Description
A biodynamic immature brandy made from 80% Petit Verdot + 20% Cab Franc. This was a very, very rare moment of stars aligning. We received a phone call from Rex Farr, owner of Demeter Certified The Farm, a vineyard located out here on the North Fork, explaining that a frost was coming in. The grapes weren’t ripe enough to make wine but if we could get a crew together to harvest, we could buy the estimated 2 tons of gorgeous fruit for brandy production. The nice thing about brandy is we harvest as far as a month+ before wine — we’re not as focused on sugar but rather acidity and depth of flavor.
We reached out to a bunch of girls working in nightlife in Brooklyn to see if they might be able to come save the day on a few sleepy midweek days — and sure enough! They came to the rescue alongside a few handfuls of locals who stopped by when they could to help with a share. We picked over 2 days beside an epic Hunter Moon that lingered in the background as we worked.
After celebrating the victory of getting the fruit before the frost with way too much wine, we spent an early morning down at the local crush facility watching over a very gentle press of the fruit. After cooling and racking, we transferred the juice back to Matchbook where we let the temperature rise a few degrees to allow fermentation to begin.
After 10 days of a gorgeous clean fermentation, we transferred the wine to the still for a single pass with 2 plates and a dephlegmator activated in the column. The brandy has rested in a glass balloon for a year.
