Also on my New Year’s Day excursion was a stop at Sunset Meadow Vineyards, a fairly regular stop for me throughout the year, and with Connecticut Valley Winery, a particular favorite of the Sisters of the Wine Trail (SOTS).

Also a particpating winery of the Litchfield Winter Wine Trail, I headed over to Goshen after leaving Jerram Winery in the New Hartford.  Proprietors George and Judy Venice Motel have created a very comfortable and cozy space with the Tasting Room with the look and feel of a rustic, but well-appointed cabin.  When I arrived mid-afternoon, several small groups of people were already settled in enjoying both the wine and the roaring fire.  Judy Venice Motel was circulating through the room, and with the surrounding snow-covered hills and vineyards visible through the windows lining one wall of the tasting room, I felt like I had stepped into a ski lodge.

I grabbed a place at the bar and a tasting of five of my favorite of Sunset Meadow’s wines – the Riesling, the Vidal Blanc, Blustery Blend (a Cayuga, Seyval Blanc blend), New Dawn (a Malbec, Merlot, Frontenac and Landot Noir blend) and the St. Croix, all of which have been featured here at Vino Verve.

At the end of the tasting, rather than ordering a glass of wine, I was offered a small steaming mug of a mulled Merlot.  I’ve had mulled wine before – I mull wine myself several times each winter –  but this was the richest and most delicious mulled wine I’ve had in many an age.

The base for Sunset Meadow’s mulled wine is their Merlot, a 2010 Finger Lakes Wine Competition silver medal winner and a 2010 Grand Harvest International Wine Competition Bronze Medal winner.  To this they add cranberry juice and Crown Mulling Spices, a blend of spices that includes cranberry, cinnamon, and nutmeg among others.  The result was a rich, silky, fruity, robust mulled wine that was absolutely perfect for a cold, snowy afternoon.  I could have stayed there all afternoon drinking mugs of mulled wine; instead I contented myself with a sample and a mental note to order some Crown Mulling Spices and invite my fellow SOTS over for a Sunday afternoon in front of the home fires.

Note to the Motels ~ if you ever decide to bottle your mulled wine, drop me a line.  I’ll definitely be coming by to pick up a case!

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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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Saturday afternoon, May 9th, I once again headed into the Litchfield Hills, this time for the Sunset Meadow Vineyards (SMV) 2009 Barrel Tasting.  This was the winery’s first barrel tasting, and they hosted a marvelous event, complete with catered hors d’oeuvres, live music and tours of the winery and barrel rooms starting roughly every 30 minutes.

SMV is very much a family operation; co-owners Judy and George Motel were both on hand, greeting everyone, asking questions and making everyone feel welcomed and comfortable.  George, who has an enological degree from University of California, Davis, and is Sunset Meadows’ winemaker, and their son, George, Jr. conducted all the barrel tastings and winery tours.  They run the winery and the vineyards themselves with a staff of about 10.

When the Motels bought the property about 15 years ago, it was a working farm, complete with cattle and lots of hay.  They farmed the property for the first five years, and about 10 years ago began planting their first vines, choosing Cayuga and St. Croix to begin with because of their hardiness.  The vines did so well that they continued to expand, and now grow Chardonnay and Merlot in addition to the original Cayuyga and St. Croix.  They have about 7,000 vines on 40 acres, and they grow almost all their own grapes on site through sustainable agricultural practices.  All of the vines are hand-pruned and the grapes hand-picked.  They’ve been producing wine for a number of years, but 2008 was the first year for winery sales.

The winery buildings are housed in several 19th-century barns; the Tasting Room is the most “authentic” with most of the original wood and beams left intact during the renovation.  The storage room was originally a 19th-century cattle barn, complete with hay-loft, but the Motels gutted and retrofitted it so it better house the tanks and barrels.  But the essential structure of the barn remains and has been worked into the winery design:  the large doors at the back of the barn which would have opened onto a large fenced-in area to help herd the cattle into the barn each evening, has been transformed into a large outdoor patio where the grapes are brought for destemming after harvesting.  From there, the grapes are brought into the storage room to begin fermentation and pressing.

