Assembly can help winemakers expand

TASTE OF SUCCESS: Maureen Leyden, who owns Leyden Tree Farm with her husband, Jack, prepares wine bottles for tastings at their West Greenwich store earlier this year. / PBN FILE PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE
TASTE OF SUCCESS: Maureen Leyden, who owns Leyden Tree Farm with her husband, Jack, prepares wine bottles for tastings at their West Greenwich store earlier this year. / PBN FILE PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE

Often a challenging and even intimidating part of dining out is reading a restaurant’s wine list. Selecting the right wine to accompany a great meal should be, and for the most part is, one of life’s pleasures. We are fortunate to have some excellent wine experts at our local restaurants and in the beverage industry in the state.
A tricky area even for the most skilled wine and food pairing expert is local wine. Rhode Island is home to Newport Vineyards, Greenvale Vineyards, Diamond Hill Vineyards, Shelalara Vineyards and Winery, Langworthy Farm Winery and Leyden Farm Winery – yes, owned by Big John Leyden, the Christmas Tree grower. And the industry locally owes much to Sakonnet Vineyards, which was at the forefront of the Rhode Island wine trail back in the 1970’s. As was widely reported this summer, the iconic winery was sold to Alex and Ani, who have plans to incorporate the Little Compton-produced wines into its Teas and Javas coffee-house concept.
The local wine industry has had challenges of its own to overcome, starting with the perception that wine from Rhode Island is subpar. While the growing season is considerably shorter in New England than it is in the Napa Valley or Tuscany, science and skill have been on the local winemaker’s side. Rhode Island happens to be located in the same latitude as the winemaking regions of Italy and France. Our climate is very similar, if hampered somewhat by that shorter growing season. This limits the ability of a winemaker on Aquidneck Island for example, to grow such grapes as Cabernet Sauvignon.
Local winemakers have learned to adapt, so instead of Cabernet Sauvignon, the Rhode Island winemaker will grow and produce Cabernet Franc, a delicious red wine that is often used as a blending grape in some world-renowned red wines from Red Bordeaux to California Cabernet. As Maeve Pesquera, wine director of Flemings Prime Steakhouse, said, “Knowing what each varietal does best – and what it can bring to the blend – takes experience.”
It also takes some genetic tinkering with the grape. Scientists specializing in oenology at Cornell University have developed hardier hybrid grapes such as Traminette, a white-wine grape similar to one of its parents, Gewürztraminer. St. Croix is a red grape developed at the University of Minnesota that produces medium to full-bodied, dry, deep red wines. Winemakers in the region have had success with these grapes and others that stand up to our cold snaps and yield flavorful, balanced, food-friendly wines. Local wines can be as good as those from the wine capitals of the world. Rhode Island Ice Wine from Sakonnet, Skipping Stone White from Greenvale or Sauvignon Blanc from Shelalara all receive consistent raves at wine-tasting events statewide.
The local wine industry has overcome nature’s obstacles. But can it overcome government’s?
Wineries in the state come for the most part under the classification of farms. In other states, farm wineries that produce estate wines – made from grapes grown on the winery’s land – have recently been allowed to sell their wines at local farmers markets. Massachusetts took this step in 2010 and the commonwealth’s wineries have reaped the benefits.
In June the Coastal Wine Trail, the trade organization formed by many of the wineries in Rhode Island plus some in Massachusetts, took full advantage of the law. The Coastal Wine Trail Market was held this year in the Westport Fairgrounds building in southeastern Massachusetts. In previous years, the event was held on the grounds of Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton.
Our state representatives in my view have an opportunity to actually help a successful segment of small business to be more successful. Rhode Island should allow its wineries, breweries and distilleries to sell estate-grown or farm-grown wines, beers and spirits at the state’s farmers markets and fairs.
Legislation was introduced in the General Assembly this past spring but was buried in committee, unlikely to ever see the light of day. Instead of legislators and candidates electioneering about protecting jobs that need no protection, by giving these small businesses the opportunity to flourish, local wineries as well as other segments of the beverage industry – the retail wine shops, restaurants, wholesalers and distributors – would reap the benefits of more dollars staying in state and creating and keeping more jobs as well. And wouldn’t we all drink to that? •


Bruce Newbury’s food and wine talk radio show is heard Saturdays and Sundays locally on WPRV-AM 790.

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