Winter 2009
Pinnacle Ridge Winery -- Winner of Governor's Cup award at Pa. Farm Show
(Mouse over small images to enlarge in large frame above.)
On a brilliant Sunday afternoon in February, we crunched through six inches of crusty snow at Pinnacle Ridge winery near Kutztown, tasted some of the award-winning wine and interviewed owner Brad Knapp about the history of the winery (click here).
We also interviewed Brad about the three gold medals he won in the Farm Show competition, including the top Governor's Cup "best of show" award (click here). Pinnacle Ridge won the gold medal for best hybrid grape wine for its 2007 Chambourcin (also named best of show). It won gold for best sparkling wine for its Curvee Chardonnay and a third gold medal for its 2005 Veritas (a Bordeaux-type blend of 55 percent Merlot, 33 percent Cabernet Franc and 12 percent Cabernet Sauvignon that spent 20 months in Pennsylvania oak barrels.) The Chambourcin and Veritas, truly were awesome wines, both smooth, with full flavors and perfect tannin, which is to say subliminal. They also tasted like something that you could tuck away in the cellar for a few years.
The fact that Chambourcin took the "best of show" underlines something that a number of the Lehigh Valley winemakers have been saying in recent years: Chambourcin might be THE grape of the future in their viticulture area.
The Farm Show awards were just the first success in January for Pinnacle Ridge. It also swept the Pennsylvania Wine Society seventh annual wine tasting awards, taking four of the ten awards for:
- '05 Veritas (overall winner too!)
- '07 Pinot Noir
- '07 Merlot
- Brut Rose sparkling wine
[What we bought:
- '07 Chardonnay (2); nice oak
- '08 Chambourcin Rose; thinking of summer
- '08 Riesling; Lin's favorite wine
- '06 Cabernet Franc; a really nice red
- '05 Veritas: one awesome blend
- Curvee Chardonnay; didn't taste it, gotta see what the buzz is all about]
Autumn 2008
Nouveau Beaujolais Weekend at Vynecrest Winery
The third weekend in November is big in the world of devoted wine drinkers. That's when the first of the year's vintage -- "nouveau" wine -- is available. The traditional "new wine" in France is Gamay. Vynecrest and two other wineries on the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail grow Gamay! Nouveau wine can be made with different grapes, and many Pennsylvania wineries make it with other varieties.
We interviewed John Landis, Vynecrest founder, about the wine and the weekend's events (Click here.) The winery's tasting rooms and new party room were a mob scene with hundreds of people sampling. John said it's the busiest weekend of the year for Vynecrest. It's also the first date that the March Lehigh Valley winery tour passports are available.
I took a couple bottles of Vynecrest nouveau home for dinner. Yes! Gamay grapes have a berry-like flavor and the wine was young, fresh and fruity. It went nicely with rosemary and garlic roasted chicken in sherry-accented Béchamel sauce, French peas and good ol' biscuits.
(Hold your mouse over below images to enlarge in picture frame above. Click the below images to view them in a browser window.)
Autumn: Vynecrest Winery
November this year seemed to have a load more of those stunning Indian summer days than one should expect. Pennsylvania is a place to visit for fall foliage, and this year was one of the best I can ever remember. The leaves were wildly colorful and hung around for weeks.
On one of those days we visited Vynecrest Winery on the western side of Allentown and discovered something that says something about the state of Pennsylvania wineries: at least three of the wineries in the state now feature second-generation wine makers. We interviewed Sam Landis, the son of John Landis, who started Vynecrest more than 30 years ago. Sam grew up helping his parents tend the vines and make the wine. He discuses that in the video we shot. (click here.) We also asked Sam what he thought the state's wine industry would look like in 50 years (click here.)
We drank a bottle of Vynecrest's dry 2007 Riesling with some home-made Russian rye bread, feta cheese marinated in olive oil with garlic and pepper flakes, olives, a hunk of cheddar cheese, and, of course, chocolate. Vynecrest somehow has always managed to make wines with a fabulous nose and some amazing flavors, at least for the four or five years we've been going there. It was the first place in Pennsylvania I ever tasted Traminette -- a hybrid with Gewurztraminer parentage. Other highlights of the tasting room during our visit were the Vidal Blanc and Pinot Gris. Clearly, last year was a good year at Vynecrest.
(Mouse over below images to enlarge in frame above. Click to view or enlarge in browser window.)
Summer
On a wonderfully hot day at the end of June we managed to catch up with Jimmy Miller, owner of Moon Dancer Winery near Wrightsville in York County. We'd been hoping to interview him for months. The stars and moon apparently aligned and we caught him between his mowing and an errand that involved a large truck and heavy lifting.
(To see our video interviews with him about the winery and his thoughts about the future of grape growing and wine production in Pennsylvania, click here.)
Jimmy is an interesting guy. In the heart of winter several years ago we talked to him as he and his crew were pressing semi-frozen grapes to make ice wine. I mentioned that it appeared that running a winery was tough work. His response: "if you love what you're doing, it isn't work."
