LENNDEVOURS

WTN: Ste. Chapelle 2005 Winemaker's Series Riesling (Idaho)

You read the post title right--this wine is from Idaho. In fact, I toyed with the idea of naming this post "Who Da Ho? I Da Ho." but thought better of it.

It's been a long time since I have made a tour stop in my 50 States. 50 Wineries. project, but I stumbled upon this wine at a small little wine shop in upstate New York. It was nestled in a display rack next to several Finger Lakes rieslings, and for $11 bucks, I thought "It's worth a shot."

And indeed it was.

Of course, most people think of potatoes when the think about Idaho, but apparently there was quite a wine industry there pre-Prohibition. And, with the success of wines from Washington and Oregon--Idaho's western neighbors--it shouldn't be surprising that wine is making a comeback.

Having never been there myself, I don't have any first-hand experience with Idaho's weather, but apparently, Idaho has very cold winters, but a moderate growing season, with a combination of cold nights and warm days. Warms days lead to ripe grapes and cold nights preserve acidity.

Sounds good to me, and while this wine isn't on par with the best U.S. rieslings I've had, it's far better than many that I have tasted.

In fact, if you like the off-dry style of many Pacific Northwest rieslings, this is a great value at 10-12 bucks a bottle.

The nose is somewhat faint, but offers subtle peach, apricot and citrus zest aromas with a little minerality in the background. The palate is fruity and somewhat soft, but the 2+% residual sugar is pretty well balanced by acidity. This isn't a racy, tense riesling (those are my favorites) but, again, if you like the softer, fruiter style of many U.S. rieslings, this is a nice example and a solid value.

WTN: Kinkead Ridge 2004 Cabernet Franc

As someone who was born and raised in western Pennsylvania, four things come to mind when I think about neighboring Ohio:

• Bad drivers
• Sea World
• Cedar Point amusement park
• The much-hated Cleveland Browns.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I was raised to loathe our neighbors to the west, but they definitely weren't looked upon fondly.

Now, after tasting the wines of Kinkead Ridge Estate Winery, there is at least one thing I can say that I love about the Buckeye State.

Located just outside of Ripley, Ohio, Kinkead Ridge Winery grows only vinifera grapes in their vineyard, including Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Riesling, Viognier, Roussanne and Sauvignon Blanc. The vineyard lies on ridges rising more than 400 feet above the nearby Ohio River and the soil is 30 inches deep to broken limestone, rich in clay and well drained. This drainage is ideally suited to growing fine wines, though winter can be cold enough to damage less hardy varieties.

Cabernet Franc is one of my favorite varieties, and if you love the red wines of the Loire Valley , I can't recommend Kinkead Ridge's 2004 Cabernet Franc enough.

A deep violet-crimson in the glass, black cherry dominates the nose with more subtle aromas of dusty cocoa, black pepper and violets. This is an extremely full flavored wine, with black raspberry, cherry, black pepper, and dark chocolate flavors mingling on a rich, balanced palate. Well-integrated, smooth tannins and just a little lick of acidity make this a wine of unusual character and balance.

Best of all, at $17 per bottle, it's an excellent value.

50 States. 50 Wineries #11: Wills Creek Vineyards (Alabama)

You've probably noticed that "50 States. 50 Wineries. 50 Weeks." has become merely 50 wineries from 50 states. That's just because it's been so much harder to gather samples than I anticipated. So, instead of doing one a week, I'll taste them as I can get them.

The goal is still to taste, and write about, wine from each of America's 50 states.

This time around, we head to the deep south -- Alabama -- and Will Creek Vineyards.

I knew that this project would lead to tasting some interesting wines made from grapes outside of the Vitis vinifera realm, but the three Alabama wines I sampled were completely, off-the-charts unique...even if they tasted largely the same.

You see, these wines were made with the muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia), which is native to the southeastern United States. It's found in the wild from Delaware to the Gulf of Mexico and westward to Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Actually, I should say muscadines because there are multiple varieties, including the most well known scuppernong.

Muscadine grapes have thick skin are huge compared to their northern cousins. In fact, some might be mistaken for small apples.

Not knowing much (okay anything) about these grapes or wines made from them, I wasn't sure whether to chill them or not. Wills Creek sent me a white, a red and a dessert wine, so I did the usual -- chilled the white and the dessert.

Anyway, I started with the white by tasting Wills Creek Winery's Scupperdyme ($8), which isn't really white at all. Made with the scuppernong, magnolia and carlos muscadine varieties, the color is more of a medium-deep brownish gold. Nena described it as topaz. It is extremely aromatic with aromas of flowers, wet pavement and plenty of the typical "foxy" character often found in native varieties. The palate wasn't foxy at all, strangely, though it was a bit flowery. The dominant flavor was that of super ripe, just-turning-brown bananas. There is some sweetness here, but enough acidity for balance.

