About Us
Welcome to Long Island Vine Care, where passion for viticulture meets expert vineyard management. Founded by Stephen Scarnato, our company is dedicated to helping wine lovers become vineyard owners by planting private vineyards, cultivating exceptional grapes, and achieving unique wines unavailable anywhere else on earth.
At Long Island Vine Care, we believe viticulture is more than just a science: it’s an art and a passion that we love to share. We aim to demystify the winemaking process, making it accessible and exciting. Whether you’re already a wine enthusiast or just getting started, we’re here to guide you through the journey.
I’m Stephen Scarnato. I started making wine with my dad at home with kits we purchased as a hobby. When I was still in college, my parents and my wife (who was then my girlfriend) took a tour with me at Paumanok in 2009. By a happy turn of events, they double-booked our tour and we got to meet Kareem Massoud, the winemaker, instead. He graciously answered all of my enthusiastic questions and recommended some pretty advanced literature.
I left inspired to learn as much as I could. I pored through textbooks on winemaking and applied to every summer internship I could find. Jim Thompson at Martha Clara (now RGNY) hired me that summer, and I got to experience the viticulture side of things. Living on the farm, surrounded by the vines, I realized that was my calling and that care and attention in the vineyard, raising incredible grapes, would inevitably produce excellent wine.
I was working for Long Island Cauliflower, selling agricultural products and providing vineyard consulting services to their customers, when I stopped by Cedarhouse on Sound B&B. They needed someone to manage their vineyard, and I was very excited to accept that opportunity. It felt like a dream come true. I had been hoping and praying for a vineyard of my own to prove to myself that I had what it takes to harvest one of nature’s most fickle crops. Up until that point, I had been exclusively learning a lot of theory and apprenticing under others. They gave me a shot and became our first customer. Word of mouth brought me to a few other small private jobs that year. Enough people found us and liked what we were doing. The rest is history. My wife, Sarah, and I started Long Island Vine Care in 2014.
We have grown to 36 backyard vineyards and consult for half a dozen commercial vineyards. Working with these small vineyards, I was able to baby the plants and experiment in ways that are much more difficult to do on a larger scale. The wines we procured for our customers came out amazing, and one thing led to another. We started crop sharing and making wines for ourselves under the New Roots wine label, including a member-only wine club series that invites people into the vineyard each season to go beyond the tasting room and immerse themselves in viticulture.
If you’re interested in learning what Long Island Vine Care can do for you, Contact Us today for a FREE, no-commitment consultation.