Cheryl Grayson

Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

You might think that the winter would bring a lull in my win(e)ding road adventures, but there are quite a few wineries that remain open year-round, particularly here in Connecticut.   Some may take a short break for the month of January, but many are open again by February for Valentine’s Day if nothing else.

In addition to wineries January is the month for wine expos with both the Boston Wine Expo and the Mohegan Sun Winefest at the end of the month.   And February brings both the New York Wine Expo and Open That Bottle Night.  Given this bounty of wine activity, New Year’s day generally finds me on the computer planning my winter adventures, which for 2011 include:

Litchfield Hills Winter Wine Trail

For the second year, six Connecticut wineries have joined together to form the Litchfield Hills Winter Wine Trail.  For more information about the wine trail and participating wineries, check back here at the end of the week.

What better way to kick off the New Year than stopping by a few local wineries I haven’t visited in a while?

Completing A State

I have two wineries left in Connecticut before I can say I’ve completed the state; unfortunately, both are seasonal wineries only open in the summer, and one is only open the first weekend of each month.  That doesn’t mean there won’t be stops at local wineries between now and then sampling the newest Connecticut vintages across the state, but my goal of completing the Connecticut “wine trail” is another six months away.

In the meantime, though, I have only one winery left in Rhode Island, Diamond Hill Vineyards in Cumberland just north of Providence.  They are open year-round, so one weekend this winter will find me heading over to Rhode Island (perhaps with my fellow SOTS in tow?) to visit the fifth and final Rhode Island winery.  A sixth winery, Shelalara Vineyards & Winery doesn’t appear to be open to the public, but their wines are readily available in package stores across the state.  I’ve asked via email if they have a tasting room, but even if not, I will certainly pick up a few bottles to sample at home.   The trip to Diamond Hill will also mark a first for us here at Vino Verve – we will now be able to say we have visited and/or tasted wines from every winery in a single state!  You’ll definitely see a virtual celebration here when we hit that milestone.

Boston Wine Expo

January 22nd will find me heading north to the Boston Wine Expo to explore French wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux.  Not a big fan of the overcrowded Grand Tastings, I tend to spend my wine expo time in the seminars.  I also tend to select seminars that offer me the opportunity to taste wines that I would not normally experience – such as last year’s Boston Wine Expo seminars on the 2007 Chateauneuf-de-Papes and the two vertical flights from Maison Louis Latour and the Frescobaldi Crus seminar at the Mohegan Sun Winefest in 2009.

The seminar selection this year was particularly good, and it was a bit tough to choose.  But I ultimately settled on two:

Taste the Terroir of Burgundy with Laurent Drouhin of Maison Joseph Drouhin.  I’m fascinated by the concept of terroir and what better way to learn more about it than through a tasting of great wines from Burgundy.  This seminar features two flights of four wines each, one white (different villages and different vineyards) and one red (different vineyards) from the same house.

2009 Bourdeaux with Jean-Christophe Calvet, President of the Aquitaline Wine Company. The Bordeaux seminar has sold out at the previous two expos, but this year I ordered tickets early enough that I snagged a seat!

Mohegan Sun Winefest

I’m still deciding about the Mohegan Sun Winefest, which is the weekend of January 29th and 30th.   There are two seminars that look interesting, Charles Krug’s Sesquicentennial and Duckhorn’s Taste of Terroir.  The Duckhorn would certainly be interesting as a counterpoint to the Burgundy seminar the weekend before, but it’s also late Sunday afternoon.  Of course I could also take a 1/2 day the following Monday…   Decisions… Decisions…

Completely up in the air is the New York Wine Expo the last weekend in February which also happens to be Open That Bottle Night.  I’ve been contemplating hosting an OTBN party, but the final seminar list hasn’t been released yet.  If there’s a “too good to pass up” seminar, I may have to bag the party, nab my friend Maree and head over to the Wine Expo.  It’s nice to have choices.

Finally, interwoven through all of this activity are, hopefully, one or two trips with my fellow SOTS members, Deb, Cheryl and Jean.  Since we first headed out last year, all three have become big wine trail fans and have converted husbands and friends to wine trail aficionados as well.  Cheryl has even ventured as far afield as Brotherhood Winery in the Hudson River Valley after sharing a bottle of their Riesling with me one lazy Sunday afternoon.

It all sounds very busy, and we’ll see how much I actually get done.  It always sounds great as I sit on my couch planning my weekends on the computer.  However, somehow by the time the weekends arrive too many other things get in the way.  At the very least, there are the two seminars in Boston to look forward to.

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Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

Continued from Tuesday, December 8th

After the Blush wines both Maree and I moved on to the Reds.  Four Sisters produces 7 reds overall, but two were already sold out.  Of the remaining 5, 2 were described as sweet or semi-sweet wines, generally not my preference, so I skipped those and settled on the remaining 3, dry, reds.

