Stories are about more than just what happened: they're about why it happened. The story of my winemaking life has many chapters, and the newest one is Pinnacle Ridge.
I met Brad Knapp in 2000 at the Split Rock wine festival while I was working at Mount Nittany. I remember tasting a few of his wines that he poured for me, specifically his Chambourcin and Veritas. I can't remember which vintages they were, but they made an impression on me at age 29. They were the best wines at the festival.
A few years later, I was invited to join him and Joanne from Manatawny Creek and share barrel samples (maybe in 2003) which began our professional relationship and subsequent friendship for the next couple decades.
Brad always had a very keen and clear idea of what he was trying to accomplish with the fruit he grew and the wines he made. Early on there was a focus on Pinot Noir and sparkling wines (and to this day there's no doubt he was the most accomplished sparkling winemaker in the Commonwealth.) Pinot was always difficult (and still is), and yet I have a vivid memory of tasting his 2008 samples and being floored by them. His Veritas was also a benchmark for Bordeaux blends in Pennsylvania.
If you think about it, it's hard to imagine being so good at making three styles of wines so vastly different. And then he shifted to a fourth: aromatic whites with a hallmark of low phenolics (tannins.) I'd call it a white wine in the vein of a Pinot perhaps. It takes a sense of carefulness and restraint to pull this off (things no one has ever accused me of.) I wrote a while back on why I decided to take on the Pinnacle Ridge wines. (You can read more of that here: https://allegrowines.blogspot.com/2021/11/why-we-bought-pinnacle-ridge.html) Now that we have been making the wines for almost two years, I have a much better sense of what we're trying to do and how best to accomplish those winemaking goals.
First, it might be best to understand the Allegro wines. The winemaking style that I inherited from my predecessor John Crouch was one of more acid-influenced whites and reds. As I started to make Allegro wines, the whites started to move to a softer, smoother, rounder style as we found new plant material to plant in the vineyard and I got a better sense of what our customers seemed to appreciate. For the red wines, I've always emphasized the tannin aspect while at the same time trying to push for a more supple style.
For both white and red wines, there's been a very real East coast style with all of the fruit coming from Pennsylvania or close nearby (MD/NY/VA/NJ). Then there is, of course, the sweeter side of the Allegro wine list (the one most of us know us for.) This is more of a playful side where we can experiment with more of the "beverage" side of the market. We haven't gotten too crazy, but there's always something a little different to try.
This brings us to the Pinnacle Ridge wine list (which is something of a throwback to some of the old school wineries from the '90s with of course more up-to-date winemaking.) The focus on the aromatic whites is part of the evolution of a region that is starting to understand what grows best in that area. We've always been able to grow Chardonnay, but to find sources for Riesling (and make a dry version) is something that takes some time to develop. For the reds, after the disaster of what the 2018 harvest was for all of us, Brad started looking to Washington state for some fruit and I have continued to do so. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a great vineyard outside of Pasco, WA called Kamiak that has been supplying us for years with wonderful grapes. Sometimes the red wines have East coast fruit blended into them, sometimes they don't.
Then the cool thing that Pinnacle also has are some varietal hybrid wines. These wines have been the backbone of our industry for years (Cayuga, Traminette, Vidal), and it's great to see them standing on their own on the list. These are two distinctly different wineries' wines with their own personality and character.
As a winemaker, I have known many colleagues who are content to make a few wines and spend all their days/lives focusing on and mastering a few specific wines. I'm not like that, and I think life is too short not to experiment and experience all that wine has to offer. Working for twenty years making Allegro wines has been meaningful and rewarding, but I've always wondered if I could do more than those. The Pinnacle Ridge wines have pushed my limits with regard to what I thought I was capable of as a winemaker, making wines in a totally different style than what I had been used to.
It's been surprising to learn so much more about wine through trying to emulate another's style. Most importantly, I've started to question what really makes a great wine (or what makes a wine great). The wine world is full of so much variety and style, but diving deeper into one region to make wines differently makes me realize the volume of creativity and possibility that our industry has. And lastly, it has started to shape how I approach our Cadenza wines as well (which is a whole other level of winemaking challenge for me.) At the end of the day, it's all about pushing yourself and doing more each day that makes this such an amazing journey to be on. Thanks for joining me with the next chapter.
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