He’s been in his own little bubble behind the scenes at Sparkling Pointe since 2017, but as of September Andrew Rockwell stepped into the sparkling spotlight as head winemaker at Sparkling Pointe (39750 County Road 48, Southold, 631-765-0200).
It’s been a long road for Rockwell at the all-bubbles winery, but with 2025 optimistically looking like a pretty great year in the vines, Mother Nature appears to be rewarding his tenacity with an excellent first vintage at the helm.
“[The] 2025 Vintage is stellar across the board for us. The best we’ve seen for pinot here on Long Island in almost a decade,” Rockwell says. “Great phenolic ripeness and flavor development in conjunction with perfect chemistry for sparkling wine production, accompanied by above-average yields from the vineyard. I think overall, for sparkling it’s the best since my last two favorite vintages, 2017 and 2019.” It’s good news for fans of Sparkling Pointe’s Cuvee Cynthia, a blanc de noirs made only in stellar vintages and named for one of the winery’s vintners, Cynthia Rosicki.
“It’s an important and special wine here that we only make in the best vintage when the pinot truly shines on its own,” Rockwell says. “The 2025 Cynthia is going to be dynamite, but you’ll have to wait quite a few years before its ready for release.”
Rockwell is stepping into the spot of long-time Sparkling Pointe winemaker Gilles Martin, whose passion for proper sparkling quickly put the winery on the map. But Rockwell, with a penchant for precision born of his engineering background, brings his own significant experience to the craft of méthode champenoise, as well as a rising-tide-floats-all-the-boats spirit.
“I don’t have much patience for yes men or direct assistants. I’m more interested in building a dynamic, multifaceted team,” he says. “We already have much of that team in place here at Sparkling Pointe and will look to bring on other like-minded individuals.”
One such new recruit is former viticulturist winemaker at RG/NY and Oregon native, Leo Mora, to the team. “He has a lifetime of experience growing pinot noir and making wine in Oregon’s Willamette Valley,” Rockwell says. “The North Fork was fortunate to have him to join our industry about three years ago, and we’re happy to have him join the Sparkling Pointe team.”
While Rockwell plans to keep with the current and much-loved cuvees and varietal bottlings intact that Sparkling Pointe has become known for, vintage variation and time will tell how his influence and decision-making will influence future wines.
“I will be waiting until after harvest to make a determination on styles of wines for this vintage, but generally speaking, we will continue producing most, if not all, of the current wines in the coming years,” he says. “As with any change of winemaker, I’m sure there will be some things that start to shift over time, but making méthode traditionnelle sparkling is like moving a large cruise ship and the wines we make today will not be ready for sale for years.”
One spoiler alert he could provide: in addition to the stella pinot noir this year, the red grape pinot meunier is also showing especially well. “I anticipate a 100% pinot meunier bottling from this vintage,” he says.
Meanwhile, he’s currently grappling with an embarrassment of riches — last week, a bumper crop of their estate-grown grapes ripened all at the same time, and his first harvest at the helm has been intense, to say the least.
“I think the hardest part of the job is finding the time to step back from the day-to-day tasks of operating the winery to find the time for the most fun and enriching parts of this industry,” he says, “particularly tasting both our wines and the other great wines of our region and the world at large with coworkers, industry colleagues and friends in an effort to broaden our palates, personal experience and have just little fun too.”
