Bloomer Creek
Bloomer Creek is a true pioneer in natural winemaking in the New York State, more specifically in the Finger Lakes Region. If you so much as mention working organically to New York winemakers, you will hear again and again that it is an impossible feat, much as to what the first natural winemakers in the Loire Valley and Burgundy heard from their peers. In spite of this, Kim Engle and Debra Bermingham have been crafting beautiful examples of natural wine anyway. They do not use insecticides, finding them to be unnecessary in a healthy vineyard, and herbicides have not been used for over 20 years. Fungus disease is controlled by the use of sulfur for powdery mildew and copper for downy mildew. Seaweed/fish and compost formulations are sprayed to aid in disease resistance and vine health.
Harvest is done by hand and winemaking methods are what they consider traditional. Fermentation is done with ambient or “wild” yeast. There is a considerable use of stems in fermentation especially with red wine, but to a lesser extent with white wine. All fermentations are done in small lots which are later blended. Fermentations tend to be very slow, where malolactic, or secondary fermentation, is often completed during the summer following harvest, and therefore lees contact is extended. Lees are not stirred. Most wines are fermented dry and are not fined or filtered, these practices lead to the production of distinctive and long lasting wines.
Bloomer Creek works with two distinct vineyard sites– Auten and Morehouse Road. They bottle wines separately from the two sites to showcase the distinctive terroir of each. Auten Vineyard was planted over 20 years ago and Morehouse Road Vineyard was first planted in 1999. Small blocks of Riesling, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer are found in both vineyards. Auten Vineyard additionally includes a small planting of Gruner Veltliner, and Morehouse Road Vineyard has a block of Chardonnay. The soil type is Lima, a fertile silt loam naturally high in lime. It runs deep with shallower sections occurring over shale outcroppings. There are also areas of heavy clay that reduce vigor and hasten ripening. The land slopes gently eastward toward the west shore of Cayuga Lake. The row orientation in Auten Vineyard is north-south and vines receive sunlight on both east and west sides of the trellis. Rows are oriented east-west in Morehouse Road Vineyard so vines receive sunlight primarily on the south side of the trellis while the north side remains in shadow.
- Chardonnay No Oak
- Tanzem Dame Pet Nat
- Edelzwicker Pet Nat
- Dry Rose Pinot Noir
- Tanzen Dame Dry Gewürztraminer
- Tanzen Dame Dry Gewürztraminer 2nd Harvest Block 97
- Tanzen Dame Dry Riesling Auten 2nd Harvest Clone 239
- Tanzen Dame Dry Riesling Morehouse Road Vineyard First Harvest
- Tanzen Dame Edelzwicker Blue Cap
- Tanzen Dame Edelzwicker Black Cap (formerly called Halbtrocken)
- Tanzen Dame Gruner Veltliner Auten Vineyard
- Vin d’ete Cabernet Franc – Gamay
- Pinot Noir
- Cabernet Franc
- White Horse Red
Chardonnay No Oak — Back to the top 
Age Of Vines: 18 years
Total Production: 55 cases
Yield: 3 tons per acre
Soil Type: Silt loam derived from shale naturally high in lime
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested, destemmed, crushed and fermented in 55-gallon stainless steel tanks. The wine rests in tank for 10 months of elevage and is then transferred to bottle without filtering or fining with a small addition of sulfur.
Tanzen Dame Pet Nat — Back to the top 
Tanzen Dame Pet Nat tech sheet
Age Of Vines: 18 years
Total Production: 70 cases
Yield: 3 tons per acre
Soil Type: Silt loam derived from shale naturally high in lime
Varieties: 50% Riesling, 50% Cayuga White
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested, destemmed, crushed and fermented in 55-gallon stainless steel tanks. The wine is then transferred to the bottle to finish fermentation. The wine is disgorged, and is unfiltered and unfined with zero addition of sulfur.
