2024 Oyster River Morphos Pet-Nat

Grape Varietal: Cayuga White & Seyval Blanc (French-American Hybrids)

Country: USA

Region: Finger Lakes, New York (produced in mid-coast Maine)

The Wine: Oyster River Winegrowers is the project of Brian Smith, a small farm winery on the mid-coast of Maine operating since 2007, making what he calls pre-industrial wine and cider — working with native yeasts, Belgian draught horses, no refrigeration, no added sulfites, and no filtration, positioning himself as nature's assistant rather than its director.

Morphos is made from Cayuga White and Seyval Blanc, two cold-hardy French-American hybrid varieties grown on organic-farmed white clay, limestone, and flint soils in the Finger Lakes, sourced from 50-year-old vines. Bottled during active fermentation in the ancestral method, the wine finishes in bottle, building its effervescence naturally and releasing as the fresh wine of the harvest. 

The 2024 Morphos is a hazy, low-alcohol pét-nat that wears its hybrid origins proudly. The wine is bright, nervy, and tasting distinctly of a place where summer is short and acidity runs deep. It opens with aromas of green apple, lemon curd, and white peach, lifted by a flinty, almost cider-like minerality. On the palate, it is crisp and lively, with snappy acidity, fine persistent bubbles, a faint yeasty breadiness mid-palate, and a clean, bone-dry finish.

Pairing: Raw oysters with mignonette, a lobster roll with just butter on a toasted split-top bun, fresh goat cheese on rye crispbread with cucumber and dill, or a bucket of steamers eaten dockside on a gray Maine afternoon.