Fiadh Ruadh pronounced as, fay-ah roo-ah, is a micro Napa Valley based brand focusing on Cabernet Sauvignon founded by winemaker and MW Nova Cadamatre. 2023 was her 20th harvest; her journey through the world of wine has been one filled with curiosity and a desire to learn. She began her winemaking career in Pennsylvania in 2003. She moved to New York to pursue a career in horticulture, primarily to explore her passion for growing roses. But her love of cultivating plants translated into working with vineyards and the subsequent enjoyment of producing a product which brings people together.
She decided to become a winemaker. She worked at wineries in 2004 and 2005 in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York and graduated from Cornell’s Viticulture and Enology program in 2006. She moved to California’s Central Valley followed by a move to Napa Valley in 2009 where she worked at Chateau Souverain in Alexander Valley from 2012-2019.
Her first trip to Napa Valley was in 2004 with her now husband Brian. His grandmother had a cousin who lived in the city of Napa. Nova remembers the first time she drove up the Silverado Trail and being impressed by the spectacular beauty. She soon discovered how passion and a focus on quality is an integral part of Napa Valley. And noticing how the vineyards are the dominating agricultural crop, while in the Finger Lakes agriculture is more diversified.
Her first harvest in Napa Valley was in 2013. She worked at Robert Mondavi as red wine maker for 2 years and then became Senior Winemaker for all of Constellation’s Napa Valley properties. And she also assisted with the design of the new Robert Mondavi Winery during her time there.
Her journey towards being a Master of Wine began in 2007 after graduating from Cornell. She was attracted to pursuing this because of its intensity and difficulty associated with the program; the challenge lived up to the reputation. Like a number of now MW’s it took her several times before she was able to pass; the one attribute we value higher than almost anything else in the wine industry in particular, is persistence and a drive to never give up. She became an MW in 2017.
The roots of starting starting her own brands were when Brian asked if she would be interested in planting a vineyard. He told her his distant cousins in Messina, Sicily had a vineyard and made wine. Expecting to hear about a winery with deep roots in Italy, Brian eventually told her his cousin’s vineyard was just a couple of rows in their backyard with the grapes used for making home wine every year.
For Nova, the most rewarding part of the wine business is intimately being involved with all aspects of the operations including growing grapes, and ultimately producing a product that people enjoy.
She and Brian planted a vineyard on Seneca Lake and produced their first wines in 2015. They named their brand Trestle 31 in homage to the prominent railroad trestle seen from the top of their vineyard. And the 31 was the name on the original deed for their property. While not owning a physical winery, the wines have been made at Foxrun Vineyards since the beginning.
Trestle 31 focuses on premium vinifera wines from the region; the wines both elevate and push the boundaries of what is possible in the Finger Lakes region in terms of both viticulture and winemaking. She calls Trestle 31 her ‘avant garde brand’. Nova pointed out that climate in the Finger Lakes is vastly different than Napa Valley. As a ‘flying winemaker’ she makes wine for her own brands on both coasts which sometimes has advantages. For example when numerous producers didn’t make wine or made less wine during the smoke filled 2020 vintage in Napa Valley, 2020 was a great year in the Finger Lakes. The Trestle 31 tasting lounge opened in Geneva, NY in 2021. The wines are sold both direct through visits, the website or are available through limited distribution at restaurants and retail shops in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
And keeping the label design all in the family, its based on a drawing by Nova’s mother, artist Linda Williams McCune. Brian’s sister, illustrator Katie Cadamatre provided the creative assistance.
The inaugural vintage of Fiadh Ruadh was in 2018, however no wine was produced in 2019, 2021 and 2022; production resumed with the 2023 vintage and moving forward from 2024, the plan is to continue to produce a tiny amount each year. While homebase for Nova and Brian is in New York, she ‘commutes’ to Napa Valley as needed for Fiadh Ruadh as well as several clients.
The name Fiadh Ruadh refers to an untamed red deer in Scotch Gaelic, an appropriate homage to her ‘leaping off the cliff’ and going out on her own. Both she and Brian have Scottish heritage so the name is also an homage to their own roots. And recognizing the silent letters in Gaelic cause problems with pronunciation, she conveniently posts how to pronounce the name on the back of every bottle.
In 2020 Nova founded and became the winemaker for Snowshell Vineyards with the wines exclusively sold through Naked Wines. She is the only New York winemaker for Naked Wines; she is a brand ambassador for both the region but also for the Snowshell wines.
Select Wines
Fiadh Ruadh
The 2018 Fiadh Ruadh Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon is 100% varietal. This wine is deep ruby in color; the bouquet is immediately expressive of including scents of plum, blackberry, cherry and boysenberry with accompanying notes of old cedar box, petrichor, and pipe tobacco, and a light kiss of dessert spices including cocoa powder and espresso. The bouquet is fresh and youthful. On the palate there are flavors of dark cherry, blackberry, boysenberry and Pakistani mulberry. Nova appreciates the texture of dark chocolate and cocoa powder and strives to showcase the feel of tannins in a similar grain. The texture of this wine features a density of tannins but they are presented as chalky, with a polished and fine-grained character accompanied by a lingering dusty grip. And a note of dried tobacco leaf. Regardless of their age, we wish all hillside Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon wines were this balanced. It drinks very well by itself; for reference we tasted this wine 6 years post vintage.
