Marin Brennan promoted to winemaker at Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue

It’s early March, and the 75 acres of grapevines at Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue lie dormant.

While the vines take a winter respite, the cellar throbs with activity. On the bottling line, Marin Brennan watches as pastel pink Old Vines rosé fills slim bottles, a harbinger of summer fun ahead.

Brennan, who often dons a pair of neon pink rain boots that she finds "empowering," feels most at home in the cellar where she has trained alongside winemaker Rich Olsen-Harbich since 2011.

Now, the student has become the master.

Brennan, 34, was named winemaker last month, a milestone for the Miller Place native who caught the wine bug as a tasting room employee at Bedell in 2010. She’s the second woman to lead the winery in its 44-year history, following in the footsteps of pioneers in what still largely is a male-dominated industry.

“It became a calling and then a career for me,” Brennan said. 

In a matter of weeks, the vines will awaken for another growing season — Brennan’s first as winemaker. “It will have a certain distinction for me,” she said, her eyes lighting up. As winemaker, Brennan will oversee the production process, from growing and harvesting to decisions made as the fruit is crushed and pressed. The cellar produces 10,000 to 12,000 cases a year.

Olsen-Harbich, 63, will stay on as director of winemaking, a broader role with oversight of the vineyard, sales and tasting room.

“At this point in my career and with Marin’s talents being what they are, it was the right time,” he said recently. “She has embraced what it takes to make great wines.”

Mastering the craft

Brennan was finishing a hospitality degree at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island when she took a summer job at Bedell.

I was learning more about regions like France and Italy and Spain, not really realizing what was in my own backyard in Suffolk County.

—Marin Brennan

“I was learning more about regions like France and Italy and Spain, not really realizing what was in my own backyard in Suffolk County,” Brennan said.

Vineyard founder Kip Bedell recalled the soft-spoken Brennan asking for a behind-the-scenes look at the harvest in 2011.

“At harvest we’re always looking for an extra hand because it’s such a busy time,” Bedell, 79, said. He noticed Brennan had a knack and passion for the process.

“Some people think you’re born an expert, but tasting and diagnosing wines for problems and flaws is an art that is learned,” Bedell said.

Life as a cellar hand was more scrubbing tanks and cleaning gaskets than swirling and sipping wine, but Brennan wasn’t deterred by the long hours and grueling labor. 

Soon, she learned how to run analysis of sugar levels during fermentation, was promoted to assistant winemaker in 2016 and completed her winemaking certification through Washington State University in 2019.

“I liked seeing everything and having that connection to our land,” Brennan said. Bedell is an estate winery, meaning all their grapes are grown on site.

“She was completely entranced by what was happening in the cellar,” Olsen-Harbich said.

Tap room playground

Since 2019, Brennan has led winemaking for Corey Creek Tap Room, the sister brand of Bedell’s, located about a mile down Main Road.

That’s how she honed her experimental style, making small-batch wines that flip the script on tradition, from a rosé fermented with lavender or a chardonnay aged on foraged seashells to blending a rosé of gewürztraminer and malbec in neutral oak that results in textured, spicy and floral notes.

Gewürztraminer, with its pungent aromas, can be a “polarizing” grape, she said, adding it's her "little way of pushing the envelope and getting people to expand their palates a little bit.”

Olsen-Harbich, an industry veteran with 42 harvests under his belt, describes Brennan’s style as joyful and creative.

Bedell is more like classical music and Corey Creek is a little more indie rock. We’re still working with the same varieties, but she’s playing them differently.

—Rich Olsen-Harbich

“Bedell is more like classical music and Corey Creek is a little more indie rock,” he said. “We’re still working with the same varieties, but she’s playing them differently.”

Women in wine

There are more than 50 wine producers on Long Island, and a growing number of them are led by women.

Of the 35 members of the Long Island Wine Country industry group, five have women winemakers, according to marketing director Kelly Tuthill.

Statewide, the New York Wine & Grape Foundation counts 31 women winemakers throughout the state, which has more than 450 wineries.

Those numbers portend positive changes in the industry, said Valerie Venezia-Ross, director of programs and marketing for the organization.

“Women are the backbone of New York wines,” she said. “Your ability shines first, and your passion. Those are the folks that are rising to the top.”

A 2021 report by Zippia, a career website, found just under 18% of winemakers in the United States are women.

Showcasing women producers is essential, said Louisa Hargrave, who planted the region’s first vines in 1973.

“Women are certainly up to the task; it’s just not that easy to push past those barriers,” she said, recalling her own experience juggling raising children with the hectic schedule of a winemaker and business owner.

Hargrave, 76, applauded Brennan for her tenacity.

“There's a time of year when you don’t have a life of your own. You have to be willing to work all night if it takes it — you can’t just phone it in,” she said.

Brennan credits longtime vineyard manager Donna Rudolph, who grew grapes at Bedell for more than 25 years before she died last year, as well as current manager Deb Stroup, for inspiring her to pursue this path and enroll in a viticulture program through Washington State to make her "a more well-rounded" winemaker.

Testing her limits

Last year, Long Islanders raised a glass to 50 years of wine growing on the East End.

The region has about 3,000 acres of planted vineyards and produces 1.2 million gallons each year. That amounts to $113.6 million in revenue, according to Long Island Wine Country.

As she steps into the new role, Brennan looks to the future with optimism: testing the limits of what can grow in North Fork vineyards, honoring the history, and carrying Olsen-Harbich’s winemaking philosophy forward.

One unique tradition Brennan will continue is Bedell’s indigenous yeast ceremony that kicks off the harvest each year by filling a demijohn jug with flowers, seashells, leaves, bay and sound water, and other natural materials to encourage wild fermentation.

“It does bring a unique characteristic to our wines,” Brennan said.

She said she’s grateful for Olsen-Harbich’s guidance.

“I pretty much won the lottery as far as mentors,” she said. “He did the legwork for our region.” Olsen-Harbich helped establish the North Fork as a federally recognized American Viticultural Area in 1986.

He had two pieces of advice for Brennan.

“Be yourself. Don’t think you have to do the same things I’ve done, or in the way that I did them,” Olsen-Harbich said.