former Brooklyn IT specialist Todd Cavallo and his wife Crystal moved upstate in 2016 without any previous agricultural experience. A couple of years later, they’re growing their own fruit & veg in biodynamic permaculture, looking forward to the first vintages from their recently planted two acres of Cabernet Franc, Pinot, and Chardonnay, all while getting mad props for their current produce. They work from a small shed filled with tanks and barrels and in a couple of newly planted rows of vines on their Hudson Valley property.
Wild Arc’s stuff has become so popular that, unless you jump on a bottle with the characteristic minimalist white labels right when you see one, you’ll probably risk waiting until the next vintage.
Their low-sulfur, often carbonic macerated wines offer a generously fruity character with lively acidity, definitely checking all the boxes of drinkability and current tastes. Being a small farm at the beginning of its journey, Wild Arc sources fruit from other people in the area: “Our hope is to establish relationships with growers and help them move towards organic production, which we feel is “greener” and more sustainable than continuing to replace the native habitat with more vineyard plantings. We are also sneaking codes onto all our labels now that delineate growing practices and sulfur usage, so the consumer can know exactly what the differences are in our bottlings,” Todd explains.
This is Marquette from the Amorici Vineyard in Washington County, NY. Fermented as whole clusters with the stems and skins before being pressed. Vinified with wild yeasts at the winery in Pine Bush. Bottled without filtering or fining, and only a small amount of sulfites are added at crush, nothing at bottle. A medium-bodied though rather bright red wine with the good acidity this variety is known for.