On the day we did the interviews with him, we did have a picnic to go with a really great bottle of Syrah. We took baby bump along (grandchildren happen.) It was her first visit to a winery. We've started saving money to send her to school for that viticulture and enology degree in 17 and a half years.
(Mouse over below images to enlarge in frame above. Click to view or enlarge in browser window.)
Spring
June: Taste of Pennsylvania Wine and Music Festival at the York Fair Grounds
(To see our video coverage of the festival, click here.)
I did something at the Taste of Pennsylvania Wine Festival in York that I never did before and it just about broke my heart. I tasted a lot of really great wine and spit.
Why? Well, imagine this: you go to a wine festival with 10 wineries present and you want to taste a LOT of wine, actually make some judgments and write about it.
If you drink about sixty or seventy one-ounce tastes of wine (which is two-plus bottles), you’re probably going to have a really, really great afternoon. And you’re going to need a designated driver. It would be fun, but you’ll probably wipe out the last vestige of your tasting ability about sample number 12. If you do the dry-medium-sweet, white-to-red routine, you’re not going to be doing any serious tasting after the first tent.
So, I decided to taste only dry wines, and not from every participating winery. And I decided to spit.
I had a great companion for the day: Judy Motter, a fellow Pennsylvania wine enthusiast who has an uncommonly good nose and palate for wine. She helped juggle papers and gear while I was shooting video.
The tasting we did was a bit whimsical. We didn’t try to hit every winery. We passed on some we were familiar with simply because there was only so much time.
The list below is not an attempt to rate the wine in any comprehensive way. It’s simply what stood out as we wandered, tasted and did video.
Mount Nittany Winery
Centre Hall, Centre County
Tail Gate Red 2007
The name of course is a result of the winery being in the marketing vortex of THE Pennsylvania State University and its popular football program. It’s a blend of Leon Millot and other red varieties, fruity and light with less than two percent sugar. It’s a nice blend done by someone with good taste.
Leon Mellot has been a favorite of mine ever since I bought a bottle of it from Sorrenti’s Cherry Valley Winery (Lehigh County), put it in the cellar and overlooked it for two years. Wow! Drinking that was almost an out-of-body experience. I’ve heard it’s supposed to be very cold hardy. I applaud any winery that grows it.
Four Springs Winery
Seven Valleys, York County
Cabernet Franc 2005
This gorgeous 2005 Cab Franc is smooth and well-aged with a nice tannic edge. It has deep notes of cherries and plums. One of the best Cab Francs I’ve ever had.
Chambourcin 2006
Chambourcin is a wonderful, distinctive red French-American hybrid grape that caught on with Pennsylvania winemakers at least 25 years ago. In this wonderful example, the tannin comes through at just the right level with the flavor of plums and a bit of cherry. It’s a medium heavy wine that shows some sophistication.
Sand Castle Winery
Erwinna, Bucks County
Frank LeVien, Sand Castle Winery
Cabernet Sauvignon 2003
That’s not a typo. It was a 2003 wine and a very impressive one. It was smooth on the tongue with notes of apples and plums. I got the last taste at the festival.
Sand Castle winery appears to be working hard to make wines that can be laid down. Being near New Hope, there’s probably a load of sophisticated wine drinkers who might appreciate that. He also has an eye to the less serious segment of the market and was hawking a flavored apple wine like the Vege-o-matic guy at the county fair. There was a crowd at his tent.
Riesling 2002
For a long time, nobody in Pennsylvania could make a decent bottle of Riesling. In the last five years, something happened and now many are very good. There’s probably a feature story in that. This one was dry with mineral flavors and green apple overtones: an impressive wine. Everybody always compares any Riesling with German wines. They shouldn’t.
Chardonnay Private Reserve 2003
This Chardonnay was not oaked, had carried an overall impression of green apples. Nicely done.
Benigna’s Creek Vineyard
Klingerstown, Schuylkill County
Chambourcin 2006
This smooth, nicely aged Chambourcin had the full flavor of the grape with no oak and light tannin. It was old enough that you couldn’t call it fruity, but the fruit flavor was certainly there.
Chambourcin Reserve 2005
This also was a nicely aged medium-bodied red wine, soft with all the right flavors from oak aging.
Winery at Wilcox
Wilcox, Elk County
Jenn Herrin, Winery at Wilcox sales manager
Petit Sirah 2006
Plums, plums, plums came through with medium tannin. A wonderful, solid deep red wine. The winery’s handout suggests that it will age well and I believe it.
Pinot Grigio 2005
The ’05 Pinot Grigio they were tasting was fruity, citrus and dry. Very impressive.
Naylor Wine Cellars
Stewartstown, York County
York White Rose
York White Rose has been a popular picnic wine at Naylor’s forever. It’s a blend of Vidal, Seyval and Cayuga, done medium sweet. The Vidal seems to predominate and that’s a good thing. It’s a wonderful wine for a picnic on a hot summer afternoon. I was done tasting for the afternoon, so, my companion and I let our less serious palates take over.
