The Finger Lakes AVA lies five hours north of New York city, to the south of Lake Ontario & the Canadian border. The region sits on the extremity of many a wine convention:- this is seriously cool climate production made possible only by the tempering effect of the lakes and Vinifera only arrived here in the 1950s and still has to prove its worth to many farmers more used to selling hybrids to the tourist markets. Amongst the wineries and winemakers pushing to advance the region and craft wines of quality and distinction to match the best sites' potential is local Ben Riccardi.
Ben brings the sensibilities of a young gun who has worked in Sonoma, New Zealand and France along with Big Apple attitude from time honing his skills at Manhattan's City Winery. Using fruit from both Seneca and Cayuga Lakes - there are 11 Lakes in total with four considered the best for winemaking and these two with their own AVAs - Ben makes low-intervention, wild-yeast wines that revel in feshness and lower alcohol. We love the lightness of touch he brings to his Chardonnays (both unoaked and with some large barrel influence), Riesling and Cab Franc. The hybrids that can often lead the region astray- along with being freezing in the winter there can be considerable pressure on vines during hot and humid summers - are focussed and original.
Osmote Cabernet Franc Seneca Lake 2020
12.5% abv
Lightly extracted with a combination of red fruits and subtle herbs. The whole cluster fermentation brings generosity to the mid palate in a wine that is light and lithe with medium tannins and full Finger Lakes acidity.
“Sappy and snappy with a wonderful tango of Cab Franc’s twirling, willowy grace and this sumptuously intense red fruit. This is shamelessly gorgeous, flaunting its velvet-red deliciousness in fluid laisser-aller curves. Fine spice: cedar and cinnamon and piquant-bite-lively with white pepper. Mouth-filling acidity with an almost phosphorescent brightness and shimmer that seems to uplight the fruit, fill every space like an aether, but that seductively tactile fruit is nailed to the earth by ley lines of minerality. This wine has a brand-new groupie… ”
17 Points, Tamlyn Currin, Jancis Robinson
Wagner Farms Yellow Dog Vineyard- Sloped planting at about 8% on Lansing gravelly silt loam which is formed of glacial till and is both well drained and fertile.
Sawmill Creek Vineyard- Hillside planting on east side of Seneca Lake with slopes as steep as 20%. Vineyard altitude ranges from 490-820ft above sea level. Vines planted north south on deep, gravelly loam soils. Vines planted in the 1990s, to Clone 214, which originated in the Loire.
Sawmill Creek hand harvested on 10/7/2020 and Yellow Dog on 10/15/2020. Sawmill Creek fruit was fermented 100% whole cluster in open top fermenters. Yellow Dog was destemmed without crushing and fermented in open top fermenters. Both lots fermented with indigenous yeasts and were each about 23 days on skins. Tanks are drained and pressed using a basket press, and free run wine is combined with the press fraction then immediately barreled to finish primary and secondary fermentation by nature in 400L barrels. Barrels are all used French oak and the wine is racked twice from barrel during aging. Bottled August 15, 2021. 202 cases produced.
- Reference #:
- 15530
- Strength
- 12.5 ABV
- Bottles per Case
- 6 bottles
- Grapes
- Cabernet Franc
- Organic
- No
- Biodynamic
- No
- Vegan
- Yes
- Vegetarian
- Yes
- Sparkling
- No