Turkey Wines

…but is cider actually the perfect bev for Thanksgiving?

This year we’re thankful for a vintage that delivered loads of Limestone (!) and reds with depth and structure we didn’t think was possible in Vermont. We’re thankful for grandparents and early childhood educators. We’re thankful for our devoted community of pickers and oenophiles who love Frontenac Blanc as much as we do. We’re thankful for 39” of snow on top of Mt. Mansfield and friends with inspirational and infectious stoke. We’re thankful for grandparents. Did we say grandparents?

Thanksgiving dinner is our favorite meal of the year to pair with. Turkey and taters are a great foundation on which to layer flavor, and from bubbly, light-bodied ciders to bright, cleansing whites and rich, textural reds, you really can’t go wrong. With so many different dishes on the table and plenty of people to share with, it’s worth opening a few bottles for the feast. Check out what we’ll be drinking below. \

2024 PERRY
dry sparkling cider | $22
Potomac pears from Champlain Orchards fermented dry, then rested on pressed cranberries from Vermont Cranberry. Secondary fermentation in bottle for natural bubbles. Cranberry sauce just got an upgrade.
rose petal. lemon peel. fresh mint.

2024 RESERVE LA CRESCENT
dry white | $32
100% La Crescent from the Upper Vineyard. The last pick of the 2024 harvest. Fermented and aged in a mix of neutral oak and stainless. Who brought peach pie to Thanksgiving? Good call.
grapefruit peel. marzipan. grilled peach.

2024 MARQUETTE
dry red | $32
100% Marquette from throughout the vineyard. A complex blend of multiple lots, including partial whole cluster, spontaneous fermentation, neutral oak, and stainless. Plummy, spicy, youthful. This pairs with absolutely everything on the table.
black raspberry jam. clove. plum.

2024 Marquette Release

Plus a very special Frontenac Blanc

For the first time in three years, a new vintage of Lincoln Peak Marquette graces the tasting room. Marquette has been the keystone wine of Lincoln Peak’s portfolio since its planting back in 2006, and has redefined the quality ceiling of cold climate wines internationally. While we’re sad to see the 2021 go, we’re beyond excited to start pouring our take on this iconic wine from a spectacular vintage.

Alongside the Marquette, we will be releasing the super limited, super delicious 2024 Frontenac Blanc. Our five precious rows of Frontenac Blanc sit in a sheltered corner of the Lower Vineyard where cool air settles and drying breezes struggle to reach. This requires us to be extra attentive when picking, carefully sorting in the vineyard to bring only the best fruit into the winery. Even with hefty crews of dedicated volunteers, it took us four days to pick the Frontenac Blanc in 2024. As soon as we tasted the juice, we knew the effort had paid off and our love affair with this wine began. After 10 months in the cellar, we’re finally ready to share our little secret with the world.

Harvest is Over

More than three weeks ago, with frozen fingers and the first frost crunching underfoot, we picked the last rows of Frontenac Noir, the last clusters of the 2025 harvest. That fruit is now wine, and this week, we rack the Frontenac Noir to barrel, tucking it in for its long, quiet rest. The madness of harvest continues long after we finish picking, but now that the most time-sensitive tasks in the winery are just about complete, we can finally say HARVEST IS OVER! Celebration requires too much energy, so for now we rest and reflect.

The 2025 growing season was an eventful one. Without the grace we gave ourselves in our first year of farming this vineyard, and with all that we had learned and wanted to do differently, the stakes felt high. A cool, misty spring with two frost scares and lots of disease pressure dampened our spirits right out of the gate. Eventually the clouds cleared, the sun shone, and the vines grew quickly, our confidence growing with them. An intense heatwave in July brought swarms of unwelcome Japanese beetles that turned leaves to lace. We tried to tell ourselves that they were helping to thin the canopy and expose the fruit but we weren’t convinced. Thankfully, the heat soon broke and the beetles disappeared as quickly as they arrived, sparing the vines from any lasting damage.

