At Last! Maine Wine from Maine Grapes!

174 Barrett Hill Rd., Union, ME

Savage Oakes Winery in Union, Maine has become the only (to my knowledge) Maine winery to produce estate-grown grape wines. True, there are several wineries which make wines from other fruit and several more which import their grapes from afar, but Savage Oakes has taken a leap beyond them to produce the real thing from Maine grapes. Bar Harbor Cellars, Cellardoor Winery in Lincolnville, Oyster River Winery in Warren and brand new Breakwater Winery in Owl’s Head all have grapevines planted and we look forward to tasting their estate wines in the near future.

So how did Savage Oakes owners/farmers/vintners Elmer and Holly Savage do it? First of all, they come at the process as farmers, not winery developers. Their 95 acre farm produces beef, pork and blueberries as well as the four acres of 9 varieties of hybrid grapes.  When I visited the winery on July 7 I didn’t get a chance to speak with Elmer or Holly, they were too busy working the fields. This is a good clue as to why their grape crop is a success. I asked the tasting hostess if the crop was damaged by the now infamous Mother’s Day frost we had this year. She replied that Elmer was in the fields all night, managing fires and fans to keep those young grape shoots above 32°F. I think that it takes this type of heroic effort to make Maine-made wine happen.

The varieties are carefully selected for cold hardiness. Red varieties are Foch, Millot, Frontenac, St. Croix, Corot Noir and the new and exciting Marquette. Whites are Cayuga St. Pepin, LaCrosse and Frontenac Gris. Seyval is being replaced because it’s just too tender.

The wines on offer are Seyval Blanc, not estate grown (but not for lack of trying!); Barn Red an oaked dry made from Savage Oakes grown Millot grapes (say, “Me-Yo”);  Georges River, an off dry white from their own Cayuga grapes;  Come Spring, a light red dry made from their Foch (“Foesh”); White Rose, a Rosé made from imported Steuben grapes; Daybreak Blush, a less dry white made from their  Cayuga and a touch of Foch; Concord, a surprisingly dry “grape jelly” red made from Concord grapes grown elsewhere;  and Maréchal Foch Rosé, made

Wine trail buddy and Darwin impersonator, Dr. James F. Battey

from, you guessed it, their Foch. I have to mention one other because I think we bought the last bottles, Blue Moon. Blue Moon is a blueberry wine but don’t think for a minute about a sweet desert wine; this is more like a dry zinfandel. In fact, we plan to serve this and not tell people what it’s made from and ask them what they think. Hopefully there will be more next year.

Savage Oakes Winery is too far off the beaten path to come across casually, you have to work to find them.   The website gives driving directions and more details. The winery is a bit of a drive from Bar Harbor, but is close to the visit-worthy towns of Camden and Belfast, and you get to drive over the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge to get there. Figure on 2 hours from Bar Harbor, 1-1/2 from Lamoine or Ellsworth.