Northwinds Vineyard ~ Watertown, Connecticut

Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

This past Saturday marked the start of a week-long vacation.  As I had gone to Quebec over the Fourth of July weekend and as I wasn’t in the mood to think about packing or, worse, getting on a plane, I decided to make this week’s vacation a Win(e)ding Roads adventure.  I have just a few wineries left on the Connecticut Wine Trail, have the pass I purchased for the Hudson Valley wine trail, and have been wanting to move a bit further afield – maybe Cape Cod or Maine – just to see a bit more of New England.  A week’s worth of wineries sounded very appealing.

I kicked off the week in leisurely fashion, sleeping in, meeting my friend Christy (who’s staying off the wine trail for a while) for lunch, and then heading to Watertown and Northwinds Vineyard, one of the last four Connecticut wineries on my list.

Northwinds is a charming winery in the hills just above Lake Winnemaug, not to be confused with Lake Warramaug (as I did), the home of Hopkins Vineyards, further west.  No wonder my GPS had so much trouble finding the place, probably would have helped if I had typed in the right name…   The main house and winery is a large newer-construction home with a charming front brick entrance-cum-porch.  The garage appears to have been converted into the winery, and signs direct you around the house to the Tasting Room in the back, a large open-air patio with a gazebo roof and canvas “walls” that roll down during inclement weather.   The staff is welcoming and, despite the steady influx of newcomers, well able to keep the tastings moving along so no one was forced to wait long to begin their tasting.

Only a few years old, Northwinds has approximately 3,600 vines, St. Croix, Cabernet Franc, Vignoles, Riesling, Vidal Blanc and Traminette, on five acres of prime Connecticut farmland soil.  Prior to planting grapes, the farm had produced corn and hay for more than 50 years, which left the soil rich in minerals particularly suited for the grapes.   Northwinds also takes a sustainable, organic approach with the cultivation and maintenance of their vineyards, and their pest control process utilizes only materials listed with the Organic Materials Register Institute.

Almost all of their wines are estate grown, the one exception being their Zephyr wine, which blends their locally-grown Traminette with Seyval Blanc brought in from off-site.   For $5, the tasting menu includes six of their eight wines: three whites, the Traminette, Zephyr, and Vidal Blanc, Northwinds’ Rosé, and two reds, the Boreas and the St. Croix.  As you find in many wineries, the dessert wine, the Late Harvest Vignoles is not available for tasting, and the final wine, the Riesling, is available in the Fall.  Northwinds swaps out the Riesling and the Rosé on the tasting menu, featuring the Rosé in the Spring and the Riesling in the late Summer/early Fall.

The winery is open for tastings on Saturdays only from 11:00 – 5:00 between June and just before Thanksgiving.  In addition to their wines, Northwinds also has gift baskets which can be ordered by calling or stopping by the winery.  They also are open to the public the Saturday before Christmas for wine sales and gift basket pick-ups only.

Northwinds Vineyard
471 Lake Winnemaug Road
Watertown, CT 06795
203-233-3941

Tags: Northwinds Vineyard

This entry was posted on August 10, 2010 at 12:01 am and is filed under Connecticut, Connecticut Wine Trail, local wines, Marguerite Barrett, New England, Western Connecticut Wine Trail, Win(e)ding Roads, wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.