Boston Wine Expo 2008
Running Brook Winery

The Running Brook Winery began bottling wine only two years ago and is located just down the hill from the Hill High Winery in Massachusetts. We spoke with one of the Running Brook loyal fans, left, as well as with Scott Elms, one of the owners of the winery.

This region of coastline does very well for grape growing! They planted chardonnay, vidal blanc, cabernet franc and merlot about ten years ago and now have 40 acres of vine. The owner is of Portuguese heritage and grew up in Dartmouth, so growing grapes here was a dream come true for him. Their wines are in the $10-$12 range, with their 375ml frost wine selling for $25. Ice wine style wines are extremely labor intensive!

As they are just ramping up, they bring their sparkling wine juice over to Westport Rivers for processing, a great example of the wineries helping each other out! This was not available for tasting, but is 60% pinot noir and 40% chardonnay.

The aim at Running Brook is to plant what's going to grow and grow well. It's not how you force the wine to have a taste - "it's how you bring out the taste of the wine". They're currently growing 13 different varieties of grapes but plan to cut back to ten. They do intend to bring an Auslasen wine into their mix. Scott explained "we'll do some blending and focus on a higher level of quality" as they go.

Running Brook is currently producing 2,500 case a year so they can't yet invest in the high end technology and physical hardware for their own sparkling wine facility. Their sparkling wine output is about 200 cases. They have no distribution yet, most of the bottles are sold right at the winery. They are only in a few restaurants and wine shops. They are working on "curb appeal" right now to draw more people in, to help people learn about their offerings.

Scott believes strongly in this region. "Coastal grapes have a different microclimate - the coastal microclimates are tremendous for grapes". He said that several of the wineries in this region sell excess grapes to other surrounding regions because the quality is so high.

The Running Brook 2005 Chardonnay is unoaked with a tart, bright flavor. Their 2004 Cab Franc / Merlot blend is smoky and fresh, with a nice, light flavor. The frost wine vidal 2005 is nice and light, with fresh, fruity aspects.

Running Brook Winery

Boston Wine Expo 2008 Notes

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