Yesterday we started the day off by pressing off the Chambourcin and the Norton to finish off the harvest... or so I thought! I just found out this morning that we have 5 tons of Viognier that we are planning on making into our Nektar. The Nektar is a dessert wine, typically created in the style of an ice wine. Ice wines are very popular in Canada and the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The grapes actually freeze on the vine and they are picked in the wee small hours of the morning. (I've been listening to Frank Sinatra in the tasting room recently, and I can't seem to get it out of my head!) Because these grapes are frozen they are pressed off and a very sweet juice is left, which creates ice wine! Since we do not have such cold nights in Virginia we are left to make a mock ice wine, where we throw the grapes in a large freezer and then press them off. The Nektar has a rather long production cycle, so it will be pressed off and then sit in barrel for over a year! So dont expect to see that wine until January of 2011.
On the other dessert wine front, we have our Royale. This is a late harvest Norton wine. This has been sitting in barrel for a long time and is going to be bottled next month! So you can expect to see that in the tasting room in January (rough estimate). Either way, I have never tried either of our sweet wines, so that will be a fun new experience. Typically my pallet leans towards dry wines, but I've heard such wonderful things about both the Royale and the Nektar!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
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A few glasses of Nektar, a dark room, and In The Wee Small Hours is a good evening. :)
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