Sparkling Pointe

The soul of Sparkling Pointe was born more than twenty years ago, when Cynthia and Tom Rosicki first met at a débutante ball at the Waldorf Astoria, in New York City. Weeks later, with a bottle of Champagne they toasted their first date. Together through the years, they became lovers of the romance and magic of Champagne. As longtime residents and advocates of Long Island’s North Fork, Cynthia and Tom witnessed the birth and rapid growth of the region’s wine development, and they wanted to be part of it. In 2002 with the assistance of Steve Mudd, the North Fork’s preeminent vineyard developer and manager, they purchased 10 acres of what would become Sparkling Pointe Vineyards and Winery. A year later, after the ground had been prepared by Steve, he asked Cynthia and Tom what kind of wine they wanted to produce. They looked at each other with sparkles in their eyes. They both answered at the same time, “Champagne!”

With 30 years of national and international experience, an accomplished scientific background, and a distinctive artistic talent, award winning head winemaker Gilles Martin blends in his wine creations the classic refinements of old world tradition with the adventurous passion of new world innovation.


Born at the gates of 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 prestigious 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 France president Jacques Chirac. Eager for fresh adventures and inspiration, the newly graduate Gilles traveled the wine world from Germany, where he worked at Weingut Hans Land winery in the Rheingau, to Australia for harvest at the renowned Houghton winery.


In 1988, he landed on the coast of Virginia where he began training his palate to the exiting challenges of East Coast wine making. Moving west, Gilles was from 1990 to 1996 the assistant winemaker of the much celebrated California Roederer Estate winery, where he produced wines unanimously hailed by the press as “the best sparkling wines ever made outside the Champagne area”. He then returned briefly to his native France to craft for Delas-Frères in the Rhone Valley, critically acclaimed Viognier and Syrah wines.


It was romantic love and his everlasting taste for innovative viticultural exploration that brought Gilles back in 1997 to the Long Island shores and the newly growing East End wine region. After overseeing the birth of three now well established wineries, Macari, Martha Clara and Sherwood house, he enthusiastically returned to his favorite area of excellence and expertise, the creation of distinctive, classy, elegant yet easygoing sparkling wines.

Like Cynthia and Tom , Gilles is deeply convinced that Long Island offers a uniquely suited terroir for the production of sparkling wines. His style and expertise are essential to bringing out the best in each year’s harvest, creating wines that show elegance, balance, and finesse.

With a degree in Materials Science and BioMedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and Masters from Stonybrook University, Production Winemaker Andrew Rockwell offers another meticulous science-driven mind to the Sparkling Pointe cellar team. A Long Island native, Andrew began his wine career with 8 years in oenology as the laboratory director for Premium Wine Group (PWG) Custom Crush Facility.


PWG, the largest custom crush on the East Coast, offered Andrew the opportunity to work with grapes from across Long Island and with wines for a myriad of producers across the state. This has provided him with a depth of knowledge in regards to the most recent decade of modern Long Island wine production. In addition to his role at Sparkling Pointe, Andrew also serves on the Cornell Advisory Council for Enology and has a small private label of boutique red wines.