Meet the

Team

Matthew // Head Winemaker

Sam // Assistant Winemaker

Seasonal Cellar Crew

Matthew Sanford is the head winemaker at Rose Hill Ferments, and formerly Alai Cider in Colchagua, Chile. At Rose Hill he’s focused on making high quality, low intervention wine and cider that often blurs the line between the two. All of his creations utilize only estate grown, wild foraged and/or locally sourced NY State fruit from like-minded farmers. Apples, pears, grapes, plums, cherries, currants, blueberries and quince are just a few of the things you’ll find him fermenting in the cellar, using natural and traditional methods. Matthew has been leading the team since the cidery’s inception in 2018.

Sam Rogers joined our team as Assistant Winemaker, relocating from the Bay Area in California where they had been working in wine for the last seven years. Their wide range of experience includes fine dining, wholesale sales, beverage education, and production. Sam trained in viticulture and vinification in France, Germany, Oregon, and California with a focus on organics and low-intervention winemaking. They quickly became an invaluable member of the Rose Hill team.

Our Process

We select premium quality whole fruit and facilitate native fermentations without additives. We strive for zero waste and utilize our apples, plums, peaches, cherries, blueberries, and apricots for fermentation.
Our low intervention approach in the cellar allows the fruits to truly express not only themselves but our Hudson Valley terroir. We don’t add harsh chemicals like malic/tartaric acids or fining agents—and we don’t use the industrially common processes of filtering, pasteurizing, back-sweetening, or force carbonating.
Grinding, foot-stomping, pressing and bottling is all done on a small scale with care and attention to detail.

FAQs

Short for Pétillant Naturel, it’s a French term which translates to English as “naturally bubbling”. Also known as Methode Ancestrale, the process works by harnessing wild yeast. Natural fermentation is interrupted when the wine is bottled, and fermentation finishes in bottle which creates the natural sparkle.
Whole grapes, or other fruits, are fermented in a carbon dioxide-rich environment before crushing. The initial fermentation is not caused by yeast, but instead occurs intracellularly, or from the inside out, due to the oxygen-free condition. The CO2 breaks down the sugars and malic acid and produces alcohol along with a range of compounds that contribute to the wine’s final flavor. Simultaneously, tannins make their way from the fruit skin to the pulp, imparting color to the flesh.
Most wines and ciders are best slightly chilled, in the range of 45-55 degrees F. Some of our ciders are best at room temperature. We usually include serving recommendations at the end of our bottle descriptions. As cider is wine, we always serve cider in a wine glass, to open and enjoy its full aroma!
Because we do not filter our ciders and wines. This keeps all of the flavor and texture in the bottle, rather then losing it in filtration. However, we disgorge several of our more refined products such as our premium cider, Selection Suspendue; our champagne-style cider, Quincunx; and some of our grape wines.
We have an easy to remember code for Rose Hill Farm cider: the bottle color! If it’s clear, it’s usually intended to be consumed soon, within a few months. This includes many of our fruit co-fermentations such as Pomme Cerise, Pomme Bleue and Pomquette Rouge, as well as any Pét-Nat ciders and wines.
If we’ve bottled cider in dark green or brown glass, you can cellar it like wine, and the flavors will continue to develop and age over time. With proper storing conditions—horizontally with temperature and moisture control—you can wait to drink these ciders for several years or beyond.