Revisiting NY Finger Lakes Skin-Contact White Wines (#WinePW)

Springtime evokes memories of road trips for me. Especially memorable are trips I’ve taken to the stunning Finger Lakes wine region of upstate New York.

Four years ago, my travels took me to seven wineries ringing Seneca Lake and my first experience tasting skin-contact white wines – a 2014 Anthony Road Riesling and a 2014 Anthony Road Chardonnay.

I vividly recall my afternoon in Anthony Road’s tasting room on the west shore of this deep glacial lake. I remember the warm welcome from owner John Martini who, with wife Ann, got into grape-growing business in this area during the early 70s, and I remember tasting winemaker Peter Becraft’s clean, precise wines.

No one wine stood out as better than the rest, but Becraft’s skin-contact white wines left a lasting impression. Most white wines are made from direct pressing of grapes to extract their juice. But in skin-contact white wines – sometimes called “orange” or “amber” wines for their deep color – the grapes are fermented for a time on their skins.

Becraft uses this technique to extract a grape’s essence. He finds a little bit of tannin from the skins and seeds focuses the varietal expression of grapes. Skin-contact white wines add another dimension to Anthony Road’s portfolio and help Becraft achieve new and exciting results.

When I contacted the winery and learned the 2014 Skin Ferment Riesling was still available, I immediately placed an order and got ready to relive the moment when I first tasted this style of wine. To my surprise, the tasting room manager, who happens to be one of the Martinis’ daughters, graciously enclosed their 2017 Skin Ferment Pinot Gris, too. Thank you, Liz!

(Please note that while the wines for this post were provided, in part, opinions are my own.)

You’re invited to open your own wine or simply follow along, using the hashtag #WinePW, when the Wine Pairing Weekend bloggers hold a Twitter chat about skin-contact white wines Saturday, May 9, starting at 11 am ET. Then mark your calendar for June 13 when the #WinePW group is traveling (virtually) to the Finger Lakes to sample a variety of cool-climate wines.

I caught up with Becraft recently to ask about his skin-contact wines.

Q. How much skin-contact white wine do you make every year? What percentage is this of the total wine you make?

A. The percentage of skin ferment wine in our total production is a tiny fraction. For example, in 2014 we made 142 cases of the Riesling Skin Ferment and 425 cases of our Dry Riesling. The 2017 Pinot Gris Skin Ferment case production was 53 cases as opposed to 802 cases for our regular label Pinot Gris. These wines are part of our Grey Series which are small production lots that allow me to explore new grapes, new methods and new ideas. I refer to the Grey Series wines as wine of intellect, intrigue and expression. In many cases the new ideas and methods are not new at all and are in fact ancient ways that for one reason or another have been looked over or forgotten.

Q. What is your process for making skin-contact white wine? What kind of vessel do you use? How long are the grapes macerated on their skins? Any oak?

A. The process for both of these wines [regular and skin ferment] is pretty similar. The fruit is destemmed and crushed into one-ton fermentation bins. Yeast is added and when fermentation begins, we will do punch-downs on the fruit once a day. Once fermentation is complete (10 days to two weeks), we rack the wine off of the skins. The skins will be pressed off with the reds. The wine will spend time in stainless steel tank and/or be moved into neutral barrel to age. The ’14 Reisling Skin Ferment was aged in stainless steel tank. The ’17 Pinot Gris was aged in stainless steel tank and then moved into neutral barrel to age.

Q. Why have you chosen to ferment in this style? What do you feel this method does for your wines?

A. There was a time when all wines were fermented on the skins. White wine production for the most part these days has moved away from this process. I was asking myself, “why?” I had tasted some skin ferments from Slovenia, Greece and New York and was both impressed with some and repulsed by others. What was evident though in a very positive way was that the process presented a whole different identity to a grape I thought I knew inside and out. This to me was the “aha” moment.

Knowing what I liked and did not like about the wines I had tasted, I set out to explore in my own way. In 2013, I did a small trial with Chardonnay and the result was very drinkable. In 2014, I set out to make some white skin ferments on a somewhat larger scale for production as an Anthony Road wine. The ’14 Chardonnay Skin Ferment and the ’14 Riesling Skin Ferment were the results. We have continued to make the Skin Ferment Riesling in the subsequent vintages and introduced skin-fermented Pinot Gris into the portfolio as well. I also begin the Grüner Veltliner fermentation on the skins before pressing them off the skins just as fermentation begins.

I do not refer to these wines as orange wines. The wording on the label is very deliberate. These wines are very cared for and there is great attention in maintaining the focus and freshness of the wine. What I find so interesting is that the resulting wines are so different from what I know about a specific grape. There is flavor in the skins and textural compounds in the skins. These flavors though are not necessarily fruit flavors. The skins present savory and earthy aromas and flavors. Skins can also contribute a salinity on the palate. The tannins from the skins provide texture and help in its aging. The resulting fruit aromas can be very different for the non-skin ferment versions. For example, the skin ferment Pinot Gris exhibits tangerine and nectarine fruits where that non-skin ferment Pinot Gris will exhibit pear, apple and melon. The skin ferment also introduces notes of herbs (bay leaf), olive and earth. These wines get better and mellow with aging.

These wines need the arena of the dinner table to really make sense. They are not porch or dock pounders. They really shine with food.