Edelzwicker Pet Nat — Back to the top 
Edelzwicker Pet Nat tech sheet
Age Of Vines: 18 years
Total Production: 70 cases
Yield: 3 tons per acre
Soil Type: Silt loam derived from shale naturally high in lime
Varieties: 30% Riesling, 70% Cayuga White
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested, destemmed, crushed and fermented in 55-gallon stainless steel tanks. The wine is then transferred to the bottle to finish fermentation. The wine is disgorged, and is unfiltered and unfined with zero addition of sulfur.
Dry Rose Pinot Noir — Back to the top
Their Pinot Noir vineyards are some of their oldest, and some are ungrafted. As these vines succumbed to Phylloxera over the years, they replaced them with a variety of vines from a variety of sources. The vineyard now contains mainly Dijon Clones, some vines that are probably Champagne clones, as well as the upright clone #29. For several years we have been seperating the more intensely colored, tight clustered clones for barrel aging and making rose from the others. All grapes used are fairly ripe and skin contact time is quite short. The resulting wines are both crisp and complex.
Age of Vines: Some over 25 years old
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested, and a combination of whole bunches and crushed grapes are fermented in 55-gallon stainless steel tanks for about 7 months at ambient cellar temperature (50-60 degrees). The wine is unfiltered and unfined.
Tanzen Dame Dry Gewürztraminer — Back to the top
Tanzen Dame Dry Gewürztraminer tech sheet
Age of Vines: 15-20 years
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested, and destemmed. The juice sits on the skins for about 48 hours and then they are fermented in 55-gallon stainless steel tanks for about 7 months at ambient cellar temperature (50-60 degrees). The wine is unfined and unfiltered.
Tanzen Dame Dry Gewürztraminer 2nd Harvest Block 97 — Back to the top
Encouraged by their successes with late harvest Riesling, they began making “late harvest” or botrytis influenced Gewurztraminer in 2008. “Block 97” is their Reserve designation-where they were able to harvest enough grapes to make two barrels of this distinctive wine.
Age of Vines: 15-20 years
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested, and a combination of whole bunches and crushed grapes are fermented in 55-gallon stainless steel tanks very slowly (about 10 months) at ambient cellar temperature (50-60 degrees). The wine is lightly filtered and unfined.
Tanzen Dame Dry Riesling Auten 2nd Harvest Clone 239 — Back to the top
Tanzen Dame Dry Riesling Auten 2nd Harvest Clone 239 tech sheet
This is the second picking from the Auten Vineyard Clone 239 block. They were picked about 2-3 weeks after the first harvest. Generally these second harvest wines are made with some botrytis influence, and correspond loosely to Spatlese or Auslese wines.
Age of Vines: Over 20 years
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested, and a combination of whole bunches and crushed grapes are fermented in 55 gallon stainless steel tanks for about 7 months at ambient cellar temperature (50-60 degrees). The wine is lightly filtered to remove any residual sugar, and unfined.
Tanzen Dame Dry Riesling Morehouse Road Vineyard First Harvest — Back to the top
Tanzen Dame Dry Riesling Morehouse Road Vineyard First Harvest tech sheet
Age of Vines: 15 years
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested in several passes to find the ripest grapes. This wine represents the first pass. Grapes are destemmed, and fermented in 55-gallon stainless steel tanks for about 7 months at ambient cellar temperature (50-60 degrees). The wine is lightly filtered and unfined.
Tanzen Dame Edelzwicker Blue Cap — Back to the top
Tanzen Dame Edelzwicker Blue Cap tech sheet
Following in the tradition of the Alsace, the Edelzwicker wines are blends of: Riesling; Gewurztraminer; the Finger Lakes own grape – Cayuga White; and other white varieties. These wines, like the 100% vinifera wines, are made in small batches and minimally processed. Use of the fairly neutral, disease resistant, and heavy yielding variety Cayuga White, allows them to bottle an affordable wine. With careful blending they can create a delightfully crisp and complex wine.
Age of Vines: 15-20 years old
Yields: Riesling and Gewurztraminer are cropped at 3-4 tons/acre. Cayuga White is cropped from 6-8 tons/acre.
