MASTERCLASS: An Open Letter to Ancient Wine, The Reprise {WEST HARTFORD}

A Farmtable Masterclass in the Wines We Almost Lost

A decade-long conversation, poured anew. Come gather around the Farmtable and drink a little history—still very much alive.

‘For more than a decade, we’ve been talking about the wines that live a little outside the spotlight: the near-extinct varieties, forgotten vineyards, old soils, and humble hands that have quietly carried them forward. This tasting is a reprise of that conversation and a look at where it might take us next.’ - Jacob

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Gather around the Farmtable at our West Hartford Shop for a deep dive into Ancient Wine: a lineup of bottles made from grapes that have survived centuries of fashion, upheaval, neglect, and near-disappearance. These are wines that ask us to reconsider what “important” means, not because they are rare, expensive, or collectible, but because they are alive, rooted, and still here.

We’ll taste across a collection of nearly forgotten and rediscovered varieties, following the threads from vineyard to glass: the soils that kept these grapes alive, the old-fashioned and often wonderfully unassuming practices that preserve their character, and the farmers and winemakers choosing to nurture something with no guarantee of commercial reward.

This is not a museum tasting. And yet, Ancient wine is not about looking backward. It is, instead, about recognizing that the future of wine may depend, in part, on remembering what came before: the diversity of grapes, the resilience of old vineyards, the wisdom of working with a place rather than imposing upon it, and the simple pleasure of making wine that tastes like somewhere and can be enjoyed by someone.

This is a talk about near-extinction and rediscovery, soil and climate, tradition and adaptation, and the strange beauty of varieties that nearly disappeared only to find their way back into our glasses. Most of all, we’ll drink wines made for real people of yesterday, today, and tomorrow: wines to put on the table, pass around, argue about, fall in love with, and maybe save for another day.

THE POUR LIST WILL BE A DELICIOUS SURPRISE.  21+ ID IS REQUIRED!