Only 720 bottles were produced from the 2018 vintage; all aged in several Taransaud barrels. As of late 2024 only 25 cases are still available. In autumn 2024 Fiadh Ruadh released the 2022 vintage which also has a similar production to the 2018 bottling. Nova hand-labels all the wines.
She was sure the 2013 vintage in Napa Valley would be the best vintage she ever made until she produced the 2018. The 2018 red wines in general have the density and concentration of the 2013 bottlings but are more approachable in terms of texture.
Texture is an extremely important character in Nova’s winemaking, particularly in her red wines. She crafts the wines so that consumers can drink and enjoy them from merely enjoy 10 minutes after purchase to being able to age them for several decades. Every year she strives to capture not only the vintage but also the characteristics of the vineyard. Her goal as winemaker is to translate, but also emphasize what she was given that year and produce the best wine possible. One might call her the ‘grape whisperer’; from the perspective of what is in the glass, she doesn’t want you to ever know she was there.
Trestle 31
The 2022 Trestle 31 Chardonnay (Nutt Road Vineyard) is pale yellow in color; an immediate burst of spring and tropical white florals envelops the glass after opening including of honeysuckle, orange blossom and star jasmine. Additional scents include nectarine, white peach, apricot, walnut skin, pineapple guava, ripe Golden delicious apple, passion fruit, honey and pineapple. We love Chardonnay that expresses itself fully offering multiple layers; the more words we use to describe aromatic characteristics, often the more interesting we find the wine. Bright and minerally, the palate offers flavors of red apple, pear, mandarin orange, apricot and Golden kiwi. This wine is perfectly straddled between flavor, acidity and texture (lightly creamy) – summed up in one word: balanced. It went through full malolactic fermentation and was then aged sur lie for 14 months in barrel with battonge conducted twice a week, not by a metal stirring rod, but by rolling the barrels on racks with built in rollers. The inspirational quote listed on the back of this bottle is from Eleanor Roosevelt, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”.
The 2023 Trestle 31 Riesling, Study Sketch Series (Gibson Vineyard) is deep gold in color, appearing slightly hazy as it was obviously not fined or filtered. The grapes were hand harvested including picking about 10-15% of the bunches infected with varying degrees of botrytis. This wine was fermented with indigenous yeast in Acacia barrels and hand bottled, corked and labeled. Only 14 cases were produced. The bouquet is highly distinctive offering aromas of kombucha, starfruit, cut grass, mandarin peel, loquat, fermenting fruits, apple juice, and an herbal note reminding us slightly of juniper berry. The herbal character on the bouquet is mirrored on the palate along with some citrus influences including tangerine and grapefruit pith accompanied by loquat, green apple and horned melon. The texture is rounded and complemented by a bright but balanced acidity. Get geeky with this bottling, it strays far from mainstream winemaking. If a particular bottle of wine were the equivalent to a particular wine shop in Napa Valley, this would clearly be Decant Napa (formerly home to Bay Grape). The quote on the back of this bottle is by Anthony Bourdain, and is appropriate verbiage considering this wine. It reads, “That without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, moribund.” This wine is a refreshing 12% alcohol.
Nova describes vintages in the Finger Lakes as either being wet, dry or classic. 2020, unlike in Napa Valley was a classic winemaking vintage with both concentrated fruit and freshness. And there was no pressure from botrytis. Nova calls the Riesling she produced this year, a wine that shows the purity of the variety. And Riesling has been the flagship wine of Trestle 31 since its inaugural vintage of 2015.
The 2020 Trestle 31 Riesling (from Zugibe Vineyard) is medium golden in color; the perfume driven bouquet offers an intriguing union of both lemon and a light note of petrol that this variety often expresses, especially as it ages. There are also notes of dried apricot, white florals, and red apple. The palate is brightly lit with flavors of white nectarines, comise pear, cantaloupe, Golden delicious apple, lemon curds, dried apricot, tangerine, mandarin orange, loquat and ripe kumquat. It dances across the palate with both a youthfulness and a grace. The finish lingers with a bright, palate cleansing character supported by both its acidity and citrus driven flavors. We would love to drink this following o
ne of Napa Valley’s more robust and intense Cabernet Sauvignons.
The 2022 Trestle 31 Cabernet Franc is 100% varietal (m Simmons Vineyard) and is their inaugural vintage of this variety. The wine is medium ruby in color; the bouquet is a union of both red fruits and a brooding and savory character. These aromas include dried tomatoes, damp potting soil, white pepper, granite rock, library book, smoked sage, dried rosemary, tobacco spice and red plums, red cherries, dried berries, licorice and assorted bramble. The palate offers flavors of dried herbs including sage, dried tobacco leaf, tea leaf, currant, cranberry, sour cherries and a lingering herbal note. Features a lithe texture of lightly grainy tannins, a balanced but buoyant acidity and a gamey and white pepper spice driven finish. This wine initially fermented using indigenous yeasts with commercial yeast added to finish fermentation once the brix was below 14. It was aged for 18 months in 5 French oak barrels of which one was new. Would love to pair this with BBQ quail or pheasant, birds we were introduced in our youth as one of our uncles used to hunt them in the far reaches of northern California.
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Those interested in trying the limited production bottlings of Fiadh Ruadh can request an allocation via the website and Nova will respond directly. An allocation allows those on the list to also be notified when new releases are available. Locally the wine has been at ACME in St. Helena and Bounty Hunter in the city of Napa. And we have seen select Trestle 31 wines at NO|MA House Café and Collective in St. Helena. For more information and to request an allocation, visit: www.fiadhruadh.com
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