’18 Morphos Launch!

We’ve been big fans of Oyster River Winegrowers ‘Morphos’ since we opened in 2016 – it was our very first bubbly by the glass (as many of you may know!). It quickly became a cult favorite, with so much distinctive flavor, frothy bubbles, and a subtle briny-ness that makes it the perfect pairing with oysters and snacks. Back then, it only came in bottles. We quickly realized that our wine draft system was perfect for kegs of this natural fizz and contacted the winemaker, Brian Smith, up in Warren, Maine. The 2018 vintage is ready to pour and we’re so delighted that he’s bringing down a couple kegs for us this weekend. Celebrate this special release by coming by Saturday from 5pm on and meet winemakers Brian and Allie. Read on for wine geek details…

From winemaker Brian Smith:

The 2018 Morphos Pet Nat Blanc is a Seyval Blanc/ Cayuga blend bottled during the end of active fermentation.
This wine continues to ferment in the bottle leaving it dry, cloudy, yeasty, full of life, and with a natural effervescence. Released immediately after bottling, it is the fresh wine of the harvest. It is intensely fruity after bottling, but ages gracefully into more yeasty, toasty aromas. Native yeasts, ZERO SO2. 650 cases produced.

Brian’s notes: “We are really pumped about the 2018 Morphos white. We changed our grower and custom pressing relationship after 10 years to an independent grower who would pick and press more specifically to our instructions which allowed us to press without sulfur and then allowing us to native ferment. Grapes were picked in the evening to beat some heavy rains coming then pressed first thing in the morning giving them a little skin contact this year. Not always the intention but I think it gave us some really nice texture and a wild unmistakable aroma of peach skin. The native fermentation was slow, steady, but vigorous. It slowed down well at the end allowing us to rack a couple times to drop a lot of lees naturally and allowing us to hit our target bottling numbers. We assume it will continue to ferment well in bottle so we can release early December. It definitely shows some native Oyster River barn character with a certain briny-ness that makes me think that it was grown in our vineyard.”