Four Wines Crafted from New England’s Bounty

Who needs apple picking when you can drink your fruit instead? Ahead, wines crafted from cranberries, raspberries, dry pears, and heirloom crabapples.

fruit wines

Photograph by Toan Trinh

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1. Cranberry
Alfalfa Farm Winery

When Topsfield’s Alfalfa Farm Winery opened more than two decades ago, there were only 13 wineries in Massachusetts, according to vintner Trudi Perry. Now there are at least 40. In this increasingly competitive landscape, Alfalfa Farm goes beyond grape wines with its blueberry and cranberry offerings. Refreshingly tart, the latter makes a marvelous spritz.

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2. Raspberry
Raven Hollow Winery

An offshoot of the 80-year-old Kosinski family farm, in Westfield, Raven Hollow Winery uses the produce grown next door in several different grape and fruit wines. One of the best is a raspberry wine with a fresh berry aroma and tart, tannic complexity.

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3. Dry Pear
Nashoba Valley Winery

Since 1978, Nashoba Valley has been turning the harvest from its Bolton hilltop vineyard and orchard into liquid gold. Styles range from dry pear, which tastes like a cross between a still cider and an oaked chardonnay, to a luscious semisweet blueberry that packs a surprising amount of flavor.

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4. Heirloom Crabapple
Hermit Woods Winery

To create its signature heirloom crab apple wine, Hermit Woods Winery, in Meredith, New Hampshire, crushes whole Dolgo crabapples, skin and all. The resulting off-dry wine has a bright, fruity character and a tart finish. Wild Maine berries, meanwhile, give the award-winning Petite Blue blueberry wine a pleasant, pinot noir–like acidity.