Next up was the red, Wills Creek Winery Ruby Red ($9), made with red muscadines. As the name would imply, the this wine is ruby red in the glass. I swirled, I sniffed -- and this wine smelled nearly identical to the scupperdyme. There seems to be less floral aroma, but I probably couldn't have told them apart if blindfolded. The flavor followed suit -- very similar but with a little less acidity. But that could have been the fact that it wasn't chilled. Chilling can make acidity more apparent.

Last in this lineup was Wills Creek Winery's Delisse (N/A), which was my favorite of the three. The color of burnt sugar (think the top of a creme brulee), the aromas and flavors are similar to the other two wines, but there is some nice burnt sugar character that keeps the banana flavors in the background. The balance between sweetness and acidity is really impressive too.

For more information, visit www.muscadine.com for Wills Creek Winery.

50 States. 50 Wineries. #10: Jefferson Vineyards (Virginia)

Thomas Jefferson was America's first wino/wine geek/vinophile, so it's far from surprising that he planted his own vineyard -- way back in 1774. Jefferson and Italian Filippo Mazzei planted the vineyard right next to Monticello -- and today Jefferson Vineyards resides on the same plot of land. Of course, the vines they use today aren't from 1774, but they do date to 1981.

As 50 in 50 has unfolded, I've found the wines a bit disappointing -- whether too sweet for the acidity level, boring and lifeless, or just plain faulty. So far, the stars have been the wines from Gruet Winery and Westport River Vineyards.

Those wines were good...but the three wines I tasted from Jefferson Vineyards, located in the Monticello AVA were even better.

When I first took the capsules off the two reds -- a varietal petit verdot and a meritage -- I was worried. Both corks had leaked (the petit verdot was pretty bad). Luckily, the wines didn't seem to be affected much.

I don't drink a lot of viognier. There is one local producer here on Long Island and most of the time it's pleasant but nothing worth seeking out. Virginia, of course, is known to be Viognier country. In fact, the editor of the Virginia Wine Gazette likes to use the phrase "Virginia is for Viognier."

I may have limited knowledge of viognier, but I can tell you this -- Jefferson Vineyards 2005 Viognier ($25) is an outstanding wine. With only a few swirls, the wines aromas rose out of the glass, with fresh flowers, stone fruit and hints of lemon. On the palate, this wine displays ripe fruit with apricot, peach and pineapple accented by honeysuckle and lemon zest and a light tingle of acidity on a pleasant finish. The fruit flavors taste sweet, but I doubt that there is much, if any residual sugar here. If I hadn't known that this was a viognier, I would have pegged it as a floral riesling...and we all know how much I like riesling.

Next, I tasted Jefferson Vineyards' 2004 Meritage ($28) a blend of 70% merlot, 20% cabernet franc, 7% cabernet sauvignon and 3% malbec. I drink a lot of these style blends from local vineyards and while this one was similar in some ways, it was quite different in others. The nose is youthful with plum, blackberry and vanilla aromas. Medium-bodied, this wine is somewhat ripe with plum and red apple flavors playing against deliciously food-friendly acidity. 2004 was apparently a good year for the region and I think this wine has some cellar life to it.

Perhaps the most interesting (and delicious) of the three was Jefferson Vineyards 2002 Petit Verdot ($32). Inky purple in the glass with a black core and thing violet rim, this extremely aromatic with blueberries, black fruit and smoky black pepper. The forepalate is intense with a burst of dark fruit, black pepper and smoky oak. Medium tannins provide nice structure here. Petit verdot is known for delivering big up front and then fading quickly, and while this wine does show some of that, there is enough length here to make this a delicious, interesting wine that I'd drink any day. I'm imagining it along spicy smoked ribs and other spicy meats.

As I said earlier, these wines are the best I've tasted on my tour of America's wine regions. No doubt about it.

Visit Jefferson Vineyards for more information.

50 States. 50 Wineries. @ LENNDEVOURS

It is with mixed emotions that I announce that I've decided to leave Wine Sediments -- the wine wing of the WellFed blog network. 

There are some extremely talented people involved and I was proud to be a part of it. But, real life (and other writing projects) has forced me to step down as a contributor. I wish the rest of the team and the entire network good luck in the future. Hopefully they'll hit it big, get rich and I'll be left feeling like the fifth Beetle.

But fear not, my 50 States 50 Wineries 50 Weeks project will live on here at LENNDEVOURS.

And, just in case you missed them, here's where we've tasted and visited so far:

• #1: Massachusetts -- Westport Rivers
• #2: Oklahoma -- Nuyaka Creek Winery
• #3: Arizona -- Callaghan Vineyards
• #4: Arkansas -- Chateau Aux Arc
• #5: New Mexico -- Gruet Winery
• #6: Hawaii -- Tedeschi Vineyards
• #7: Minnesota -- WineHaven Winery
• #8: North Dakota -- Pointe of View Winery
• #9: Utah -- Spanish Valley Vineyards

There is a one-week hiatus for the project today (the 50 weeks part of the project is proving difficult) but the 50 train will roll on next week with a visit to one of the East Coast's best wine areas -- Virginia.