Chambourcin The wine is a beautiful deep rose-garnet color and has a very strong cherry nose.  In the mouth the wine has strong notes of cherry which provide just a hint of sweetness to balance out the dryness of the wine.  The oaking adds touches of vanilla which give the wine a smooth finish.  Overall not a bad wine, although it felt a bit young and as a result the cherry was a bit strong.

Papa’s Red Made from Baco Noir grapes, which I’d never heard of no less tried before, this is a very pleasant medium-bodied red table wine.  Garnet colored with a light earthy nose which was a nice change from the fruity noses I so often find in the northeastern reds, the Papa’s Red has pleasant notes of berries and a nice balance of acid on the palate.  There’s a “bite” at the end which I found very reminiscent of Marechal Foch grapes, and while not unpleasant, was a bit of a surprise.

This being my first exposure to Baco Noir, I did a bit of research when I got home.  A hybrid variety that while once grown in Europe is now predominantely grown in the colder climates of the US and Canada, particularly the Upper Midwest US and Ontario.  According to Wikipedia there are 250 hectares of Baco Noir under cultivation in New York, so we’ll have to check in with the folks over at Lenndevours to see what they can tell us about New York Baco Noir wines.

In the meantime, I was on to my third red, the

Warren Hills Red Named for the surrounding area, also the name of the AVA, the Warren Hills Red was my favorite of the three reds I tasted that afternoon.  Like the Papa’s Red, this also is a deep garnet color with an earthy nose.  In the mouth, the wine has lovely notes of wild berries.  The finish has the same “bite” as the Papa’s Red leading me to suspect there were Baco Noir grapes in this wine as well, although our host for the tasting couldn’t find her notes and wasn’t sure what was included in the blend.  Overall I found this wine to have more depth and complexity than the Papa’s Red, very likely due to the fact that this is a blend.

Overall the three reds I tried were nice, pleasant table wines, although I found I was more impressed with the whites than the reds.  But, we weren’t done yet, and there were still two Ports to try.

In addition to the two Ports, Four Sisters also produces 5 fruit wines and 1 sparkling wine.  I’ve never been a fan of fruit wines and given the range of other wines available, decided to skip that category altogether, and given a choice between port and sparkling wine, I’ll generally select port.  I can’t remember, and my notes don’t indicate if Maree tried the sparkling wine, Maggie’s Magic, but I went straight to the first port:

Pop’s Port Named in honor of owner Matty’s father (grandfather of the “four sisters”), Pop’s Port is made from Baco Noir grapes.  Like the Papa’s Red, the wine is garnet colored with strong notes of cherry on the nose and in the mouth.  Semi-sweet with a rich, soft mouth-feel, this is a nice port, although the tangy “bite” at the end from the Baco Noir grapes is a bit of an unexpected surprise.

The last wine of the day was

Matty’s Apple Port Made from late harvest apples grown on the Mattarazzo farm and brandy fortified.  The nose is much lighter than I anticipated and in the mouth the flavor of the apples is rich without being overpowering.  The apples provide a slight tartness which balances out the overall sweetness, resulting in a rich, smooth and very satisfying port.  I definitely preferred this one to the Pop’s Port and found it to be a great finish to an interesting and extensive tasting.

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Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

Shortly after I heard about the New Jersey Thanksgiving Wine Trail weekend, I received an email from Haight-Brown Winery in Connecticut announcing their participation in the

1st Annual Litchfield Hills Winter Wine Trail

The winter wine trail is comprised of six participating wineries all clustered around Litchfield, Connecticut.  Visit any of the wineries between December 1st and March 15th and pick up a Winter Wine Trail registration card.  Get your card stamped at all six wineries by March 15th, and you’ll be eligible for the grand prize drawing of an overnight stay at a Litchfield County Bed & Breakfast with second and third prizes being a a family 4-pack of passes for Ski Sundown and dinner at a Litchfield County Restaurant.

The participating wineries include:

CT Valley Winery ~ New Hartford, CT
Jerram Winery ~ New Hartford, CT       **Vino Verve Visited**
Haight-Brown Vineyard ~ Litchfield, CT     **Vino Verve Visited**
Hopkins Vineyard ~ New Preston, CT     **Vino Verve Visited**
Miranda Vineyard ~ Goshen, CT       **Vino Verve Visited**
Sunset Meadow Vineyards ~ Goshen, CT      **Vino Verve Visited**

The Litchfield Hills are lovely any time of the year and the towns scattered throughout the region often feature charming 18th and 19th century farmhouses and Queen Annes (or newer houses styled like more historic buildings), local farms and vineyards with a wide area of fresh produce and wines  and picturesque town squares (particularly in the town of Litchfied).  Decked out for Christmas, especially if there’s snow on the ground, the area is practically a Currier & Ives lithograph come to life.

Combine all that with the chance to win some great prizes, and you’ve got a new Locapour Holiday Tradition.

I’ll be hitting the trail on Saturday December 5th with three of my newest wine-trail buddies, Cheryl Grayson and sisters Deb Shaw-Esteves and Melissa Shaw.   It will also give me the chance to check off one more winery in my quest to complete the entire Connecticut Wine Trail.   Hope to see you there!

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