Pugliese Vineyards in Cutchogue is the winner of the 2014 Long Island Food Critic Award of Excellence for Vineyard of the Year.
Winemaker Peter Pugliese received the award on Monday at Long Island Food Critic’s headquarters in Melville.
“It is a great honor to win something like that with all the wineries on Long Island,” Mr. Pugliese said. “It is special.”
Mr. Pugliese has been making wine for nearly 25 years at the family-owned and operated business and said he learned everything about wine from his late father, Ralph, who founded Pugliese Vineyards on two-acres of land in 1980.
About six years later, he said Pugliese Vineyards bottled and sold its first wines: chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon.
The winery is now located on the Pugliese’s 55-acre property on Main Road and produces more than 20 varieties of wines and champagnes.
