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ABOUT EMINENCE ROAD FARM WINERY

Eminence Road Farm Winery makes small lots of dry table wine in a barn on the western edge of the Catskills using grapes from sustainably managed Finger Lakes vineyards. All wine is fermented by naturally occurring yeasts and bottled by hand, unfined and unfiltered with the only addition being a minimal amount of sulfite for stability.

The winery is located in Long Eddy, New York in a mountain valley at the southern edge of Delaware County and is housed in a converted, hillside cow barn. Andrew Scott, Jennifer Clark, Lester (from Hankins) and Brigette are the proprietors.

ABOUT US: Very briefly. Prior to getting into the wine business Andrew worked in publishing as an art director doing advertising design and Jennifer did internet marketing in the apparel industry. Living in New Jersey and working in Manhattan, they became passionate wine lovers and soon fell in with the burgeoning natural wine scene happening in the city in the early '90s, filling a cellar with treasures from the Loire Valley, Beaujolais, Bordeaux and beyond. In 1996 Andrew made his first batch of homemade wine from a kit received as a Christmas present from his brother. It came out terrible. But the seed was planted. Soon fall centered around grape runs to the Finger Lakes and the home winemaking grew bigger each year, moving from the kitchen to the basement to the garage and then finally to a barn upstate where it took root and blossomed into an actual, licensed winery. In 2007 they left the their urban surroundings to live full time on the farm and in 2008 made their first official commercial wines under the Eminence Road Farm Winery label.

ABOUT THE WINE: Grapes come from vineyards located in the Finger Lakes region of New York--about a hundred miles west of the winery. All wine is made from single vineyard lots and labeled as such except in cases where the vineyard name is proprietary. We work with the same growers each season, often taking fruit from the same rows year after year. Grapes are hand harvested directly into our picking boxes and driven to the barn in Acidalia where all processing, fermentation, elevage and bottling takes place.

At the winery red grapes are hand sorted and crushed by foot into one-ton fermentors without being destemmed. We add a small amount of metabisulfite at this point, no other additives or amendments of any kind are used. In the bin the must is allowed to ferment naturally with punch downs once per day. After a week or two musts are bucketed into a small, half ton bladder press for gentle pressing. Settled juice is pumped into old oak barrels or stainless steel tanks to finish fermentation. Barrels are topped up once a month on the full moon and all wines are allowed to rest on their lees, undisturbed and without being racked, for the duration of the fermentation process. White grapes are handled much the same way except they are crushed, destemmed and then pressed after a 2 or 3 day maceration. The settled juice is then allowed to oxidize prior to fermentation. Even the riesling. All wines, red, white and rose, go through malolactic fermentation if they so desire. Even the riesling. After one year, if fermentation has finished, the wine is racked off its lees, given another very small dose of metabisulfite and bottled by hand without fining or filtration using a gravity powered 4-spout filler and a single shot, pneumatic hand corker. It takes forever.

DIRECTIONS FOR USE: Because the wine is bottled without fining or filtration and only a minimal amount of sulfite it is important it be kept cool at all times as high temperatures can greatly diminish flavor, aroma and quality. Ideal storage conditions are a temperature of fifty-five degrees Farenheight with 70 percent humidity and complete darkness. Cork finished bottles must be stored on their side. An unfiltered wine will often have some amount of sediment in the bottle. This is a natural, harmless deposit that can easily be removed with careful decanting which we recommend for all wines, reds especially. Serve cool but never cold. For best results drink wine outside with good food and someone you love.

Here's some pictures: