The Long and Winding Road

As strange as it may sound,  planning Thanksgiving dinner makes me think of Chaddsford Winery.  Every November, Chaddsford holds what they call "Turkey Tastings" on Saturdays leading up to Thanksgiving. 

The idea is cool - sample Thanksgiving food items with different wines and see what works for you.  Now, according to my PIC, anyone in their right mind knows that Zinfandel goes with turkey - and Pinot, if you run out of Zin - but one year, we found ourselves with a free weekend and we signed up for one of these sit-down tastings.

Six wines were poured along side of a sampling platter of traditional holiday fare - among them the Proprieter's Reserve White, Dry Riesling, Dry Rose, Pinot Noir, and two other reds that escape me at the moment but I think one of them was the Due Rossi. We began the exercise with anything but an open mind; we knew exactly which wine we would prefer and that would be, perhaps our favorite Chaddsford wine, the 2007 Pinot Noir. 

That was a long story to get here but all of this came back to me, not so much because of Thanksgiving dinner, but because we opened a bottle of the 2007 Due Rossi.  I have to admit that I was a little hesitant as we had a bottle of the 2007 Pinot a few weeks ago and it's currently sitting in the cooking wine section of the refrigerator.  That's not necessarily a knock to Chaddsford but more that we may have held it too long.

Anyway, back to the Due - 80% Barbera, 20% Sangiovese and ten months in French and Hungarian oak.  Somewhat light in color and medium bodied, it was soft and round with cherry, licorice and violets with beautifully refined tannins.  It was wonderful, just as I remembered!

By the way, we chose the Riesling and the Rose to go with our turkey dinner.  Go figure......

Crossing Vineyards - Part III: Please Exit Through the Gift Shop

The Premium wines started with the 2008 Chambourcin Reserve, described by the winemaker as a "complex Zinfandel-style wine" which piqued our interest.  Unfortunately, I'm not really sure how to describe it except to say that it was not Chambourcin as we know it.  The nose was a little oaky and I couldn't really pick out any flavor profile.  Having said that, I didn't dislike it but it wasn't really up my alley.  The 2008 Pinot Noir Reserve had the same brownish color in the glass as the first Pinot but the nose was more earthy.  The tannins were firm with some fruitness in the back of the palate and it finished with hints of black tea. 

The tasting ended with two dessert wines.  The first, the 2009 Late Harvest Vidal Blanc, was lovely!  Nicely balanced  - sweet but not cloying - it had a hint of petrol and dried apricot on the nose with a long honey-apricot finish.  The second was the port-style Chocolate Cherry Truffle.  A fun, light-bodied after-dinner drink reminiscent of chocolate-covered cherries, I can see sipping this one by the fire on a cool fall night.

In a nutshell, I would say that Crossing Vineyards was a mixed bag for us.  My PIC was more disappointed than I was but perhaps our bars were set differently.  I thought that the whites were pretty solid but most of the reds were just not my style.  We did, however, exit through the gift shop, and did not leave empty-handed.

Crossing Vineyards - Part II: Please Remain Seated Until the Ride Comes to a Complete Stop

The reds began with the 2010 Le Noveau, a play on Beaujolais.  With not a Gamay grape in sight, this one is Chambourcin and I'm just not a fan of Chambourcin.  Let's leave it at that.  Now, on to serious wine, the 2008 Pinot Noir.  It was a bit brown in color and a little oaky for my taste.  I got oak and allspice on the nose and a spicy, chile pepper finish. 

Next was the 2008 Merlot which was light bodied with firm tannins but again, more oak than I enjoy.  The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon was softer than the Merlot and had some really pretty fruit on the nose but I detected a hint of dill, that my PIC did not, that for me, detracted from the fruitness. 

The 2008 Cabernet Franc was light bodied and well balanced with lovely fruit, nicely integrated tannins, and a long toasty oak finish.  The ruby red 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blend - 55% Cab Sauv, 45% Merlot - had a soft, round texture with firm tannins but I got that hint of dill from the Cab Sauv.  The final pour in this group was the Vintner's Select Red, a NV Meritage-style blend of 40% Cab Sauv, 40% Cab Franc, and 20% Merlot.  I found it to be a bit acidic but there was nice fruit and toasty oak on the nose with a chile spice finish.

On to the Premium wines....

Crossing Vineyards - Part I: Please Keep Your Arms and Legs Inside the Boat

After a week of heavy rain and flooding we were feeling the need for adventure.  My Partner in Crime has been intrigued by Crossing Vineyards in the Washington Crossing/Newtown area in Pennsylvania so, with some trepidation and two sets of fully inflated water wings, we plugged the address into Penny and went to check it out.

Penny did a pretty good job of getting us there in a reasonable amount of time but she took us to the vineyard - always good the check the grapes first.  The entrance from the road is unassuming and in stark contrast to the elegant building that houses the tasting room.

The tasting fees are a bit steep - $8 for Regular, $15 for Premium - but that is for 8 to 10 and 12 to 14 wines, respectively and they were very willing to let us try anything that was open.  Because the Premium tasting included the Reserve Pinot and Late Harvest Vidal Blanc, we went for it, grabbed our glasses and headed into the barrel room to get the party started.

The first wine up was the 2009 Chardonnay which spent only three months in oak.  It was quite nice - round and soft with hints of pear and butterscotch.  Next was the 2008 Viognier done in stainless steel.  It was very pleasant with loads of tropical fruit but it came across as as much sweeter than the 0.5 to 0.8 RS we were told it had - in fact, we found it almost cloying. 

The Viognier was followed by the Vintner's Select White, a blend of 60% Chardonnay, 20% Viognier, and 20% Riesling.  The nose was all Chard but it was soft with peach and tropical fruit and a little more acidity than the Viognier.  The next pour was the off-dry 2010 Vidal Blanc.  With 1% RS, I was not expecting to like this but it had some apple notes and a nice crisp finish.

I was pleasantly surprised by the next pour, the 2009 semi-dry Riesling.   I normally wouldn't even try a Riesling with an RS of 2.5% but curiosity got the better of me.  The nose was tropical fruit and sweet vanilla that carried through on the palate with a nice acidity that dried out the finish.  The last of the group was the  2009 dry Rose.  Made from Cab Franc, it was almost ruby in color with strawberry and some floral notes but it had a bit more oak than I like in my Roses.

Next up, the reds......stay tuned!

Makes You Go Huh....

My PIC never works on his birthday, it's apparently a life-long tradition. It's not one that I can explain, but it does give us an extra day together. So, you will not be surprised when I tell you that we made a winery visit. We trekked out to Elverson, PA to check out J. Maki. It's a lovely drive to get there from Ludwig's Corner, it actually reminded me of the Virginia wine country.

We bellied up to the bar as I worked hard to suppress the overwhelming feeling that we were intruding on them - interrupting their daily routine. It was an interesting tasting; we had the "pleasure" of the winemaker's company and a private tasting - by virtue of the fact that we were the only ones there. He's a man of few words, offering no insight on the individual wines with the exception of one or two, and that was only one sentence. There were seven offerings but he did pour us a few wines not on the tasting menu. 

There is a $20 tasting fee which is waived if you make a purchase. I understand tasting fees - I hate them - but I understand them. But here's my real issue with this one - at least pour enough in the glass that I can smell and taste it! The pour was so minimal, it wasn't enough to even swirl in the glass, let alone in my mouth. Tasting fee or not, if you want to create a possibility, no matter now remote, that I'm going to buy, please don't tell me about how many awards you've won; how popular your wine is; where you sell it; how many people from New York buy it; how much you ship to the west coast of Florida...just pour enough in my glass so that I can actually taste it.

I honestly think they sell their wine by creating an awkward and uncomfortable tasting room situation.  Having said all of that,  to recoup our tasting fee, we gambled and brought some home but, I gotta tell ya... that's no excuse for being sucked in! 

The VSP is a Bordeaux blend that we thought we liked when we tasted the tablespoon-full at the winery. We opened one the other night and we weren't exactly doing cartwheels over it. It was pretty tight at first, no fruit on the nose, only oak, lots of oak.  We recorked it and put it in the refrigerator thinking it would be cooking wine.  I couldn't help but try it again and tonight's encounter was not much better.  Instead of cooking wine it became drain cleaner.

Fortunately, the whole birthday wasn't a bust.  We did get a couple of dessert wines that that were really nice!

The Amish Shed

When we bought our house, there was a c. 1950's aluminum shed in the back yard that, to say it had seen better days would make it sound like the Taj Mahal.  Remember those old sheds with the little sliding doors and the corrugated aluminum sides?  That's what we had, painted a lovely shade of beige that we thought would fade into the landscape if we painted it hunter green.  Yeah...not so much.

So, we decided to shop for a new Amish Shed which somehow evolved into a long strange drive home through part of the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail.  We fired up Penelope, our British GPS lady fondly referred to as Penny, and set out for a few wineries.  Stop number three?  Stargazers!

We drove winding roads through beautiful wooded areas for what seemed forever but as we approached our destination....Penny lost her satelites!  We found ourselves in a very residential area, questioning Penny's sanity.  Lo and behold, we turned into what appeared to be a small development only to see a home at the top of the hill with a really big garage.

Let me preface the rest of this by reminding you that it was the third stop - and it was a year ago - but we were so impressed by their commitment to sustainability that we really wanted to love the wines.  They are basically organic in the vineyard, using only a low impact chemical fungicide.  They capture rain water in cisterns for vineyard and winery use, and have a passive solar home and winery.  They have a subterranean cellar and fermentation temperatures are controlled by the water from their cisterns.  Their philosophy is less is more - minimal manipulation and filtration yields maximum flavors.

That was a really long build up to the bottle we opened last night - the Stargazers 2007 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.  Oh, how we wanted to love this but I'm sorry to say that it wasn't quite there or perhaps we opened it too soon.  Our intital impression was a lot of oakiness on the nose and an acidity that came across as metalic on the front of the palate.  Ripe fruit exploded on the back of the palate with sweet vanilla but the finish was kind of odd.  We shoved the cork back in and put it in the refrigerator.

Day two - the oakiness of the night before is gone and the nose is kind of pretty - fruity with a hint of cedar.  It is medium bodied and the acidity is gone but, the fruit is a little muted on the palate.  The finish is dusty and oaky, but not in a chewing sticks kind of way. 

Tomorrow is another day and I would stay tuned to see what this wine does in a day or so.  Considering the climate and the opportunities for full ripening, I'd say that this wine is not quite there, but for a Pennsylvania Cab Sauv...it's close...very close.