Sparkling Rosé
Silver Thread VineyardPétillant Naturel
Finger Lakes, New York · Seneca Lake · Regent, Lemberger, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Cayuga
Most pét-nat is made start to finish in steel and tastes like it — bright, simple, a little feral. Silver Threads Pét-Nat saw oak, and what the oak aging leaves behind is toasted brioche on the finish, which is the note you normally pay Champagne prices to get. The method underneath is the cheap one: a single fermentation, finished in the bottle, no riddling and no disgorgement. A Champagne character on a wine priced at mid-range still-wine values.
Silver Thread Winery farms the slopes above Seneca Lake, where the water cooling air influences from the lake preserves essential acidity. Five grapes are blended togethe — indigenous to Europe Lemberger is what Americans call Blaufränkisch) — and two of them are hybrids generally unknown by name — Regent and Cayuga — which is the other half of the price. This wine is best enjoyed in one evening: share it with friends, roommates, or family, and pair it with something unctuous and herbal: sheet-pan sausages with apples, squash soup with brown butter, a tray of roast potatoes. The crown cap presses shut again, though it will not be the same wine tomorrow. If you don’t drink it all in one night, turn it into a cooking wine — a light reductive sauce for poultry, perhaps.
