BY JENNIFER RUBELL

Meet the Tobins of Miami. Mark is a partner at Brigham Moore LLP, protecting the property rights of individuals and corporations in eminentdomain cases. His wife, Christine, is a financial consultant, stockbroker and successful real estate investor. Together they have two kids, Matthew and Isabella, both gorgeous, both polite, both interesting to talk to about anything from schoolwork to stinky cheese. Sounds like the perfect modern family, right? There’s only one problem: They’re completely out of their minds.

Mark and Christine have decided to start a winery, with all the hard work, investment, risk and perseverance that requires. There’s an old joke among winemakers that tells it all: How do you make a small fortune in wine? Start with a large fortune. And the Tobins aren’t just committed to making wine; they’re committed to making sustainable wine, with a vow to practice, as Mark puts it, “a cleaner, safer, environmentally friendly form of farming.” On top of all that, they’re going for the ultimate prize: an affordable wine that tastes like a classic old-world bottling.

So obviously, you’d think, they’ve decided to buy a vineyard in one of the world’s best-known winemaking regions: Napa or Chile, France or Italy. But no, these two real estate experts have something else in mind. They’re throwing their lot behind one of the country’s newest winegrowing regions, the North Fork of Long Island.

In 1973, on all of Long Island there were 17 acres of grapes being grown for wine. Today there are more than 3,000, the majority of which are on the North Fork. If you’re heading out to the Hamptons, there’s essentially a giant fork in the road where two peninsulas form. The fork to the right is the Hamptons, with all its boldfaced names and hedge-enclosed houses. The fork to the left is the North Fork, a heavily agricultural region that reminds many longtime Hamptonites of the Hamptons in the ’70s, when farmers outnumbered rock stars and small communities grew up around a set of shared values.

A drive down one of the two main roads of theNorth Fork takes you past centuries- old family-farming compounds, picture-perfect small towns with dozens of farm stands offering some of the best produce grown on the Eastern seaboard, and charming little shops that sell everything from fishing poles to local goat cheese. But don’t be fooled. Behind all that lovely, farm-y folksiness, this area is booming. Two of New York City’s most celebrated chefs have recently opened a restaurant and inn; summer residents include Isabella Rossellini to some of the hottest contemporary artists around; more than a million visitors arrive every year to taste wines and see the countryside; and people like the Tobins, who could go anywhere to follow their winemaking dreams, are coming here, to what just might be the country’s hottest new wine region.

For the Tobins it actually makes sense. Christine grew up a half-hour away, in Westhampton Beach, where her Italian father, Richard Ferrari, would make wine in the garage using old-vine grapes he’d order from California. When Christine married Mark—a Florida boy through and through—Mr. Ferrari took his new son-in-law under his wing, showing him every step of the winemaking process. They would age the wine in Jack Daniel’s barrels, and it turned out quite well.

Mark decided he wanted to make wine in his Miami garage. After studying further, he realized this was never going to work—the Miami climate was just too hot to make good wine. And anyway, he had bigger plans. The Tobins bought a beach house in Chris’ hometown, and Mark set up his garage winery. The wine was actually pretty good, and every year it got better. Soon, people were asking where they could buy it, and Mark got ambitious. That’s when the Tobins, as Mark puts it, “took it to a whole new level of insanity. We put our minds in the backseat and followed our hearts.”

They drove around the North Fork, spoke to every winemaker they could, did endless tastings, and looked at a lot of land. When they finally found the spot, they named it after their two children, with an Italian spin: Mattebella Vineyards. Chris is the vineyard manager, working closely with their next-door neighbor, who happens to be one of the best winery managers on the North Fork. Mark is the winemaker, making crucial decisions about how it’s produced.

All the Tobins have a deep respect for the land, the grapes and the importance of farming. “Good wine happens in the vineyard”—it’s a classic winemaking maxim, and one the Tobins live by. It takes great grapes to make great wine, and they do everything possible to make sure they’re growing the best grapes possible. The results, first bottled in 2005 and now encompassing a range of wines that includes a reserve red called Old World Blend, two phenomenal table wines called Mattebella Famiglia and a delicious Provence-style rosé, have been winning awards everywhere, and South Florida chefs are going gaga over them. Mark personally goes to his favorite restaurants with the wines in hand for tastings, and no one can resist: Pacific Time, Michy’s, Michael’s Genuine, Canyon Ranch and the Fontainebleau all serve Mattebella. Chip Cassidy, South Florida’s most prominent wine connoisseur, was impressed by the quality of these handcrafted wines, and committed to sell Mattebella at all Crown Wine & Spirits stores.

Join Mark Tobin at Crown Wine & Spirits in Boca Raton, 3500 N. Federal Hwy., 561-392-6366, where he’ll be signing bottles of Mattebella Vineyards wine on November 6 from 6 to 8 p.m.