Transforming the harvest in Long Eddy

Long Eddy winery turns New York grapes into Sullivan vintage

By FRITZ MAYER

LONG EDDY, NY — Jennifer Clark and Andrew Scott quickly became fans of the area farm markets when they bought their weekend home in 2001. They shopped every Sunday on their way back to their weekday home to lay in a supply of local food. Now, not so many years later, they are selling their own brand of wine at the Callicoon Farm Market on weekends, from their Eminence Road Farm Winery.

Not bad for a couple who worked in Manhattan and lived in New Jersey up until just a few years ago. Scott was an art director in the advertising side of Random House, and Clark worked in marketing with Brooks Brothers. The change to winemaking in a remote location just a couple of miles north of the Delaware County line was accomplished, the couple said, with a good deal of planning.

Scott said, “We like the lifestyle; we’re not extravagant people, so it’s worked out well.”

The first vintage in 2008 was available for sale in 2009. This year’s grape harvest has already been crushed, and the 2010 vintage has been set to ferment—mostly in gleaming vessels, a bit in old-fashioned barrels. Scott and Clark are dedicated to the proposition that the wine will not be rushed through the process, as is the case with some commercial wineries. And they also engage in other practices that they say produce the best quality wines, such as ensuring that the grapes are hand harvested, rather than harvested by machine.

It’s tricky to grow grapes in the harsh Long Eddy climate, especially the highly prized Pinot Noir variety. Therefore most of the grapes for the wine come from the Finger Lakes region. The winery’s web site offers an indication of the couple’s philosophy: “We work to find growers who don’t manage their vineyards with the goal of a completely sterile, insect, fungus and weed-free environment. Grapes are hand harvested. Reds are crushed manually by foot and never de-stemmed. The wine is allowed to ferment slowly in a cold Catskill cellar; sometimes we add a little yeast, sometimes we don’t … If we were to put an ingredients list on the label it would read: grapes, sulfite and sometimes yeast.”

For 2010, the couple will bottle 400 cases of wine or 4,800 bottles.

Along with selling the wine at the farm market and the farm itself, Scott and Clark are beginning to offer their product in several local outlets, specifically the Callicoon Wine Merchant, Mathews on Main, Rolling River Café and Dancing Cat Distillery and Saloon. But Scott is quick to add that their wines sometimes sell out at those locations, so it’s best to call ahead if you’re thinking of taking a trip to pick up a bottle.