Spring Wine Festivals

Spring Wine Festivals are a great way to welcome the season of re-birth. I recently attended two spring wine festivals: Vine to Wine Spring Fest at Old York Cellars on May 6 and on May 20 I attended another festival, closer to home: The Autumn Lake Bloom Festival in Williamstown.

A tasting of OYC wines was the jumping off point for the festival. I tasted the following dry white wines: Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. My red selections included their Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. My personal favorites were the Chardonnay and the Merlot. I was skeptical about the “notes of licorice” description in the tasting notes for the Merlot, but must admit I did taste the hint of licorice, as well. The Malbec was newly released and also very good.

Despite the less than idyllic weather, the Vine to Wine Spring Fest (pictured above) was an excellent event and a complete success (at least from this consumer’s point of view). It was a very cool day with threatening skies that alternately spritzed rain and then, thankfully halted. The wines were even better than I remembered, the food trucks provided a good barbecue platter (that my wife and I paired with OYC Merlot) and the live music provided a wonderful backdrop for the patrons.

In addition to the wine tasting (complete with souvenir glass), the live music and food trucks, there also were crafters and activities for children. The whole event was very well-organized with parking in a remote lot, but allowing for a pick up spot for those who purchased wine so they could get their car and pick up their wine on the way out.

Great job, David Wolin (owner), Scott Gares (Winemaker) and all those responsible!

 

Our second Spring Wine Festival this month was the Autumn Lake Bloom Festival in Williamstown (pictured above with Roger and Patty providing the live music). Closer to home, I recently visited and posted about them, but I was anxious to see how they would pull off a big festival like this one (expecting a few hundred people). I must say, bad weather has been plaguing a number of these festivals, with unseasonable coolness and seasonable showers. However, again the weather did not seem to bother the patrons or detract from the gorgeous setting.

We did our tasting with Blaufrankisch, topping the list of my red wines tried (their excellent Chambourcin was in short supply and not available for the tasting). My favorite dry whites were their Pinot Gris (dry and refreshing) and their Riesling (dry and crisp). They do offer a couple of sweet wines, but I stayed with the dry wines. A couple of their wines were recently bottled and quite young, but again I was impressed with how far they have come and how quickly (they haven’t even had an official opening yet).

As we sipped our Blaufrankisch, listened to Roger and Patty play their acoustic set of music and viewed the vineyard and the lake all within the same vista, I shared with my wife that this experience would not have been imaginable a few months ago. Fortunately, they were imaginable to owner, Mark Hernandez. My wife and I shared a barbecue platter (Okay, I ate most of it) along with our Dubliner Cheese, to accompany our bottle of Blaufrankisch. We watched as others took a hayride tour of the vineyards. Had we not had a personalized tour with Mark and his daughter, Lauren so recently, we would have joined them. Instead, we just relaxed and soaked up the wonderful ambience, food, wine and music. It was a fun day and excellent festival.

My wife and I left with an ever-increasing thankfulness that we live so close to so many fine wineries – over 20 within a half-hour drive and around 40 within an hour drive…and I get to taste the wines and write about them at a time when New Jersey is experiencing a “Coming of Age” in the wine industry and we live in the epicenter of the NJ wine explosion.

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Cheers!