Sun, Sea, Soil, Wine: Winemaking on the North Fork of Long Island - Paperback

by Richard Olsen-Harbich (Author)

Long Island's longest-tenured winemaker weighs in on what makes the North Fork so unique for fine wine production.

Growing up a stone's throw away from New York City in a small house on suburban Long Island, Richard Olsen-Harbich always dreamed of being a farmer. After graduating from Cornell with a degree in viticulture, he found himself back on the Island at the heart of an emerging wine region that was struggling to find itself. Starting from the ground up with little information or experience, Olsen-Harbich began a lifelong quest to master the art and science of growing wine grapes less than 90 miles from Manhattan.

In the last half-century, the North Fork's bucolic seaside towns and humble potato farms were transformed into one of this country's most compelling agricultural success stories, garnering praise from wine critics around the world. Olsen-Harbich charts the meteoric rise of North Fork winemaking from the historic failures of colonial times to the modern triumph of becoming one of the most important wine-producing districts on the East Coast. Through a poetic interweaving of personal anecdotes with scientific reporting about climate, soils, geology, and botany, Olsen-Harbich drills deep into the topic, giving the world a new language for talking about wine. In doing so, he redefines what it means to make wine in the New World.

Author Biography

Richard Olsen-Harbich is a winemaker, viticulturalist, writer, and artist. He has won many awards, including the 2008 Edible Hero Award, Edible Communities; 2013 Unity Award, New York Wine and Grape Foundation; and the 2022 Best North Fork Winemaker, Northforker Magazine.