“The nose of this wine is absolutely stunning, earl grey tea and elderflower give complexity to the strawberry and pomegranate notes that just beg to be paired with bbq'd chicken and a campfire. Light bodied on the palate, strawberries, pomegranate and damp forest floor shine while the earl grey note joins the party fashionably late. Integrated tannins dance around your cheeks and a juicy acidity leaves you salivating endlessly. Beautifully structured, this wine is built to last.” — Paula Paradise, Paradise Wine, Buffalo New York

Wild ambient yeast fermentation; no fining or filtering and limited S02 only at bottling.

Bloomer Creek is a true pioneer in natural winemaking in New York State, more specifically in the Finger Lakes Region. If you so much as mention working organically to New York winemakers, you will hear again and again that is an impossible feat, much as the first natural winemakers in the Loire valley and Burgundy heard from their peers. In spite of this, Kim Engle and Debra Bermingham have been crafting beautiful examples of natural wine anyway. They do not use insecticides, finding them to be unnecessary in a healthy vineyard, and herbicides have not been used in over 20 years. Fungus disease is controlled by the use of sulfur for powdery mildew and copper for downy mildew. Seaweed/fish and compost formulations are sprayed to aid in disease resistance and vine health.

Harvest is done by hand and winemaking methods are what they consider traditional. Fermentation is with ambient or “wild” yeast. There is considerable use of stems in fermentation especially with red wine, but to a lesser extent with white wine as well. All fermentations are done in small lots which are later blended. Fermentations tend to be very slow. Malo-lactic, or secondary fermentation, is often completed during the summer following harvest, and therefore lees contact is extended. Lees are not stirred. Most wines are fermented dry and are not fined or filtered. These practices lead to the production of distinctive and long lasting wines.