Bedell’s 2007 Musee – which comes in a 750 ml. bottle as heavy and bulky as most magnums – is an opaque blend of nearly three-quarters Merlot with additions of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Syrah. Aromas of plum paste, blackberry, licorice, resin, and salted caramel lead to a dense palate whose stewed berries are accented with salt, resin, and green peppercorn. An insistent if slightly detached sense of acidity has the virtue of keeping this explicitly heavyweight wine from bogging down in the finish, whose tannins and bitterness are reasonably well-integrated. I confess (as will by now be obvious) that this doesn’t represent my idea of Long Island distinctiveness, and I’m sure its authors would be the last to claim that it is intended to charm. Will it gain interest with time in the bottle? I am skeptical. Film executive (“Lord of the Rings” producer) and art collector Michael Lynne has maintained a team under the direction of Bordeaux oenologist Pascal Marty Kip in which founding winemaker Kip Bedell remains involved as a consultant.Tel. (631) 734-7537

Ironically, a challenging vintage called forth from Bedell a 2006 Musee that I found much more pleasurable than their self-consciously weighty response to the optimal ripening season of 2005. Myriad herbs, tobacco, carob, and saline, alkaline suggestions of sea breeze in the nose lead to a palate that is to be sure not sweetly ripe, but is tartly dark-berryish and possesses a seemingly natural sense of lift, refreshment, and invigorating salinity and alkalinity. Hints of artichoke, fennel, and tomato foliage integrate nicely with cassis and blackberry.Film executive (“Lord of the Rings” producer) and art collector Michael Lynne has maintained a team under the direction of Bordeaux oenologist Pascal Marty Kip in which founding winemaker Kip Bedell remains involved as a consultant.Tel. (631) 734-7537