Macari Vineyards

Macari Vineyards was founded in 1995 by Joseph Macari Sr., a real estate developer following the '90's trend of successful businessmen starting Long Island vineyards. Macari's family had acquired much of the land upon which the establishment now stands in the 60s. The event that made the winery a winery was the acquisition of the bankrupt Mattituck Hills Winery from the North Fork Bank. The winery was officially opened in 1998. Macari is now one of the largest winemaker on Long Island. It now consists of 180 acres in vines on an approximately 500 acre estate.

The vineyard was reportedly for sale in 2004 for $9.4 million but was unable to find a buyer. The offering was for approximately 40 acres which was primarily the Mattituck Hills acquisition. However, instead of selling the winery, they took it off the market and acquired an additional property in December 2007. This purchase was the Galluccio Family Wineries in Cutchogue. The property was purchased for reportedly nearly $2.4 million.

Macari is known on the East End as one of the more organic of vineyards. They practice a philosophy of sustainable agriculture. This practice started fairly early in the vineyard's history. The estate dedicated 15 acres to developing composts to fertilize the vines. Much of the organic material is contributed to by a herd of Texas Longhorn and Hereford cattle. Although they are not 100% organic they have reported visible results of the practices both in the vineyard and in the bottle. They see themselves as stewards of the land and believe that their practices should be as low impact as possible.