Varieties: ~50% Cayuga White; ~45% Riesling; ~5% Gewurztraminer
Vinification Method: Grapes are hand harvested and destemmed. They ferment in 55-275 gallon stainless steel tanks for 5-6 months. Fermentations begin slowly at ~50. The cellar cools to 40 in the winter and fermentations finish in spring when temperatures rise. The wines are left on gross lees, without stirring, until April or May. This wine does not go through malolactic fermentation. This wine is lightly filtered and not fined.
Tanzen Dame Edelzwicker Black Cap (formerly called Halbtrocken) — Back to the top
Tanzen Dame Edelzwicker Black Cap (formerly called Halbtrocken)
Following the tradition in Alsace, the Edelzwicker wines are blends of: Riesling; Gewurztraminer; the Finger Lakes own grape – Cayuga White; and other white varieties. These wines, like the 100% vinifera wines, are made in small batches and are minimally processed. The use of the fairly neutral, disease resistant, and heavy yielding variety Cayuga White, allows them to be bottled as an affordable wine. With careful blending they can create a delightfully crisp and complex wine.
Varieties:~55% Cayuga White; ~30% Gewurztraminer; ~15% Riesling
Vinification Method: Grapes are hand harvested and destemmed. They ferment in 55-275 gallon stainless steel tanks for 5-6 months. Fermentations begin slowly at ~50. The cellar cools to 40 in the winter and fermentations finish in spring when temperatures rise. The wines are left on gross lees, without stirring, until April or May. This wine does not go through malolactic fermentation. This wine is lightly filtered and not fined.
Tanzen Dame Gruner Veltliner Auten Vineyard — Back to the top
Tanzen Dame Gruner Veltliner Auten Vineyard tech sheet
The famous variety of Austria was planted with the inspiration of their Austrian neighbor, Dano Hutnik, owner of Dano’s Heuriger in Caywood, NY, on Seneca Lake.
Age of Vines: 3 years
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested and destemmed, then fermented in 55-gallon stainless steel tanks for about 5 months at ambient cellar temperature (50-60 degrees). The wine is lightly filtered and unfined and bottled with no aging.
Vin d’ete Cabernet Franc – Gamay — Back to the top
Yields: 3-4 tons/acre
Varieties: 60% Cabernet Franc; 40% Gamay Noir
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested. The wine goes through partial carbonic maceration, with a significant portion of whole clusters and crushed grapes in 1-ton open top fermenters. The wine ferments in about 2-3 weeks and is then moved to 60 gallon 4-20 year old hungarian oak barrels for about 10 months. The wine is unfined and unfiltered.
Pinot Noir — Back to the top
Yields: 3-4 tons/acre
Soil type: Lima silt and loam
Age of Vines: 25 years old
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested. The bunches are mostly destemmed, with some stems added back in and a small portion of whole clusters in 1-ton open top fermenters. The wine ferments in about 2-3 weeks and is then moved to 60-gallon 4-20 year old Hungarian oak barrels for about 10 months on gross lees and is then blended back together. The wine is unfined and unfiltered.
Cabernet Franc — Back to the top
Age of Vines: 16-25 years old
Yields: 3-4 tons/acre
Soil type: Lima silt and loam
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested. The bunches are mostly destemmed, with some stems added back in and a small portion of whole clusters in 1-ton open top fermenters. The wine ferments in about 2-3 weeks and is then moved to 60-gallon 4-20 year old Hungarian oak barrels for about 10 months on gross lees and is then blended back together. The wine is unfined and unfiltered.
White Horse Red — Back to the top
Age of Vines: 16-25 years old
Yields: 3-3.5 tons/acre
Soil type: Lima silt loam, derived from naturally high lime shale
Varieties: 70% Cabernet Franc; 30% Merlot
Vinification Method: Grapes are manually harvested. Grapes are put through a mechanical crusher to increase extraction. The stems are included as well as some whole bunches to ferment in 1-ton open top fermenters. The wine ferments in about 2 weeks and is then moved to 60-gallon 4-20 year old hungarian oak barrels for about 1 year on gross lees and is then blended back together. The wine is unfined and unfiltered.