With a wealth of good wine, picking the Case of the Brandywine is getting harder
Sometimes a wine region identifies itself by one or two products — sparkling wine for Champagne, pinot noir and chardonnay for Burgundy.
But in the half dozen years that the Brandywine region has grown from two wineries to going on 10, it has been the diversity of good to excellent wines that has marked the local industry.
Last year, the first Annual News Journal Case of the Brandywine was created to answer the question: What selections should you make if you wanted to send a friend 12 bottles — a case — that represented the quality and diversity of winegrowing in the Brandywine region?
This year, the answer came after a one-day road trip to the six tasting rooms on the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail. Local grape grower, consultant and amateur winemaker David Othmer of Haywagon Vineyard accompanied me on the trip.
The local landscape of wineries has changed a bit since that first case was chosen last summer. Folly Hill, located behind Longwood Gardens, closed its doors and was purchased by the Galer family, who plan to launch Galer Estate next year, using the Folly Hill property plus vineyards it has in Pocopson. Black Walnut Winery, in Sadsburyville, is already in production and has joined the wine trail, but its tasting and sales room will not open until this fall.
Most significant, Penns Woods has joined the trail and released its first wines, high-quality selections made over the past three vintages. Owned by wine importer Gino Razzi, Penns Woods has its tasting room and some vineyards on Beaver Valley Road just north of the Delaware state line.
Sparklers to begin
We started our road trip with a mid-morning sampling of sparkling wine — the nonvintage Esperanza — at Twin Brook Winery, in Gap. Winemaker Tim Jobe has gotten his arms around this fairly large property and is making a line of mellow whites and lightly oaked reds, featuring both vinifera (classic European grapes) and French-American hybrids. We made our first list of potential case candidates.
After taking the wrong exit on the U.S. 30 bypass, we arrived at our second stop, the downtown West Chester tasting room of Kreutz Creek Vineyards, whose winery and home tasting room are near West Grove. In Pennsylvania, wineries can have a limited number of satellite tasting rooms, and Kreutz Creek has made the West Chester one into a “bring your own food” facility.
Winemaker and co-owner Jim Kirkpatrick grows mainly French varieties and hybrids to make a wide variety of offerings from table wines to a port-style dessert wine. We find his “port” and light white wines particularly appealing.
So many choices
For Penns Woods, Razzi invited us to taste at his Eddystone winery and laid out an impressive “buffet” of reds and whites. This is when the choice of a case started to become difficult, as Penns Woods has at least a half-dozen regular bottlings, reserves and reserve blends that could easily make our case. Later, we will find the same appealing problem at Chaddsford Winery and Va La Family Farmed Wines.
Which of Razzi’s wines do we like best? And which best represent the region — the sauvignon blancs, chardonnays and pinot grigios for the whites, or the cabernets, merlots and the blends for the reds?
All the Penns Woods whites are substantial in weight, yet they are crisp and clean. The reds are generally more tannic and concentrated in the classic international style than are others produced locally. Two or three are merely very nice, and the rest are all very impressive.
Dave Hoffman, of Paradocx Vineyard; Jim Kirkpatrick, of Kreutz Creek Vineyards; Tim Jobe, of Twin Brook Winery; and Lee Miller, of Chaddsford Winery.
The 2008 News Journal
Case of the Brandywine
Case of the Brandywine
NONVINTAGE TWIN BROOK ESPERANZA ($20) Very rich and full sparkling wine with good brioche flavors that go well with food or simply for sipping by the glass.
NONVINTAGE KREUTZ CREEK VIDAL BLANC ($13) Vidal is perhaps the best, most versatile hybrid grape. Nice, crisp flavors with a slight nuttiness make this one a good party wine.
2006 TWIN BROOK PINOT GRIS ($17) With a good blend of fruitiness and oak, this wine is long on the palate with a pleasant, toasty finish.
2005 PENNS WOODS PINOT GRIGIO RESERVE ($34.50) Not your wimpy PG, this wine has nice, firm flavors of stone fruits, such as white peach, and good acidity for a long finish.