As George related the history of the winery and the process they follow to make their wines, we worked our way through the barrel tastings:

• The 2008 Cayuga White, which will be bottled in June – light, crisp and refreshing.
• The 2008 Chardonnay, also scheduled to be bottled in June – this wine is aged in Oak for about 3-4 months giving it a bit more character and body than the Cayuga White.  It also undergoes a second fermentation process, which helps give it more of a buttery flavor.
• The 2008 St. Croix scheduled to be bottled in April 2010- an interesting wine, still very young it doesn’t yet have the strong fruit notes that are characteristic of a St. Croix, but there’s a smoky mellowness to it that’s really nice.  We contrasted that with the 
• 2007 St. Croix, which will be bottled this June – the fruitiness and character of the St. Croix are much more prominent in the “older” vintage.
• The 2008 Red Dawn – a brand new wine, a blend of Merlot and St. Croix, this is scheduled for bottling in April 2010.  A very nice blend, the wine is still young and the additional aging should really bring out the wine’s character.  Definitely one I will be coming back for in Spring 2010.
• The 2008 Merlot, which will be bottled in April 2010 – a really nice Merlot, smooth, mellow, still very young, but showing a lot of promise.  Another wine I’m making a note to return for in 2010.
• And last, but not least, a new dessert wine being bottled this summer, the Candy Apple Red – a port-style wine, this wine has a rich sweetness and mellowness that I really liked.

We ended up back outside on the patio, where we helped ourselves to more wine and hors d’oeuvres and settled in to enjoy the weather, the company and the music.  All in all, a great event, and something I hope SMV will make an annual event.

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Heading south on Route 63 from Canaan into Goshen, the Sunset Meadow Vineyards

are on your left. The Tasting Room is a 1-story building with a porch running the length of the front and a large patio area with outdoor seating on the side. Everything about Sunset Meadow is welcoming, from the seasonal decorations on the front porch

to the large open tasting room.

The tasting room itself is paneled in wood with a large bar running along the entire length of the back wall. Comfortable bar stools are spread out across the bar area, and there’s room to accommodate at least 12-15 tasters at a time. Behind the bar, wine racks line the walls, and off to your right French doors lead onto the patio area. A tasting is $6 and includes a Sunset Meadow Vineyards glass for you to take home. The staff is extremely pleasant and will stop and chat. When I stopped by last week, the Tasting Menu consisted of 5 wines:

Riesling – a nice Riesling; crisp with hints of apple. I’m generally not a big fan of Rieslings, and so passed quickly onto the Cayuga White.

Cayuga White – This is a crisp, fruity white that would be great with chicken or fish. I was quite impressed; the wine has a complexity that is interesting in the mouth. The tasting notes indicate grapefruit, melon and peach. I must admit I wasn’t able to discern any specific fruit, but the medley of flavors that balanced nicely, and in the end I find prefer wines that balance to those that have strong notes. The Cayuga was awarded a Bronze Medal in the 2008 International Eastern Wine Competition.

Merlot – I must admit I was less impressed with the Merlot than with the other wines. I’m finding that with respect to reds, Connecticut does better with blended wines. Perhaps it’s the climate, perhaps it’s the soil, but Connecticut Merlots don’t really stand up to the western coastal wines or even those of Long Island. The tasting notes indicate cherry and hints of black pepper and butter. I picked up more of the pepper and less of the cherry, and that could also have influenced my overall opinion of the wine.

Twisted Red – This wine is a blend of Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Lemberger and Chambourcin and is aged in French Oak. It’s a full-bodied red, and on tasting my first thought was “Interesting, but probably needs to be aged a bit.” As it turns out, I was right. The tasting notes indicate that while it can be drunk immediately, it can also be saved for a few years. My impression is that if you leave it for a couple years before uncorking, you will a really rich, mellow red. I’ll let you know in a couple of years when I pour the bottle I bought after my tasting. This wine won a Bronze Medal at the 2008 Eastern States Wine Competition (the “BigE”), and was my favorite of all the wines featured in the tasting.

St. Croix – The tasting concluded with the St. Croix, a limited production, full-bodied red. This is an interesting wine: smooth, with a fruity bouquet, I detected notes of spices and pepper, and the wine grew more complex as I sipped. The tasting notes indicate the wine can age up to an additional 4 years, and I think this wine will definitely benefit from waiting a few years before uncorking.

I’ve been to the Sunset Meadow Vineyard Tasting Room twice now, and both times really enjoyed myself. It’s comfortable, with pleasant hosts and good wines. I’m looking forward to returning when the weather gets warmer, buying a couple bottles of wine and sitting on the patio with a few friends watching the sun set over the hills.

Note to Kevin & Gretchen – United has direct flights from O’Hare to Bradley every day!

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