Committed as I am to supporting local agriculture, getting down from my high horse when it comes to appreciating local wine has been challenging for me. The quality-to-price ratio can often be hard to justify to my beleaguered billfold. But I had a change of heart when I tasted the “pét-nat” from Glendale Ridge Vineyard in Southampton.
Pétillant naturel — literally “naturally sparkling” — is a more ancient style of sparkling wine than even the Champagne method.
“It goes in unfiltered (and) finishes fermenting in the bottle, which causes the carbonation to be trapped,” says Matt Jaksik, head winemaker for Glendale Ridge. “So you have the same type of sparkling like you would with Champagne, except the yeast is in there and there is some sediment. You tend to get this fresher, funkier flavor profile.”
I am a sucker for sp0arkling as a rule, and the Glendale pét-nat is the best Western Mass wine I’ve had so far.
But why, in a Valley swimming in fine IPAs, would the imbibery even take a chance on a local wine? “People are interested in all sorts of craft beverages. The level of education in the Valley means people are into trying new things,” Jaksik says, “You’re tasting the site with wine. There is a connection to the place where you’re at, especially with estate wineries. It just makes sense that if the wine tastes good, and if you feel good being there, it’s going to be an industry that is going to have success.”
Every burgeoning industry needs cultivation, and Glendale Ridge is working with our Valley’s agricultural epicenter — the UMass Stockbridge School — to help this new industry grow. “We’re working with the viticulture adviser there, Elsa Petit. I think that is going to be a big thing for us,” Jaksik says. “Developing a community of young people that want to be in an industry and realize that they don’t have to leave the area. I think there are probably a number of UMass graduates that are making great wine somewhere else in the world. I’d like to see that talent stay here.”
Since Jaksik started as head winemaker, Glendale Ridge has gone from less than 1,000 square feet of total production and sales space to four times that, with the capacity to make 70,000 bottles of wine a year.
Glendale Ridge’s long-term goal for the Western Mass wine industry is to put Massachusetts and the Pioneer Valley on the map in the wine world.
“The work is really farming. It’s about developing a sense of place. And being true to what we have in the Valley: interesting soils, interesting climatic conditions. We can make world-class wine in this facility. We’re going to be producing wine at a higher level than people may expect, sooner than they expect,” Jaksik says. I’ll raise a glass of pét-nat to that.