From the Wine East portion of Wines and Vines
They are talking about Cab Franc, which they have been saying for years up and down the east coast but Gruner Veltliner now that is intersting.
FWIW we are having good succcess with Barbera and Syrah(think Northern Rhone)
I always thought Seyval Blanc had great potential in Pennsylvania. But it doesn’t get much respect for some reason. When John Crouch was the winemaker at Allegro, he did some great stuff with oak and Seyval.
Mark:
I tried the Due Rossi and was surprised it was so nice.
Didn’t think the Italian varietals would show that well.
Thanks for posting the article - interesting.
Ted
John did a lot of cool things.
There is alot of seyval being made in PA for sure. I think a lot of east coast wineries take seyval and try and make it into a chardonnay. We use some seyval but we always blend (tpically with vidal and vignoles) and are using less and less. I like vidal much more, I get some of the labusca character in seyval that I don’t get in vidal.
i like seyval and vidal, but usually vidal when it has some residual sugar. the allegro style seyval is my favorite for that grape and it does well in md when people follow that model.
there is a vineyard in mt. airy, md that is growing good gruner, only its 3rd or 4th leaf too. i tasted their 07 syrah sat blind as part of a wine judging and it was my tables highest rated wine by a long shot. it was excellent and would compete favorably with many ca syrahs.
im not sure i have had much cab franc from pa, but it does good in md.
do any of you guys follow what va la is doing? lots of work with italian varietals, just a bunch of wacky wines that go from drinkable to very good.
not sure there is one grape i think of when i think pennsylvania. i appreciate the input from pa berserkers though!
cool topic!
Haven’t had enough Va La wines from various vintages to really comment other than interesting. He is doing Nebbiolo wh ich as we all know is next to impossible to get right outside of Piedmont ( a few in CA do it very well). I just looked at Va La’s site and he has quite a few more wines and grapes going on than I recall from a visit a few years ago. May be time to revisit.
Stoped ap Pinnacle Ridge in Kutztown yesterday, They are doing really good things with merlot, chambourcin, late harvest vidal and sparklers. The have a wine called Trio that was a joint venture with Allegro and Mannatawny, 1/3 comes from each of their vineyards (cab, merlot and syrah). They each make it the way they see it then they get together and blend and bottle. Sells for $25.00, nice stuff as well
i need to swing by va la again too. it has been a few years though im on their email list and follow what they do. sounds like they are having fun, and the prices are up there so they must have an audience for it.
never heard of pinnacle ridge, ill have to look into them.
They make a pretty decent pinot noir, also. Their sparklers are darned good, all things considered.