Winemaker

With 30 years of national and international experience, award-winning winemaker Gilles Martin combines the classic refinements of old world tradition with the adventurous passion of new world innovation. Born in the Champagne region, Gilles headed to the South of France in the Languedoc wine region to obtain an engineering degree in biology and food sciences as well as a Masters of Oenology from the University of Montpellier. His 1986 Master thesis on the technology of wine ultra-filtration won national acclaim and a first prize, awarded in person, by former French president Jacques Chirac.

Gilles was the assistant winemaker of the California Roederer Estate winery from 1990 to 1996, where he produced wines unanimously hailed by the press as “the best sparkling wines ever made outside the Champagne area.” Romantic love and his taste for innovative viticultural exploration brought Gilles back in 1997 to the east end of Long Island. After helping to establish Macari, Martha Clara and Sherwood House wineries he returned to his favorite specialty. the creation of distinctive, classy, elegant sparkling wines, at Sparkling Pointe Vineyards. At the 2009 San Francisco Chronicle wine competition, their 2000 Brut Seduction outclassed the reputable Californian French-rooted competition with a Best of Class and Sweepstake winner award that put Long Island on the world map of sparkling wines for the very first time. Gilles currently lives on the North fork of Long Island with his two children and wife. He has been serving as a community adviser for the Brookhaven National Laboratory since 2006.