The next couple months were the real story of the 2025 vintage. At the beginning of August, just as the clusters began to ripen, a dry pattern settled in with abundant sun, warm days, and cool nights that made us feel like we were back in California. The ensuing drought was devastating for most farmers in Vermont, but this is the weather that every winemaker dreams of in the run up to harvest, keeping berries small, concentrating flavors, and staving off rot and mildew. Without rain storms to force our hand, we were able to pick exactly when we wanted, an unthinkable luxury that made harvest feel almost leisurely.

The dry weather led to lower yields in the vineyard but exceptional quality in the winery, characterized by big, structured wines that will outlive us. We harvested a total of 13.7 tons of fruit this year, including 7.8 tons picked in a massive 5-day push just before a big rain and the first frost. That's the kind of picking timing that produces great wines and is only possible because of our community of volunteers and their dedication to harvest. We simply can’t thank them enough.

The end of the season brings relief, satisfaction, and joy, as well as a strange sense of mourning as the vineyard goes dormant. These plants that you’ve marveled at and worked with all year, inspired by their ambition, feeding off their energy, so suddenly lose their leaves and become skeletons. But the wines, those eternal legacies of the growing season, are there to comfort us throughout the winter until the vines greet us again in the spring. And then we get to do it all again.

Our First Ciders & Heuriger Returns

For as long as it’s been our dream to make wine in Vermont, it’s been our dream to make cider in Vermont. While our farm’s rocky hillside screams to have grapevines planted on it, and we couldn’t be happier to be making killer wines from its fruit, we haven’t lost sight of our cidermaking goals. Last fall we partnered with local orchards to make our first ciders and we are thrilled to release them next weekend.

2024 Northern Spy

Single variety Northern Spy from Chapin Orchard. Fermented and aged in stainless steel with native yeast. Secondary fermentation in bottle for natural bubbles.
lemon verbena. green apple candy. sea spray.

2024 Heirloom

A blend of eight apple varieties from Cobble Knoll Orchard. Fermented and aged in stainless steel with native yeast. Secondary fermentation in bottle for natural bubbles.
spiced pear. lime leaf. coconut water.

2024 Perry

Potomac pears from Champlain Orchards fermented dry, then rested on pressed cranberries from Vermont Cranberry. Secondary fermentation in bottle for natural bubbles.
rose petal. lemon peel. fresh mint.

Growing apples and making cider (and drinking it, duh) have a long, important history in this country, especially in Vermont, and especially in Addison County. With these ciders and those to come we aim to spotlight the uniqueness of the people, the land, and the fruit, and, of course, make something delicious. We firmly believe our region can produce the best cider in the world and we’re excited to join the other excellent Vermont cidermakers in demonstrating that.

Heuriger Returns to the Tasting Room

For the month of October we will be celebrating an Austrian wine tradition known as Heuriger. Throughout the year, but especially in the fall, each winery in the villages of Austria takes a turn opening their doors for a month at a time, offering the wines from their vineyard paired with local specialties like cured meats, cheeses, and fresh veggies. 

We lived in Austria for six months in 2019, working vintage at a couple wineries about 60 miles up the Danube from Vienna. A lot of the philosophies and techniques that we practice at Lincoln Peak were learned during our time in Austria, and we left inspired by how this long history of growing grapes and making wine has affected the entire culture of the region.

We hope you’ll join us next month for our very own Heuriger featuring Austrian-inspired charcuterie boards and glasses of sturm – the freshly fermenting wines of the 2025 vintage!

Harvest 2025 Begins

This past weekend we celebrated the beginning of the harvest season with a dinner in the vineyard. We walked through the vines, tasting different varieties of grapes at different stages of ripeness. We discussed what we look for in the fruit to know when to pick, and how the flavor and texture of the berries at harvest impacts every winemaking decision we make from then on. We drank some pretty cool wines paired with four delicious courses from the geniuses at Haymaker Bun Co. It was a magical evening, one that has left us feeling energized and inspired to start harvest this week.

