East End vineyards unharmed by Earl, 'enormously lucky'

No need to worry. Grapes in Long Island's East End vineyards are plump, about ready for the picking and unharmed by Hurricane Earl.

At Paumanok Vineyards in Aquebogue, owner Charles Massoud had been bracing for a disaster. He spent most of Friday night watching The Weather Channel and waiting for the storm to hit. By 1 a.m. Saturday, he realized Hurricane Earl had passed Long Island and his vineyard had been completely spared of damage.

"We dodged a major bullet," a relieved Massoud said Saturday afternoon as he sat looking at his perfectly aligned vines.

He and his staff had been preparing for winds of up to 80 mph and several inches of rain. That kind of weather, he said, could have damaged the vines and ruined some of the grapes.

Instead, at Earl's peak, the wind at Massoud's vineyard was 14 mph, according to a weather station he installed last year, Massoud said. He also said his vines got about 1.44 inches of rain.

"On a fair day like today, the wind is faster than the tropical storm yesterday," he said with a smile. "We were enormously lucky. The outcome couldn't have been better."

Marco Borghese, co-owner of Castello di Borghese Vineyard & Winery in Cutchogue, agreed. He said he and others at the winery were checking the weather every 10 minutes Friday night.

"The weather - thank goodness - was not as bad as we expected," Borghese said. "We are very happy. We got no damage."

Pat Pugliese, owner of Pugliese Vineyards in Cutchogue, had brought in outdoor furniture and bolted down part of her vineyard in anticipation of Earl.

Saturday, she happily reported the measures taken had not been necessary after all.

"We had no damage, which was a wonderful thing," she said.

With Hurricane Earl gone, Massoud and others said they are looking forward to a plentiful harvest. The current weather - dry and mostly warm, or a bit cool - is perfect for growing grapes, he said.

If the weather gets cooler, that's OK too: Lower temperatures will slow down the fruits' ripening and bring out its flavor.

"One of these days, we're going to get hit," he said, reflecting on the experience with Earl. "In the meantime, we're enjoying having been given another pass."

What remained of Hurricane Earl, a Category 4 storm when it angled up the Atlantic coast earlier in the week, made landfall as a tropical storm Saturday morning in Nova Scotia.