheese, but man, it was delicious.  We ended up buying 2 bottles there too.  The atmosphere and beauty of this place was awesome.  It made me want to get married there, you know, if I wasn't already married and if I was independently wealthy.  The wine maker for Sparkling Pointe is from Champagne, France and is well versed in making sparking wines.  Once again, being there made me fall in love with Long Island.
http://sparklingpointe.com/joomla/index.php/aboutus

When we finished our last sample of wine, we headed further East to Claudio's, our dinner destination recommended by the guy who lived in the area.   The food here was excellent, I really enjoyed it, particularly my appetizer.  I had spinach stuffed brie that was encrusted with something, man, it was good.  The bread was good, the wine was good, the dessert was good, the service, not so great. 

View from the parking lot of Claudio's

My fantastic Brie.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and packed while enjoying a bottle of our sparking wine.  We had to be at the airport by 5:30 the next morning.  All in all, we had an awesome time and got to do a ton of stuff.  I would love to make it an annual trip, but I'm thinking that won't be feasible on our budget.  I'm a Texas girl at heart, but I am ready to buy a bed & breakfast on Long Island.  I guess I'll start saving my money now, lol.