Eminence Road Farm Winery 'Acidalia' Finger Lakes 2020

Andrew Scott and Jennifer Clark have done it again with this cabernet-merlot blend! Eminence Road Farm Winery has put out some of our favorite local-ish wines in recent years, and this is no exception. Based in a converted cow barn in the mountain valley of Long Eddy, NY, on the western edge of the Catskills, Eminence Road is, in a way, a Finger Lakes winery. All of their wines are made from sustainably grown Finger Lakes grapes, fermented with native yeast, and bottled by hand, unfined and unfiltered with the only addition being a minimal amount of sulfur for stability. Their ‘Acidalia’ (named for the village at one end of Eminence Road itself) consists of equal parts cabernet sauvignon and merlot from Elizabeth’s vineyard. On silt loam soil over shale, with a west-facing aspect over Seneca Lake, the vineyard is managed by John Leidenfrost and his daughter, Elizabeth. The grapes fermented without destemming and aged for 11 months in neutral French oak barrels. Dark and complex aromatics of cedar, cocoa, and green pepper complement woodsy blueberry on a firm tannic foundation. Sustainably grown, low-intervention/natural wine, vegan.