Q. What has been the reaction to your skin-fermented wines?

A. Reaction has been very positive. The guest to the tasting room will taste these wines in a flight, paired next to their standard version. This gives the taster the side-by-side comparison and they really begin to understand why each version is important. The response from writers/reviewers and the restaurant trade has been very positive and accepting.

Q. Do you have anything else to add?

A. I hope when you taste these wines, you will notice how serious they are. I hope that you will notice the careful attention put into them and how much reverence has been paid to the history of the process. The technique is ancient but I put it through my artistic filter to create the new.

The wines
2014 Anthony Road Skin Ferment Riesling

My tasting notes: Bright yellow-gold in color. Riesling’s characteristic petrol aroma dominates the nose. Palate tastes like an entire grapefruit squeezed into the bottle – fruit, pith, rind, and all. Mouth-watering, medium+ acidity. A burst of honey lemon (like a Luden’s cough drop but in a good way, not sweet) and a touch of bees wax on a medium+ finish. There’s a fullness to the body of this dry wine. Capable of even further aging. Alcohol: 11.9%. Price: $26.

2017 Anthony Road Skin Ferment Pinot Gris

My tasting notes: Amber in color (take a look at the photo below). Aromas of tangerine, nectarine and dried apricot. On the palate of this earthy dry wine, I get sour apple upfront, followed by olive and a dash of parsley. A citrusy, lemon-lime note enters at the end of the medium+ finish. Medium acidity. Flinty, with a little bit of pucker in the mouth. Alcohol: 11.3%. Price: $26.

The pairings
For these textured white wines, my goal was to enhance their savory quality without going too heavy. I also wanted to try a variety of flavor and food combinations, because that’s how I learn what works and what doesn’t.

After one of the spouse’s recent foraging escapades at the local grocery store – a hit-or-miss experience during this pandemic – he returned home with smoked turkey legs and asparagus. Aha! We happened to have leftover herb stuffing in the freezer from a faux Thanksgiving dinner last winter. I decided to combine all these elements into a springtime gratitude meal – and experiment by preparing three different turkey dipping sauces:

Tangy barbecue sauce

1. 1/2 cup ketchup
2. 1/3 cup water
3. 3 tbsp. brown sugar
4. 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
5. 2 tbsp. finely chopped onion
6. 1 tsp. ground mustard
7. Squeeze of lemon juice
8. Salt and pepper to taste

Mustard sauce ala Bobby Flay

1. 3/4 cup Dijon mustard
2. 3/4 cup whole-grain mustard
3. 1/4 cup prepared horseradish
4. 1/4 cup (or less) honey
5. Salt and pepper to taste

Yogurt cilantro sauce

1. 1/3 cup yogurt
2. 1/3 cup mayo
3. 1 tbsp. cilantro
4. 1 tsp. pressed garlic
5. Salt and pepper to taste

Both wines stood up well to everything we threw at them. Savory smoked turkey legs? Check. Mustard sauce on steroids? You bet. Creamy yogurt cilantro? “We got this.” Even the roasted asparagus – especially the asparagus, notoriously a pain to pair – found a comforting friend in these skin-contact white wines.

For more on skin-contact white wines and food pairings, I recommend the following posts from the Wine Pairing Weekend bloggers. Hope you’re inspired to experiment on your own and can join for the chat on May 9.

• Camilla of Culinary Adventures With Camilla will be Diving into the Skin Fermented Wine Pool of Two Shepherds Winery.
• Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm presents Donkey and Goat Skin Fermented Roussanne: A Baaaaad Ass Wine.
• Andrea of The Quirky Cork takes up Turkish Amber Wines and Fast Food.
• Olivier of In Taste Buds We Trust is Trying Orange and Non-Orange Wine with Jamie’s Kinda Niçoise Salad.
• Lori of Exploring The Wine Glass asks Orange You Glad I Have Wine?
• Jeff of Food Wine Click! offers Wine 201: Orange Wine Primer.
• Jill of L’Occasion has us Thinking Wine: The Engaging World of Orange Wine.
• Linda of My Full Wine Glass is Revisiting NY Finger Lakes Skin-Contact White Wines.
• David of Cooking Chat proffers Cauliflower Bacon Spread with Amber Wine from Georgia.
• Gwendolyn at Wine Predator will be featuring Orange Wines from California and Italy by Accident and On Purpose Paired with Shrimp Curry.
• Lauren at The Swirling Dervish posts He Said, She Said: Ryme Cellars and the Tale of Two Vermentinos.
• Susannah of Avvinare serves up Orange Wine From Slovenia’s Movia Paired with Homemade Sushi.
• Katrina of The Corkscrew Concierge wonders Is Orange (Wine) the New Everything Wine?
• Nicole at Somm’s Table is Cooking to the Wine: Kabaj Rebula and Chicken with Mushroom Escabeche and Lentils.
• Rupal, the Syrah Queen advises us that Radikon Orange Wine – Not Just For Hipsters.
• Deanna of Asian Test Kitchen offers Logan Wines’ Orange Wine And The Bacon That Changed It All.
• Terri of Our Good Life declares Orange Wine is a Thing.
• Host Martin at ENOFYLZ Wine Blog serves up A Cadre Of California Skin-Contact Wines Paired With Ethnic Fare.