2007 PARADOCX VIOGNIER ($19) Delicious peach and mango flavors with good, fresh acidity to balance the fruit.
2006 VA LA LA PRIMA DONNA ($35) A floral nose and floral flavors, yet dry and crisp with pepperiness around the edges. Quite complex.
2006 CHADDSFORD JANSEN CHAMBOURCIN ($23) Chambourcin is a specialty at Chaddsford. This one is from a new source, and the result is smooth, excellent, soft fruitiness like super-ripe wild wineberries.
2005 PARADOCX MERGE ($25) There are Rhone Valley overtones in this brooding, smoky wine that are enlivened by very ripe black cherry flavors.
2005 CHADDSFORD DUE ROSSI ($25) Barbera leads this Italian grape blend — lots of smoke with lactic undertones and a very tight finish. A bargain, this one can age for a while.
2005 PENNS WOODS AMERITAGE RESERVE ($55) This is a tannic red in the super-Tuscan style with flavors of ripe, sweet currants.
2005 VA LA MAHOGANY ($55) A wine that will improve with bottle time, this Italian/French blend has dark cherries and concentrated tart blackberries, hints of chocolate, a little caramel and supple tannins.
NONVINTAGE KREUTZ CREEK RUBY K ($15) Ruby K is a fortified wine — 18 percent alcohol — in the port style with rich, dark raspberry flavors.
2008 News Journal Case of Brandywine: Only $336 + tax RESERVE YOUR CASE TODAY!
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Next is Chaddsford, the pioneer winery along U.S. 1 in Chadds Ford, where winemaker and co-owner Eric Miller has just begun releasing his 25th vintage. The thing that strikes you is that Chaddsford wines have a diversity of styles and flavors tailored to the grape and the vintage. All are made well, some exceptionally so.
Miller made his name with chardonnays, and that style continues to evolve with his impressive 2006 Miller Estate. And no one makes chambourcin — the red hybrid that flourishes in southeastern Pennsylvania — any better.
But he also is a master with the Bordeaux red grapes and their blends, and he has in recent years shown a nice hand with the northern Italian varietals.
Which to choose?
Top-notch viognier
At the Paradocx satellite tasting room a couple of miles farther along U.S. 1 in Kennett Square, I am again struck by how well winemaker and co-owner David Hoffman makes excellent viognier. Definitely has to go into the case this year as it did last.
Paradocx also makes an excellent value wine at the other end of the spectrum with Barn Red, sold in a paint can.
All the wines are good, particularly the red blends, and Paradocx stands just a step away from moving up to having a complete line of wines that are all well-defined and properly oaked.
The last stop of our road trip — many miles, several hours and dozens of wines later — is Va La, in Avondale.
Winemaker and co-owner Anthony Vietri has a vision that differs somewhat from that of his wine trail colleagues. His goal is to make a limited number of wines in limited volume, mostly from his own vines, that are of the highest quality and are priced accordingly.
Those who like whites that are a little sweeter and reds that are more voluptuous may not prefer his wines, but those who like leaner, yet quite fruity, wines that are tailored for food will beat a path to his door.
And they do. He sells out of everything, and the tasting room is often short on inventory until the next bottling.
The term “cult winery” is already being used to describe Va La.
We start with the La Prima Donna white blend, which is complex and superb, as always. The Cedar and Mahogany blends are both excellent.
In fact, the 2005 Mahogany is possibly the best Pennsylvania red I have tasted.
It will definitely be the 12th and final bottle to fill up our 2008 Case of the Brandywine.
Our finished case consists of one sparkling wine, five white table wines, five red table wines and one port-style dessert wine. In the end, we couldn't find a place for any of the several good local chardonnays, although we tried hard for the Chaddsford. Prices ranged from $13 a bottle to $55. The tab for the total 2008 Case of the Brandywine was about $337, for an average price of a little more than $28 a bottle.
To make our tasting adventure available to consumers, the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail agreed to put together a limited edition of 24 cases of the 12 wines selected for the 2008 Case of the Brandywine for sale to the public. SELECT FOR MORE INFO...
