Mystic Connecticut Wine Country

Anyone tasted anything from these wineries? We are going down for a wedding and overnight stay this weekend and might take a look. Thanks for any suggestions.

Drink beer.

I live in Connecticut.

Drink beer.

I second David’s recommendation. Don’t do it.

David & Brian , Ha! & thanks for the heads up! -Jim

One winery near Stonington once bragged to me that it sources the grapes for its reserve wines…from Rhode Island.
(In turn, Rhode Islanders brag about how Connecticut wineries buy their grapes.)

Jim - I live in the area and would certainly recommend Jonathan Edwards Winery in North Stonington … http://www.jedwardswinery.com . They have well made wines from their North Stonington estate grown grapes and sourced grapes from Napa & Sonoma Valleys. My favorites from them are the Connecticut estate chardonnay and cabernet franc. I think they are well made with the right balance of fruit and acidity. Many folks love their California wines as well but I’m partial to the locally grown grapes. Also nearby is Stonington Vineyards which I have not been to in awhile but they can make a nice cabernet franc in most vintages… http://stoningtonvineyards.com . Within our region is a well established family farm(Holmberg Orchards) which grows pinot blanc and gewurztraminer. They are excellent farmers and grow terrific fruit and make a very good effort on their vinifera wines, hard ciders, and other fruit wines… http://holmbergorchards.com and Wines & Ciders - Holmberg Orchards . For Connecticut grown vinifera fruit the vineyard needs to be in a narrow coastal strip with moderating tempertures or have an unusual south facing site, otherwise, most vineyards away from the coast grow hybrid grape varieties. For local beer I would highly recommend Beer’d Brewing … https://beerdbrewing.com/?age-verified=3f7084009b .

As full disclosure I am good friends with the Jonathan Edwards team and the Holmberg family. In addition, within the year we will have a commercial license to sell our wines that we make in Old Mystic, CT . We have found that auxerrois, chenin blanc, chardonnay, cabernet franc, and cabernet sauvignon(small berry clone) grow well here and all make exciting distinctive wines. I’m not sure yet how many years we can get the cabernet sauvignon to ripen well but I’m pretty encouraged based on this past year which was the first harvest year for this grape. In addition, we have a small berry barbera clone that is newly planted and I’m not sure how well that will ripen until we get a few crops under our belts.

Gary, Thanks very much for all the suggestions. . . Good luck with your wine launch . . . BTW we cut our wine drinking chops on Cali barbera in the 70’s (see my avatar) -Jim

I haven’t been to many (see other people’s comments above on why) but I did like Saltwater Farms. The wines are very Burgundian. Your just not going to find anything of incredibly high quality in Connecticut but I was pleasantly surprised by this place.

Very good to hear this, Matthew. Saltwater Farms is the venue for the reception, so I will try to sneak over to the tasting room! -Jim

Second Gary’s recommendation but will also say that Barley Head Brewing in downtown Mystic is great too!

Jim - That venue has a rich history in town as it was, and still is, an active emergency landing strip. The building itself is a converted airport hanger. The owners did a nice job turning that building into a modern event facility. It’s large and it is and has been cold around here so make sure you bring clothing that allows you to bundle up if necessary inside the big facility. Enjoy the wedding!

Connecticut has a great brewery scene. For quality, lI’d focus there.

PS: I have had a Pinot Gris from Jonathan Edwards, with CT grapes, that I thought was pretty good. A few years ago Chamard, nearer my house, made a couple decent wines but they are mostly defunct now, their vineyards fallow.

I do live in Ct and am pretty familiar with many of the wineries. At some of them they offer average wine yet it still sells as the masses do buy it. There are some wineries in Ct that are very good, The Cab Franc mentioned earlier is quite good, and from experience I can say that Ct is a very good place to grow this grape. My wine group and others that used grapes from our friends vineyard made great juice from them and it cost us very little and is an excellent quaffer. Cayuga also does well from our state, and agree with Gary that Chenin Blanc does well here too. I did taste some early samples with him that I enjoyed but we are friends so I could be slightly biased.

Follow up: We came back from Mystic CT this morning and did not really explore the wine/beer scene since the wife was not up to it. We did manage to taste a few of Saltwater Farms offerings at the wedding reception last night. We were both “pleasantly surprised” as Matthew suggested that we might be. I made some mental wine notes, but I seem to have “misplaced” them. Here’s what I do recall: first, a very nice un-oaked chardonnay, lemony-citrus, stoney-mineral (to say Chabis-like might be a stretch but maybe Chablis suggestive at least); next, a very easy drinking, pleasant, just a bit sweet Cab Franc rose; finally, a Cab Franc-Merlot blend (60/40 I think), which was very tasty and balanced with a good dose of ripe fruit. Overall, I would suggest keeping an open mind on what may be happening in Mystic “wine country”. -Jim

Good to hear!