Today, I’d like to give a few shout-outs to some new winery offerings that I have recently enjoyed. New Jersey wineries keep upping their game and broadening their lineup. Just in the past month I have tried new wines from Amalthea, Bellview Winery, Autumn Lake, and William Heritage. After I highlight these below I will attempt to shed some light on some confusing names of a few grapes and wines.
My Recent Finds (pictured above)
- Bellview Winery Ventanni-A special red wine celebrating their 30th anniversary (but released the following year due to COVID). This blend of their estate grown Syrah and Cab Franc grapes is worthy of a celebration, with smooth tannins and good acidity.
- Autumn Lake Sangiovese-a classic Sangiovese, with medium body, good acidity, and surprisingly soft tannins.
- William Heritage Blanc de Blancs-A delicious new bubbly with classic notes of brioche, citrus, vanilla, and a creamy, long lasting finish. I got to taste it last week in their Mullica Hill tasting room.
- Amalthea Cellars’ Carme NV– A wonderful dry red blend of Syrah, Merlot, Grenache and Carignan.
- Amalthea Cellars Montepulciano*-A Futures purchase that I recently opened. It is medium to full-bodied with good acidity and notes of red berries.
*Montepulciano is both the name of a town in Italy and the name of a grape (grown in many places, including Montepulciano). The bottle I recently tried was sourced from Amador County in California, but made at Amalthea Cellars. Confusing, right?
Speaking of misconstrued labels (not to be confused with misconstrued lyrics), here are a few other labels, grapes, and wines that are sometimes confused with others:
- Syrah, Shiraz, and Sirah- All three are the same grape and refer to the same wine. However, Shiraz is generally the Australian version and Syrah is the French name and the one most other countries use for the grape. Sirah is just another spelling (not frequently used).
- Petite Sirah-While Petite Sirah and Syrah/Sirah are related, they are different grapes. Petite Sirah is a little darker and bolder, with a bit of a peppery spice. Most experts agree that the California Petite Sirah is the same as the French Durif.
- Petite Sirah is also different than Petit Verdot, which is usually used as a blending grape (especially in Bordeaux). It is very full-bodied with lots of tannins. You might also notice the difference in spelling of Petite and Petit. In French, nouns have genders and the adjectives must reflect this (female Petite Sirah ends in “e”, while male Petit Verdot does not).
Hopefully I have not confused you even further.
Cheers!
Pictured below are the “futures” I picked up at Amalthea last week:
From left to right above: Dream Barrel Amador County Montepulciano (mentioned above); Legends Edition Europa IV 2018; and Double Barrel Buffalo Trace Cabernet Franc). The latter two will be discussed here in the near future.
Breaking News!
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Coming Attractions
- A Few More Shout-outs of new NJ wines that I have tried
- Visits to a couple of South Jersey Wine Bars
- A Second Visit to The Finger Lakes
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