And start harvest we did! On Thursday we picked the first fruit of the 2025 season - our single row of Adalmiina.

This is an early variety with lower sugar and acidity, and citrusy flavors that become more tropical as it ripens. We love Adalmiina as a component in our methode champenoise sparkling wine, adding a punch of fruit and a complex, savory character. At just 582 pounds, it’s our smallest pick of the year and the perfect way to ease into the madness of harvest.

Soon the picks will be much larger, and we would love your help in getting these beautiful grapes off the vines and into the winery. Last year our community helped us pick 35,000 lbs of fruit from this little vineyard and we’re excited to do it all again!

We will be picking regularly throughout September and October, dependent on ripeness and weather. We start picking at 8am and plan to finish around noon. We provide gloves, pruners, sunscreen, and bug spray, as well as lunch and wine. All you need is sturdy footwear and positive vibes.

Interested in joining us?

Click here to learn more and sign up for our list and
we’ll let you know when we’re picking.
We can’t wait to have you!

Piquette Has Arrived!

The Ultimate Low Alcohol Wine

Naturally carbonated and weighing in at just 6% abv, these impossibly refreshing and super stashable bottles are the ideal companion for an afternoon at the river or a celebratory swig at the end of a hike. Plus check out those stunning labels featuring original art from the incredible Deana Allgaier. Join us at next week’s Friday Night Music to taste these beauties and take home a six-pack for the weekend!

What is piquette?

Also called acqua pazza in Italy or lora in ancient Rome, piquette is the French term for a low-alcohol wine made by rehydrating pressed grape skins with water. After squeezing all the juice out of the grapes, the dry pomace that’s left behind still has lots of sugar and flavor. To make piquette, this pomace is collected and soaked in water, then refermented, extracting every last bit of potential from the grapes. The result is a light-bodied, low-alcohol wine traditionally consumed by vineyard workers on their lunch break (it still is, by the way…). With a history as old as wine itself, think of it like the OG spritzer or a White Claw that’s actually interesting.

Our Piquette

We decided to make piquette because we love to drink it.
It really is the perfect drink after a long day in the vineyard, and an expressive, meaningful alternative to the otherwise mediocre low-alc category. We also love the idea of getting the most out of our grapes, honoring the vines and their contribution to our food system, akin to the values of whole-animal butchery. Because of it’s watered-down nature, it can be difficult to make piquette that isn’t too funky and still tastes like fruit. But with our cold climate providing lots of natural acidity, we believe in Vermont’s unique ability to produce clean and delicious piquette. We hope you will, too.

2024 Piquette Blanc
dried apricot. wildflower honey. sea salt.
Spontaneous fermentation. Natural bubbles. No added sulfites.
Ingredients: la crescent grape skins, water

2024 Piquette Rosé
rose petal. nectarine. sagebrush.
Spontaneous fermentation. Natural bubbles. No added sulfites.
Ingredients: marquette and la crescent grape skins, water

2024 Starlight ~ Release Notes

VINTAGE

After the warmest winter in Vermont history, the vines awoke just a bit earlier than normal but managed to avoid spring frost–a welcome correction from the devastating year prior. A very wet 2023 left plenty of water in the soil for the vines to get a quick start, growing vigorously in an otherwise warm, dry spring. Perfect weather during bloom and, perhaps, the vineyard’s determination to get back to growing grapes led to an excellent fruit set. Summer brought heat and humidity and, with it, disease pressure, making timely canopy management critical. In late August began a stretch of perfect weather with almost no rainfall until the end of September, allowing us to pick at peak ripeness all month long and into October. The 2024 vintage will be remembered for its abundance of fruit and for its wines of power and richness.

VINEYARD

100% Lower Vineyard Marquette. This is a 1.3 acre block, which is big for us, and we see lots of variation in the growth pattern of the vines depending on where they’re planted. The fruit for this wine is mostly from less vigorous vines on the south side whose fruit ripens a bit earlier and has fresh, bright flavors.

