Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/853816
August 2017 WINES&VINES 65 WINE EAST WINEMAKING siderably at Forge, having fin- ished as early as late November to as late as springtime. During ML, samples are taken for analy- sis and sent to the Finger Lakes Wine Laboratory at Dairy One in Ithaca, N.Y. A minimal amount of potassium metabisulfite is added to the ML-completed wine, depending upon its wine chemistry. The wines continue to barrel age separately until Au- gust, when they are blended and tanked prior to bottling. Blend- ing is done by all three owners and includes Boyette's assistant winemaker. Barruol flies from France annually for the blending sessions. Their Pinot Noir is un- fined and unfiltered. The newly blended wines are stored in different sized tanks, which include variable-capacity tanks depending on the bottling batch size. The tanks range up to 1,500 gallons and are sourced from Vance Metal Fabricators of G e n e v a , N . Y. , a n d P r o s p e r o Equipment Corp. in Pleasant- ville, N.Y., serving the Finger Lakes area from another site in Geneva, N.Y. Forge recently ac- quired a number of larger used tanks sent from France by co- owner Barruol. Bottling is done by a mobile bottling line oper- ated by Phil Aris, who is also the winemaker for Damiani Cellars in Burdett, N.Y. As previously mentioned, Forge produces two different Pinot Noirs, Classique and Les Al- lies. Boyette describes Classique as a lighter style, with two to three months' bottle age, while Les Al- lies is more intense and concen- trated. It is bottle aged for six to eight months. Much like the wines' processing and aging, the amount of bottle aging is depen- dent upon the character of the specific vintage. Most recently Forge Cellars produced 1,000 cases of Pinot Noir and 3,500 cases of Riesling. The Classique Pinot Noir retails for $26 per bottle, and the Les Allies Pinot Noir sells for $32. Conversely, the Classique Ries- ling is priced at $21, and the Les Allies Riesling is $26 per bottle. Forge also produced three sin- gle-vineyard Rieslings in 2014, all selling for $24 per bottle. Thanks to a worldwide distribu- tion network built by Louis Bar- ruol, Forge Cellars wines are distributed in 36 states and al- most 30 countries (the Pinot Noir entered the European mar- ket for the first time in the fall of 2016). Old World tradition dating back almost 450 years in Gigo- n d a s h a s m e t u p w i t h N e w World viticulture in the Finger L a k e s , w h e r e Vi t i s v i n i f e r a grapes have been grown for less than 60 years. It's a new part- nership and matches centuries- old European wine production and modern American building technology. Forge Cellars has a promising future if early efforts continue to develop as they have so far. Ray Pompilio is a wine writer based in Ithaca, N.Y. An avid follower of the Fin- ger Lakes wine scene, Pompilio delights in finding new and interesting wines to write about—and to taste. - B E C O PA D - Y E A S T & E N Z Y M E S - C R U S H PA D E Q U I P M E N T - S T E R I L E F I LT R AT I O N - W I N E R Y H O S E - O A K A LT E R N AT I V E S EASTERN WINE LABS Serving the Analytical needs of East Coast Wineries WWW.EASTERNWINELABS.COM Ph 609-859-4302 Cell 609-668-2854 chemist@easternwinelabs.com AOAC Member Forge Cellars ultimately plans to grow 10 acres of Pinot Noir and 5 acres of Riesling. Soils are friable gray shale bedrock, free limestone, clay and shale.