Adair Vineyards ~ The Wines

Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

On the day I stopped by, Adair Winery was featuring tastings of five wines: three whites, a rosé and a dessert wine.  In general, all of the wines were delicate with stronger earth notes as opposed to fruit – somewhat unusual for the Northeast based on my experiences, where I’ve found either because of the hardier hybrid grapes grown here, or the terroir, or both, the wines definitely tend toward the fruitier with a preponderance of citrus in the whites and cherry and plum in the reds.

My tasting kicked off with the 2009 Seyval, a nice delicate wine with a musty earth nose.  The light in the Tasting Room was somewhat dim and yellow-y, so I wasn’t able to get a true sense of the color, but it’s close to a pale straw. In the mouth the wine is light and delicate, with earthy notes of light grass and a hint of green pepper.  Low acid on the finish gives the wine a much smoother finish than I had anticipated.   The tasting notes indicate it is structured along the lines of a Muscadet Sur Lie, and sur lie aged for 7 months.   I found that the wine’s delicateness prohibited me from fully appreciating it during a 1 oz sip – although truth is you can’t fully appreciate any wine from just a 1 oz sip – but in this case I very definitely felt that I wasn’t getting the full impact of the wine.

Solitary Oak Aged for 8 months in a combination of French and American Oak barrels, this was a stronger, less delicate wine.  A blend of 40% Seyval, 50% Vidal and 10% Vignoles, all primarily estate grown grapes, this was my favorite of the five Adair wines I tried that afternoon.  The nose is floral with notes of apple blossom.  In the mouth, the wine is crisper than the Seyval, while still being somewhat light.  There’s a tangy/tart sweetness of green apples on the palate and a nice balance of acid on the finish with a light note of grapefruit.  As I describe it, I know it sounds like that might be a strange, and perhaps too tart, combination, green apples in the front, grapefruit on the back, but it creates a really interesting contrast which gives the wine additional character.  The oaking is light, providing just a hint of smoke, rather than the butter or cream one often finds with oaked whites.

The last of the three whites on the menu was the 2009 Cayuga White, a semi-dry wine that is stronger and fruitier than either of the previous two.  The nose is quite strong with lush notes of nectarine and apricot.  In the mouth, the wine is soft and sweet with notes of nectarine and orange.  The finish is very smooth, and people who prefer their wines sweeter should really like the Cayuga.

From there we moved on to the 2009 Rosalis, a 50/50 blend of Frontenac and Dechaunac grapes.  The nose is earthy and lightly floral with faint notes of strawberry.  The wine is made in a beaujolais style, light and smooth.  Strawberry is the predominant note, and the tannins are very light making this a very smooth wine overall.   The lighter-bodied, more delicate nature of the wine helps keep the strawberry notes from becoming overpowering.  This would be a great sipping wine for a spring or summer afternoon.

And then finally, the tasting concluded with the 2009 Blackberry Kir a blend of 95% Cayuga and 5% Blackberry Wine.   Not surprisingly the dominant notes in both the nose and mouth are blackberry, but it’s not overpowering or too sweet.  In the mouth, the wine is smooth and clean and the rich sweetness of the blackberries, while present, don’t overwhelm the wine.  Personally I found it a bit too sweet for my tastes, but it is an interesting wine, and one I would encourage any visitor to Adair to try.

With that, I picked up a bottle of the Solitary Oak to sample more leisurely at home, said farewell to my hosts and headed back across the river to Connecticut.

This entry was posted on December 2, 2010 at 12:01 am and is filed under Cayuga, DeChaunac, Frontenac, local wines, Marguerite Barrett, Win(e)ding Roads, wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.