Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1162395
houghts of a trip to Massachusetts's North Shore don't immediately conjure images of viticulture— that is, vines laden with grapes strung across trellises, stretching over green valleys as far as the eye can see. That's a picture typically associated with California rather than the Bay State, a region known more for its beer than wine. Beer, after all, has been part of Massachusetts's identity from the days of the Puritans all the way up to the booming independent brew- ing scene of 2019. But beer isn't the only type of alcohol being made along the North Shore. The area boasts its fair share of vineyards, too, and those vine- yards also connect to the state's long history, and keep it alive in their own way. Take Topsfield's Alfalfa Farm Winery, family-owned and volunteer- run since 1994, the year that grapes were first planted in its soil. (The winery opened to the public the year after.) This was 20 years after the land was purchased by Richard Adelman, back in 1974 when the farm the winery now rests on went out of business. "It was probably one of the first dairy farms in Massachusetts to go out of business," says Trudi Perry, who is both the winemaker for Alfalfa Farm and also its resident historian. Talking to her means getting a rich, insightful lesson on local antiquity, from the property's heyday, when it operated as a 600-acre dairy farm, to its closure and eventual parceling in the 1970s to now. Currently the land serves as home to the winery as well as to condos, an apple orchard, and a senior living center. Even the construction of I-95 plays into that narrative. "When they put Route 95 in," Perry explains, "they kept a tunnel under 95 so the cows could still pasture on the other side." To visit Alfalfa Farm Winery is to visit a confluence of past and present. Cars whiz by on I-95, the twin silos bearing the winery's name tower over the barn and the patio, the vines lie between the highway and the field, and all around stand reminders of what this property used to be, including the house where the owner of the farm lived and the three apartments that housed the farmhands. Alfalfa Farm Winery is very much coupled to its history, and history is an integral part of its character. "That's why the Adelman family wanted to keep it agricultural," Perry notes. Making great wine—and for the skeptics, Alfalfa Farm Winery does indeed make great wine—comes first and foremost, but preserving history is a very close second. The story's much the same for Donna Martin, owner of the small but prolific Mill River Winery, settled alongside Route 1 over in Rowley. "This used to be a place called Dodge's Cider Mill back in the 1890s," she says on a tour through the winery's fermentation room. "In those days, a long time ago, this is where people would come on their horse and buggy to buy their cider and bring their families." When Martin first laid eyes on the property more than 10 years ago, she knew she had to jump on it; the opportunity to build her business on a piece of colonial history was too good to pass up. "I really wanted to revitalize it and make it back into an agricultural setting, like it was back in the 1890s," she says, "and really just celebrate that." (The winery's planning on put- ting out a hard cider for that exact purpose, too.) 99 Trudi Perry top left is the winemaker at Alfalfa Farm Winery.