WINEMAKING

Hand picked, whole-cluster pressed, settled and racked. 6-month native primary ferment followed by full malolactic ferment. 100% stainless. Coarse ltered for clarity prior to bottling.

TASTING NOTES

Cranberry juice. White tea. Vermont strawberry.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Harvest Date(s): 9/13/24, 9/14/24
Composition: 100% Marquette
Alcohol: 12.7%
pH: 3.15
Titratable Acidity: 9.0 g/L
Residual Sugar: 0 g/L
Cases Produced: 156

Downloadable Technical Sheet

2024 Frontenac Noir ~ Release Notes

VINTAGE

After the warmest winter in Vermont history, the vines awoke just a bit earlier than normal but managed to avoid spring frost–a welcome correction from the devastating year prior. A very wet 2023 left plenty of water in the soil for the vines to get a quick start, growing vigorously in an otherwise warm, dry spring. Perfect weather during bloom and, perhaps, the vineyard’s determination to get back to growing grapes led to an excellent fruit set. Summer brought heat and humidity and, with it, disease pressure, making timely canopy management critical. In late August began a stretch of perfect weather with almost no rainfall until the end of September, allowing us to pick at peak ripeness all month long and into October. The 2024 vintage will be remembered for its abundance of fruit and for its wines of power and richness.

VINEYARD

All of our Frontenac Noir, a 0.8-acre block on the western slope of the Upper Vineyard, was picked for this wine. The vines grow healthily and happily in the free-draining soil and we work diligently to manage and focus their vigor. The fruit ripens late with signicant dimpling and huge acid and color. We blended in a splash of Marquette from the Upper Vineyard.

WINEMAKING

Hand-picked fruit. 70% destemmed with 30% whole-cluster layered in. Fermented cool with once daily pumpovers, peaking at 75°F. Aged on ne lees in stainless. A splash of Marquette was blended in for texture and sweetness. Coarse ltered for clarity prior to bottling.

TASTING NOTES

Macerated cherries. Blueberry jam. Asphalt.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Harvest Date(s): 9/21/24, 10/2/24, 10/3/24
Composition: 92% Frontenac Noir, 8% Marquette
Alcohol: 13.7%
pH: 3.43
Titratable Acidity: 8.4 g/L
Residual Sugar: 0 g/L
Cases Produced: 116

Downloadable Technical Sheet

2024 Limestone ~ Release Notes

Vintage

After the warmest winter in Vermont history, the vines awoke just a bit earlier than normal but managed to avoid spring frost–a welcome correction from the devastating year prior. A very wet 2023 left plenty of water in the soil for the vines to get a quick start, growing vigorously in an otherwise warm, dry spring. Perfect weather during bloom and, perhaps, the vineyard’s determination to get back to growing grapes led to an excellent fruit set. Summer brought heat and humidity and, with it, disease pressure, making timely canopy management critical. In late August began a stretch of perfect weather with almost no rainfall until the end of September, allowing us to pick at peak ripeness all month long and into October. The 2024 vintage will be remembered for its abundance of fruit and for its wines of power and richness.

Vineyard

The Louise Swenson comes from two contiguous blocks planted in the Upper Vineyard in 2004 and trained to high-wire. The Lower Vineyard provides the Prairie Star and La Crescent, making this wine nearly a 50/50 blend of the two soil types.

Winemaking

Louise Swenson and Prairie Star were pressed whole cluster and cofermented, followed by regular bâttonage to build texture. La Crescent was destemmed and held on skins for 24 hours prior to pressing and arrested before the end of fermentation. This wine was later blended into the Louise and Prairie Star for juiciness and a oral lift. 100% stainless.

TASTING NOTES

Cut grass. Makrut lime. Minerality.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Harvest Date(s): 9/12/24, 9/23/24, 9/24/24
Composition: 48% Louise Swenson, 29% La Crescent, 23% Prairie Star
Alcohol: 11.6%
pH: 3.17
Titratable Acidity: 9.2 g/L
Residual Sugar: 5.1 g/L
Cases Produced: 56

Downloadable Technical Sheet