Wild Arc Farm Marquette 2020

Todd Cavallo and Crystal Cornish left Brooklyn in the summer of 2016 to try their hand at building sustainable food systems in the Hudson Valley. The couple had limited experience in agriculture, mostly confined to growing tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and hops on city fire escapes, fending off the depredations of spiteful neighborhood squirrels. Beginning with ten acres, this small, biodynamic, permaculture-focused farm in Pine Bush is making outstanding wines from locally-sourced grapes while waiting for their own vineyards to come of age. The Marquette (a cold-resistant hybrid developed at the University of Minnesota) for this bottling comes from the organically-farmed KFF (formerly Amorici) Vineyard in Washington County, NY. It is carbonically macerated for five days, then whole-cluster macerated for two weeks with daily hand punch-downs before being pressed directly into neutral French oak barrels (plus one chestnut barrel) where it rests for 10 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, it receives a low dose (10ppm) of SO2. It’s bright and fruity on the nose and darker on the palate, with a touch of garrigue and texture. Organically grown, low-intervention/natural wine, vegan.