Posts Written OnOctober 06, 2010

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor When Rich Olsen-Harbich left Raphael to take his creativity and native-yeast fermentations to Bedell Cellars, there was no doubt that the wines there would change. At the mid-way point of his first harvest at Bedell, it seems as though the changes might be more significant than most thought. Olsen-Harbich told me via email "I’m doing all kinds of exciting and innovative wines at Bedell this year — from using only indigenous yeast, stone-barrel fermentations, to other types of co-ferments involving various lots of red fruit as well as red and white fruit together." One such…

By Evan Dawson, Managing Editor Photo: Ravines winemaker Morten Hallgren shows off the free run pinot noir, which has not yet gone through malolactic fermentation For perhaps the first time ever, Ravines Wine Cellars winemaker Morten Hallgren is preparing to add acid to one of his wines. "This is highly unusual," he tells me on a crisp October day. The variety in question is the hybrid Cayuga, which Hallgren uses in small amounts to blend with Vignoles to create his Keuka Village White (the only wine in the Ravines portfolio that is not 100% vinifera).  Hallgren has carefully followed the…