Wild Arc Farm White Blend Petillant Naturel 2020 (750ml)

Todd on this wine: “A fun new Pet Nat from the Fingerlakes area. A white blend of hybrid and vinifera grapes including the NY81 – the grape so good it hasn’t even gotten a name yet.”

Grapes: NY81, Aromella, Riesling

Vineyard: Folts Farm, FLX. Sustainable (no herbicide)

Making of: All varieties were vinified separately, with the Aromella and NY81 getting some skin contact. They were then aged in neutral French Oak barrels for 7 months before being blended and bottled under crown cap before they fully woke up and finished fermenting this Spring. Unfiltered and undisgorged, S02: 20ppm added at crush.
Personality: Ripe muscat and melon notes from the Aromella, an herbaceous backbone, and great acidity from the NY81 and Riesling.

Crystal and Todd Cavallo moved to their farm in Pine Bush, NY from Brooklyn in 2016 and as they wait for the vineyards on their property to mature, they are purchasing fruit from different parts of NY state, but the bulk of their output comes from the Amorici vineyard in Washington County, home to a dozen hybrid varieties.

Todd's decision to produce a Piquette helped to catapult them into national recognition very quickly. This is an old tradition in Europe, where grape must (skins and seeds) left over from winemaking is re-fermented in water, creating a low-alcohol beverage that was often given to vineyard workers instead of wine. Todd uses local wildflower honey to boost the fermentation, adding back 15 percent of the original wine to increase the alcohol and flavor, and bottling or canning it with a little residual sugar so that fermentation continues and creates carbonation. The result is a refreshing sparkling low alcohol beverage that has captured the imaginations of other domestic winemakers and resulted in a revival of this style of wine.