The 3rd annual New York City Raw Wine Fair was held on November 4-5. This is the latest stop in an itinerary that has stopped at or will stop at London, Berlin, Montreal and Los Angeles. The New York event was held in a warehouse venue at 99 Scott Avenue in trendy Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Raw Wine is “committed to empowering wine drinkers through real informed choices” with wines that have “emotion and living presence”. The fair was an opportunity to try low intervention organic, natural and biodynamic wines from over 140 wine makers and growers.
According to Beverage Media Group, a trade publication, “green wines” are a small niche in the United States with 1% of wines by volume but has grown by 10% volume growth outpacing total wine growth which is nearly flat. When it comes to natural, organic and biodynamic wines, the rules can be a little fuzzy but basically they are wines made with minimal manipulation. I remember a time when the selection of these wines were pretty limited and the common theme through most of them was “funky”.
I attended on Sunday afternoon which was a beautiful Autumn day and the venue was packed with people. These guys are the mad scientists of the wine world which made for a lot of interesting characters at the fest, most are small producers and I wasn’t familiar with many of the labels except for a couple of California producers. Usually at a mass tasting like this I try to have a focus on what I will try but today I just wandered around the rooms stopping at tables that looked interesting (and not have a mob of people surrounding it).
Some of what I sampled:
Couquelicot Estate (Santa Ynez Valley) 2015 Malbec, 2015 Rose & Son Red, 2016 Rose & Son Red
Lo-Fi Wines (Santa Barbara) 2016 Grenache Noir, 2017 Cabernet Franc Couquelicot Vineyard, 2017 Malbec
Hiyu Winery (Oregon) 2016 Falcon Box, 2016 Columba, 2015 Argo Iris
Swick Winery (Oregon) 2017 Pinot Noir, 2017 Bring It, 2017 Un Oeuf
Domaine de l’Ecu (Loire) 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Rednoz, 2015 Cabernet Franc Mephisto, 2017 Syrah Noblis
La Baronne (Rousillon) 2017 Grenache Gris De Jean, 2017 Les Chemins de Traverse
Chateau Guadet (St-Emillion) 2014 Grand Cru Classe Red
Closerie Saint Roc (Bordeaux) 2015, 2016 Red
Collina del Pernione (Lombardy) 2016 Agnore, 2017 Alma
I Mandorli (Tuscany) 2012 Sangiovese, 2015 Cabernet
Castello Poggiarello (Tuscany) 2012 Collerosso
Amepeleia (Tuscany) 2017 Cabernet Franc, 2017 Carignano
Il Monte (Veneto) 2016 Valpolicella Superiore, 2015 Amarone
Paolo & Lorenzo Marchionni (Tuscany) 2016 Rossovigliano, 2015 L’Erta Poggio della Bruna
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