Page 24 - Vallet Table - Spring 2020

Try the Trend
These are the bottles some of our favorite natural wine shops are loving right now.
Bloomer Creek Vineyard
Cabernet Franc ‘Vin d’Eté’ 2018, $23.99
Kim Engle and Debra Bermingham of Bloomer Creek stand out for their organic approach to life, art, and, of course, winemaking. This Vin d’Eté captures
their adventurous winemaking spirit with crunchy berry fruits on a lithe frame.
Sam Lozoff
Artisan Wine Shop, Beacon
Liten Buffel
De la Terre Pour la Winediva, $26.40
A magical wine by a New York winery, made from Pinot Gris fermented on grape skins, it has a creamy body
with hints of toasted coconut and baked pineapple.
Eliza Starbuck & Eric Wirth Flowercup Wine, Cold Spring
Domaines des Terres Blanches Brut Ancestral 2017, $25
Chenin blanc is having a moment in the industry right now, and this sparkling expression of the grape is exactly
why. We love this bottle for its fresh, crisp minerality followed by a clean, dry finish.
Shai Kessler
Reed Street Bottle Shop, Coxsackie
Clos Saron
"Home Vineyard" Pinot Noir 2014, $69.99
Gideon Beinstock has long been on
the cutting edge of biodynamic farming and minimal-intervention in California winemaking. [This wine] sings with mineral-driven notes of raspberry, cherry, and pomegranate.
Derek and Carol Todd Wine Geeks, Armonk
Donkey and Goat
New Glou 2019, $32.99
Tracey and Jared Brandt started crafting natural wine in California around 2003, making them very much pioneers of the modern Cali wine scene. New Glou is modeled after the youthful wines of France... harvested, fermented, and bottled all within the same year. The process yields a juicy, light, chillable, and swallow-able red.
Michael Drapkin Kingston Wine Co.
that’s what makes it natural,” says Todd Cavallo, proprietor of Wild Arc Farm in Pine Bush. A farm winery and advocate of natural wine production in the Hudson Valley, Wild
Arc sources grapes only from New York State, and works with local growers to transition their vineyards to organic practices. (Wild Arc’s own 10-acre vineyard is currently under development.) “That’s part of our mission to show that you can make great natural wines in New York and the Hudson Valley,” says Cavallo. “We’ve had really good luck getting people on board.”
Yet, not all Hudson Valley winemakers are fans of the natural-wine credo. At Whitecliff Vineyard & Winery in Gardiner, owners Michael Migliore and Yancey Stanforth- Migliore produce more than 30 different wines with grapes grown on 30-plus acres of Hudson Valley-grown vines. “It’s something of a marketing trend [that has been] promoted pretty heavily by folks who are intensively involved in the wine world,” says Stanforth-Migliore of natural wine. “I’m very aware that there are places that will not buy our wines because they don’t match their definition of natural, which also requires organic agriculture.”
Last year, Whitecliff produced two wines in the vein of the natural movement, but chose to label them as non- intervention instead. “I dislike the term 'natural' because it implies that all other wines are unnatural, and that is frankly inaccurate,” says Stanforth-Migliore. “[We’re] a handcrafted, artisanal-scale winery. Our goal is to make the best-quality wines we can produce.”
For natural winemakers, the best wines they can produce often demand equally enticing branding. “There is definitely an aesthetic dimension to it,” says Drapkin. “We’re seeing
a lot more attention being paid to the way the bottle looks, because it’s a full experience."
The language used to discuss wine has evolved, too. “It’s no secret wine has a history of stuffiness,” says Tracy Kennard of Brunette, a wine bar in Kingston with an all-
22 THE VALLEY TABLE MARCH – MAY 2020
LITEN BUFFEL PHOTO BY ELIZA STARBUCK, FLOWERCUP WINE; CLOS SARON PHOTO BY CAROL TODD; ALL OTHER PHOTOS THIS PAGE COURTESY OF VENUE
Jamie and Tracy Kennard, Brunette