Ok. It was the end of the day. We’d put the video gear in the car and gone to the Naylor tent just in time for a 10-minute drenching thunderstorm. There was just space under the tent for about ten good-natured fest goers. With great rainy-day humor, the Naylor volunteers poured a few more samples for everyone. My companion and I bought a bottle of York White Rose to go with some great fairground French fries (the kind made from real potatoes) and a pit-roasted beef sandwich. It was a great end to a great festival.
May: Carlisle Central Farmers Market
If you're lucky, you live in a town that has a Pennsylvania winery off-site location. Wineries in the state are allowed as many as five now. They give wineries' bottom lines a significant boost since they provide a direct-to-consumer outlet in population centers: customers don't have to drive to a winery in the country to buy wine. Visiting wineries has been a major entertainment for us, but, not everyone wants to make the trek. With rising fuel prices, the off-site locations might become important for all of us.
In Carlisle where we live, the Adams County Winery has a stand in the Carlisle Central Farmers Market. It was a pleasant walk down Hanover Street the first Saturday in May. The trees were in blossom. Jim Touloumes, who ran the Holly Inn in Mount Holly Springs some years ago, was working at the Adams County booth. Sandra Miller, a freelance writer and operator of the Painted Hand Farm near Newburg, was running a stand selling Keswick Creamery artisan cheese and her own vegetables, veal and goat.
We did a video of the Adams County off-site operation (view it here) in which Jim explains that the Gettysburg site, which opened in July of 2006, and the Carlisle location, which opened in September of 2007, give consumers the option of buying wine without making a trip to the winery.
Sandra Miller, who has been very active with the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) narrated a video giving an introduction to the organization. We drove out to her Painted Hand Farm the next day and shot footage of her livestock and gardens to go along with the audio. (View it here.)
PASA, which has been around for almost two decades, was organized to help small farmers make a living. "Sustainable agriculture" is a term we're all going to be hearing more about. Until the year 1900, most people in the U.S. lived on farms. Small family farms vanished as agribusiness took over the function of feeding us all.
Farming can be a wonderful way of life if you can make a living at it and PASA tries to help small farmer do that. The chief way, Sandra said, was to take the milk or meat that is the product of a farm, turn it into a high-value commodity, like cheese, sausage or prime cuts of meat, and sell directly to consumers. The increase in profit can make a small farm sustainable. Those of us in search of good things to take on those winery picnics, benefit too. There are some incredible cheeses, sausage and vegetables out there.
April: Adams County Winery, Orrtanna
(Move your mouse pointer over below photos to see them enlarged, above.)
The fourth weekend in April was rainy and chilly but we'd gotten word from a friend that the fabled apple blossoms were out in Adams County. The county is a huge fruit-growing area and the blossoming of hundreds of thousands of apple and cherry trees are a local event. And, yes, there is an apple blossom festival. (click here)
The 30-year-old Adams County Winery is on the eastern slope of South Mountain in the middle of the sea of flowering orchards this time of year. The vines had two-inch long buds on them -- spring had come to the vineyard.
For the picnic we chose the "Red, Red Wine," a blend of Cabernet Franc and Chancellor. I was impressed. I liked the rich, young flavor. It's "fruit-forward" (which I think is a "word" this year) but there's substance in it as well. It tastes like something that will age into something even better. As owner John Kramb said in the video, 2007 was a really good year.
To view our page devoted to Adams County Winery and videos, click here.
Moon Dancer Winery, Wrightsville
What an awesome April! The buds on the vines were just barely opening. There was a terrific bluegrass band -- Along for the Ride -- on the patio and the wine was fine.
We chose a refreshing Harvest Moon White for the picnic. It's listed as semi-sweet, but it isn't THAT sweet. It's a blend of Chardonnay and Vidal Blanc. I don't think I ever ran into that blend before. It works. We had it with our sourdough French bread, olives, capacitate and pickled roast peppers from the little Bosnian market up the street from the house. It was so pleasant that we had to buy a second bottle of wine.
Most Pennsylvania wineries are in beautiful settings, but Moon dancer has a view that is just awesome. It's on a hill overlooking a wide spot in the Susquehanna River. There is an occasional sail boat on the water and turkey vultures sweep overhead.
PaWineLife Moon dancer Winery page and video is here.
Spyglass Ridge, Sunbury
The buds hadn't opened on the vines when we made our first foray this year. We drove up the Susquehanna River to the town of Sunbury and headed east to Spyglass Ridge Winery.
(Mouse over below photos to see them enlarged in frame above.)
Picnic:
- Olives
- Sourdough baguette
- Cheese
- Leftover Weiner schnitzel
- Spyglass Ridge Riesling-Traminer 2006
Lunch guest: one large black winery dog
To see our Spyglass Ridge Winery page with video, click here.