Eminence Road Grüner Veltliner AD Vineyard Finger Lakes 2022

“If you really want to learn about wine, why don’t you make some?” The somewhat-taunting, somewhat-encouraging words, scrawled on the card gifted to Andrew Scott in 1996 alongside his first home winemaking kit, would kick start an endeavor that today lends consistent credence to the overall rising quality of New York State viticulture. Moving from New Jersey to the mountain valley of Long Eddy, New York, on the western edge of the Catskills, in 2008, Andrew and wife Jennifer established Eminence Road Farm Winery with zero formal training or winery experience, developing a “self-taught methodology based on patience, low-intervention and faith in the natural processes of fermentation.” Using sustainably grown grapes from a few select sites across the Finger Lakes, the two make a handful of delicious naturally fermented micro-batch wines, all bottled by hand, unfined and unfiltered with the only addition being a minimal amount of sulfur. This bottling, the only grüner veltliner they’ve ever produced (and only 32 cases at that!), was made from grapes grown by Alan D. Hunt on the west side of Keuka Lake. Grapes are crushed, destemmed, pressed and fermented in stainless steel, where they also undergo full malolactic fermentation. The wine is then racked off the lees and bottled as all Eminence Road wines are, without fining and filtration. Tropical, bright, high flying fun: this grüner bursts with juicy limeade flavors popping with stone fruit, lime zest, and a dash of spice. Sustainably grown, low-intervention/natural wine.