Drink This: Benmarl Winery 2019 Field Blend

A ripe, juicy blend of cabernet franc, blaufrankish and saperavi that will be released in the fall.

Winemaker Matt Spacarelli makes wine both at his family’s Benmarl Winery and at Fjord Vineyards, which he co-owns with his partner Casey Erdmann. He works with Hudson River Region-grown fruit at both wineries but also buys fruit from across New York’s various growing regions — particularly for the Benmarl wines.

That’s starting to change over time, but for reasons that we’ll get into a bit below, it’s unlikely that Benmarl will ever focus exclusively on estate-grown wines. The fruit that he’s growing on the estate — like the cabernet franc, blaufrankish, and saperavi that go into this Benmarl Wines 2019 Field Blend ($40) shows a lot of promise, however.

“I wish we had another 50 acres [of estate-grown fruit]. I believe that red wine production in the Hudson Valley has a lot of potential — specifically on good sites,” he told me, adding, “The challenging thing is finding those good sites [because] there is so much variation in soil, slope, and aspect. Even though we have expanded our acreage and replanted our old hybrid blocks with vinifera, we are still purchasing fruit from outside of the region.”

He does hope to grow more of his own fruit going forward, “It’s just finding the right land to plan the varieties we can excel at — cab franc, chardonnay, blaufrankish, saperavi and even some hybrids like seyval blanc and traminette,” he said.