2014 Cabernet Franc

Red Newt Cellars was founded in 1998 when husband-and-wife team David and Debra Whiting purchased an old Seneca Lake winery that had gone out of business. David was an established winemaker who bounced around a handful of local wineries before venturing out on his own. His late wife was a chef, who built and ran the café attached to the winery. Though David is still involved in some cellar work, the primary winemaker is Kelby Russell, who joined the team in 2013 following a spell at Fox Run. 60 – 75% of their annual 15,000 case production is dedicated to Riesling, and Red Newt’s stand out from the rest of the pack. Kelby is a student of Riesling, and felt that though the Finger Lakes was quite accomplished at nervy, vertical Rieslings, no one was producing the weightier style of dry Riesling that other countries do so well. Towards this end, he works hard to build texture into his wines, utilizing extensive lees contact, some native fermentations, and regular stirring. That said, the winemaking is still quite reductive, and Red Newt deliberately holds the wines back in bottle before releasing to the market, in an effort to resolve the strong flint scent that often accompanies such a style. Kelby also produces his own side label, Kelby James Russell, which features a dry Riesling, a rosé, and a Cabernet Franc, as reported here.