Blending wines (especially reds) has been around as long as winemaking. Undoubtedly the most famous of these blends can be found in the Bordeaux Region of France. It has an ideal location, close to the European Atlantic coast on the southwest of France. It is divided by the Garonne River into a Right Bank on the east and the Left Bank on the west. The Left Bank typically produces blends highlighting Cabernet Sauvignon and the Right Bank typically is more focused on the Merlot grape. Other grapes typically utilized in Bordeaux wines include Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot (and sometimes Carmenere). Like Burgundy, Champaign and Port, one cannot call a blend made anywhere but the Bordeaux Region in France a Bordeaux wine. Therefore, they must be called Bordeaux-style blends or wines. Ok. Enough about the French for now… After all, New Jersey’s micro climate and geography have been compared to the Bordeaux Region in France and more importantly, New Jersey wineries are making some great Bordeaux-style wines.
If you know NJ wines, one winery comes immediately to mind when discussing Bordeaux-style blends-Amalthea Cellars. They produce what they call the Legends Europa Series of Bordeaux-style wines. In this series, each one reflects the style of a specific Classification. They are as follows: Europa I (Chateau Margaux); Europa II (Chateau Latour); Europa III (Chateau Lascombers); Europa IV (Chateau Cheval Blanc); Europa V (Chateau Ausone); Europa VI (Chateau Petrus); and Europa VII (Chateau Figeac). Each of these wines has its own unique blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. While I have not tasted all of these, the three pictured above were all terrific and most of them have been highly rated. The Europa I received a 97 from the Beverage Tasting Institute (the highest score given to any wine they rated last year). The Europa IV received a score of 95 points and the Europa III garnered a 94 point score.
William Heritage Winery, located in Mullica Hill, produces a Bordeaux-style wine they call BDX. It is a great, full-bodied wine which has also produced high praise and high scores from wine critics. Each vintage of this wine is eagerly awaited. It’s a bit pricey, but super smooth and amazing!
Three other wineries in New Jersey producing great Bordeaux-style wines that have received awards and high scores are Unionville Vineyard, Working Dog Winery and Hawk Haven Vineyard & Winery. Unionville is located in Ringoes and their Big O reflects their French-style approach and grapes which they produce (not fruit bombs, aged in oak with subtlety-not “in your face). Working Dog Winery is also located in the central part of the state in Robbinsville. Their aptly named, Retriever is a delicious blend. Hawk Haven Vineyard & Winery is located in Rio Grande, a short drive from Cape May. Their Bordeaux-style Quill is a great choice on their regular tasting menu.
While not typical Bordeaux-style wines, Turdo Vineyards produces two wines perhaps more accurately labeled Super Tuscan-style wines. Their addition of Sangiovese adds an Italian twist. One of these two wines is their Persara (Sal Turdo’s terrific homage to his wife, Sara-Persara in Italian). Their son, Luca, makes a similar style wine, DiLuca Rosso Blend (50% Cabernet Sauvignon; 25% Merlot; and 25% Sangiovese). These are both amazing full-bodied, world-class wines. In my opinion, Turdo’s wines deserve much more attention from the critics and general public. I must admit, however, that selfishly I fear that when this happens, it will become even harder to get some of their wines.
Another wine that I recently enjoyed, which belongs in the same Super Tuscan-style as the two great wines described in the above paragraph is Beneduce Vineyards’ Mangione. I would give you more specifics about the blend, but I could not find them on the bottle or on their website. I can tell you the result is an amazing full-bodied red with notes of cherries and very smooth tannins. This is a limited production wine that falls into the pricey, but worth it category (if you can afford it).
There are other Bordeaux-style wines being produced in New Jersey and some are also very good, but those I have mentioned and discussed on this post, I can personally attest to trying them in the past year and loving them! Those that I have not tasted in the past year (only the Europa II and Europa III) have been well received by wine critics.
I also did not include Coeur d’Est wines (“heart of the east’) which are wines made exclusively in the Outer Coastal Plain American Viticultural Area, which fall into its own unique category and will be discussed in a future post.
My apologies for allowing my St. Patrick’s Day festivities and celebration to delay my posting until today (markedly reducing the number of typos and other errors).
Sláinte!
Coming Attractions
- Other NJ Wine Blends (lots of interesting blends in NJ besides the Bordeaux-style blends!
- Some of my favorite recently tried “Super Premium” wines.
New Jersey Uncorked: A Snob-Free Taste of NJ Wine
Don’t forget the March Madness sale is still going on and you can purchase your copy of New Jersey Uncorked at store.bookbaby.com/book/New-Jersey-Uncorked. Don’t forget to use the coupon code: MarchMadness to get $5 off your purchase. You can also still get $2 off your purchase of the e-book at the Apple iBook App store. Again you need to use the coupon code; MarchMadness to get the deal.
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