Sign up for our Newsletter

Regan and Carey Meador of Southold Farm + Cellar. The couple moved the operation to Texas this weekend. (Credit: Vera Chinese)

VERA CHINESE PHOTORegan and Carey Meador of Southold Farm + Cellar.

Some weird grapes in Southold could shape the way you drink this year.

So says Imbibe Magazine, which named Southold Farm + Cellar’s Regan Meador — who is perhaps best known for planting unusual grapes on the North Fork — as one of the magazine’s “75 people, places and flavors that will shape the way you drink in 2015.”

Writers for the magazine, which features drink recipes, reviews and profiles, compile a list every year of their favorite bars, coffee shops, breweries and more.

“At Regan Meador’s Southold Farm + Cellar winery on the North Fork of Long Island, things are getting weird,” reads the write-up, published on page 42 of the magazine’s January/February 2015 issue. “Meador grows what he calls “weird grapes”—varietals like Lagrein and Teroldego that are unusual on Long Island (and in many winemaking regions, for that matter), but that pose an interesting opportunity, along with the potential to make exceptional wine.”

Southold Farm + Cellar, which has been making its wines with grapes purchased from other local vineyards this year, opened its tasting room doors in June after a successful kickstarter campaign.

Meador, who expects to reap the vineyard’s first homestead harvest in 2015, said he is thankful for the national attention for what is still an unproven venture.

“After only being open for six months it’s awesome,” he told northforker on Wednesday. “It’s awesome and it’s scary at the same time. We are fairly aware that we are building anticipation on something that is unknown.”

Meador said he hopes the endeavor continues to raise the national profile of the region as well as his own product’s reach (though it seems he is already on his way). You can find Southold Farm + Cellar on wine lists in restaurants in California, Rhode Island, New York City and New Jersey.

“We don’t have enough wine to go around,” he said.

Expect some new (and, of course, a little weird) releases from Southold Farm + Cellar this spring. A chardonnay made in the pétillant naturel style by the name Weather to Fly will be available in April and a 100 percent carbonic fermented cabernet franc called Minor Threat will soon follow.

In addition to the vineyard, Meador and his wife and partner Carey have plenty to keep them busy this spring.

The couple welcomed their second child Sawyer John on Feb. 2, in the midst of a nasty snowstorm.

X
X