2008 Red Newt Cellars Red Eft
Posted by Neil Brody Miller on April 14, 2010
This is another in a series of wine reviews I began a few months ago, in which I taste value-priced wines produced by Finger Lakes wineries in order to compare these local, under-$12.00 wines with the flood of inexpensive red wines from Portugal, Spain, and Argentina that consumers have turned to in their search for a decent, affordable table wine. This week’s wine is the 2008 Red Newt Cellars Red Eft ($12.88 at Liquor City in DeWitt; $11.99 at the winery), a dry red blend made from 36% Cabernet Franc, 23% Syrah, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Noiret, and 10% Merlot.
For a small Seneca Lake winery, Red Newt produces a wide range of wines, from their highly rated, vineyard designated red and white wines like the Glacier Ridge Vineyards Cabernet Franc and Sawmill Creek Vineyard and Curry Creek Vineyard Gewurztraminers, to inexpensive blends like the Red Eft and Salamander White. Some of these wines are off-dry, but none of them pander to the lamentable local taste for sweet wines. Although the Red Eft is technically off-dry, with 0.3% residual sugar, the wine tastes totally dry.
The Red Eft’s most noticeable characteristic is the aroma of Noiret, the hybrid varietal developed at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY, which a number of Finger Lakes winemakers have begun experimenting with. Noiret has a peppery, citrusy aroma which is immediately recognizable once you’ve experienced it. Although the aroma is not unpleasant, it is a bit unexpected. In the Red Eft, this citrusy aroma was quickly followed by the more familiar earthy, herbaceous aroma of Cabernet Franc, and the deeper red fruit bouquet of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot.
The wine has a rich, soft texture, a medium body, moderate alcohol (13.2%) and acidity, and soft tannins. The flavors of cherry and red berries are pleasant and matched by notes of rosemary and other dried or grilled herbs. The flavors are definitely fruit forward and carry nicely through the mid-palate, but they drop off pretty quickly on the finish.
For a Tuesday or Wednesday evening dinner at home, a glass or two of the Red Eft would be perfectly satisfying, which is all it aspires to be. The problem with this and other value-priced Finger Lakes wines, however, is that they are competing against heavily promoted imports from hot, Mediterranean-type climates. American palates unfortunately have become accustomed to these overly ripe, highly extracted wines, and many, perhaps most consumers are not used to a wine like the Red Eft, which displays a more classical weight and structure, less fruit, lower alcohol, and a different spectrum of flavors.
What I noticed with the Red Eft, however, and what I’ve noticed in other value-priced Finger Lakes wines like the Lamoreaux Landing Estate Red, which I reviewed a few months ago, is that there is a distinct freshness – not ripeness, but freshness – to the wine that I rarely find in imports. I think this is a critical point, and something that rarely gets mentioned in wine reviews.
Out of economic necessity (i.e., to keep down the transportation cost), most of the lower priced imports from Europe and South America are shipped to the United States in non-air conditioned containers. While not all of these wines are “cooked” in transit (although many of them are), I am beginning to realize that something subtle but important nevertheless gets lost. The distinction should be familiar to anyone who seeks out and consumes fresh, locally grown produce: a freshly harvested, vine-ripe tomato purchased at a local farmers market tastes ineffably fresher than even the ripest hot-house tomato shipped from Maine or California and purchased at the local supermarket.
The growing number of Slow Food and Buy Local devotees, and anyone else interested in supporting their local food economy, should take note. Wines like Red Newt’s Red Eft may at first seem a bit unfamiliar in terms of their flavors and characteristics, but they nonetheless are well made, competitively priced wines that offer the same freshness you look for in locally grown fruits and vegetables.
The more I investigate these value-priced Finger Lakes wines, the more of them I find, and the more impressed I am with them. Which doesn’t mean that I am going to forgo drinking top flight wines like Red Newt’s Viridescens or their extraordinary single-vineyard Gewurztraminers when I can afford to do so. But before I make that impulse purchase of this week’s over-hyped Portuguese wine bargain, I hope that I have the good sense to stop and remember that freshness is as desireable a quality in wine as it is in food, and that keeping my wine dollars circulating in the local economy is just as important as buying my food from local farmers.