September 3 2007
The rest of the American wine industry not named California, Oregon and Washington has long been a humble lot, taking their wins gracefully and growing, growing, growing, quietly, respectfully even. To borrow from President Theodore Roosevelt, they’ve been walking softly and carrying a big stick. The size of some Midwestern wineries would shock and startle many in the industry, but it’s not in the Midwestern ethos to do a lot of chest puffing. In fact, in Missouri the motto is explicitly, “Show Me.”
Well, they’re getting ready to.
Move over ZAP, Rhone Rangers and other consumer/industry collaborative varietal aficionado groups. There’s a new sheriff in town and his name is Norton.
Dr. Norton, that is. And, he’s come to take what’s his—a place on the national stage of wine reputation, notoriety, consumer acceptance and sales.
Norton, “The Cabernet of the Ozarks,” from its namesake, Dr. D.N. Norton, is credited with being a true American original grape varietal and the First Annual National Norton Wine Festival takes place this Saturday, September 8th in St. Louis, Missouri.
This is notable for a couple of reasons:
First, all wine consumers are familiar with vitis vinifera grapes, the scientific classification for grape varieties commonly used to make wine—Cabernet, Riesling, others.
However, lesser known and more indigenous to the eastern half of the U.S. are vitis labrusca grapes—Catawba and the like. Chances are if you live in California, you look down your nose at these varietals—mostly, likely, because we automatically don’t like that which we don’t understand.
Trust me, as an Indiana native and somebody who has drunk a lot of wine from a lot of different local and regional wineries, a lot of it completely forgettable. But, Norton is different.
Different, perhaps, because the first clue is that the Norton grape is actually a slightly different species then vinifera and labrusca and is scientifically known as aestivalis.
From Appellation America:
Norton, also known as Cynthiana, is the oldest native North American varietal in commercial cultivation today. The cultivar belongs to the aestivalis species of vine, which by American wine standards is ancient. As early as 1770 renowned Philadelphian botanist John Bartram made note in his horticultural journals of a native vine type that was popular amongst mid-Atlantic colonist who domesticated it for its usefulness in winemaking – the cited vine type is now reasonably believed to be Vitis aestivalis, and is quite likely the antecedent to the variety we know today as Norton.
Secondly, the Festival is notable because, Midwesterner’s, a humble lot, aren’t known for fantastic chest beating, especially in the name of shameless promotion, even if that was the right course of action.
I’ve long thought that Midwest grape growers, sometimes lost in the shuffle on a national stage against quality from the West Coast, should play up the “we’re different” card to a greater degree, especially if the quality is in the bottle. Where other varietals fall short against a baseline of California wines, Norton shines.
The analogy I would use is relative to any public fascination—music, sports, fashion, acting, etc. The unknown new star that rockets out of nowhere to gain fame and awareness is always asked, “where did you come from?” Often times the answer is, “I’ve been working hard to get to this point and I’m going to make sure my hard work is going to pay off.”
Sipping on a flagship wine from Missouri’s most famous (and oldest) winery, the ’04 Stone Hill Winery Norton, is a beauty—delightfully spicy bouquet, dense color saturation, and mouth-filling fruit reminiscent of a Shiraz/Merlot blend with fruit, earth, spice and a gorgeous finish. In short, it’s a great wine, and a wine, in a blind tasting that would confound experts who undoubtedly would be baffled by its quite elegance and understated beauty.
From Appellation America:
As Norton, the variety typically produces rich deeply pigmented wines with spicy, raspberry-scented aromas, hints of coffee and bittersweet chocolate, good aging potential, and little ‘native’ character.
So, in the lead-up to the First Annual National Norton Festival, it pleases me, as a Midwesterner, an egalitarian and an advocate for the offbeat to see that Norton, long an unrecognized grape varietal star east of the Mississippi is making a grab for attention, kind of like the starlet who says, “I’ve been working hard … and my hard work is going to pay off.”
Us Midwesterners, we might not brag, sure, but there’s something to the First Annual National Norton Wine Festival.
They surely could have left the “National” out of the name. But, that’s how we do things around here and I’m sure if you don’t notice now, we’ll show you later.
For Additional Reading:
American Wine Society article on the Norton grape
Wikipedia article on the Norton Grape
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July 24 2007
In between Eric Asimov’s post on Lambrusco last Wednesday at The Pour and Derrick Schneider’s article in the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday regarding fruit wines, I have to say that I’m nearing a state of nirvana. Then, if you combine those thought-leadership pieces from either coast with all of the press the Michigan wine industry has been getting, I’d have to say that I might soon be able to come out of the closet--the “I can appreciate a semi-sweet fruit wine” closet, that is.
Plus, maybe, if we’re lucky, maybe the Rose Revolution will have the bloom come off the rose, too. The Pour has a good post on that, as well. I think Asimov is a kindred spirit …
I’ve written in the past about my appreciation for a well-made cherry wine, even blackberry, too if it’s not too much on the syrupy Manischewitz side. Simply, I can get down with fruit wine, but I’ve always felt like it was one of those hayseed Midwest things best left unsaid in polite wine company.
Heck, I also, unabashedly, like Lambrusco and Moscato d’Asti, too. I’m not too proud to say it. The Italians know what they are doing. I even like to drink wine “paisano-style” in a simple tumbler. Horrors!
Most, if not all Midwestern wineries have at least one fruit wine and many of the colder climate vitis labrusca varietals grown east of the Mississippi can be made at least semi-sweet. I’ve never been able to figure out why people look down their nose at a cordial wine, but think a port is just dandy, after dinner. And, that’s the way a fruit wine needs to be viewed—as a cordial, a social ice breaker before more serious wines are drunk, or not. Maybe it’s just enjoyed on its own for simple pleasure.
It’s always been something of a bittersweet notion because while you celebrate the local winery, the other part of me knows that it’s hard for these guys to be taken seriously with a cordial-style wine. There always seems to be a difference between art and commerce and the fruit wines are commerce while the fine wines are art, at least that’s my impression for most small wineries not in California, Washington or Oregon. But, I think Michigan has a chance to change all of that for wine lovers nationwide because many producers make excellent Riesling and Pinot Noir and by god they usually have a cherry wine, too.
I’m not sure if the Michigan Winery Association p.r. person deserves a bonus or if it is a tremendous set of circumstances, but man, they have been getting some press lately.
The New York Times featured an article on Michigan wine country a couple of weeks ago, the article saying:
The shores of Grand Traverse Bay are a country of sandy bayfront beaches, wide water vistas dotted with white sails, historic stop-offs and a variety of inns and restaurants. The long Leelanau Peninsula juts north into Lake Michigan, forming the bay’s western edge, and the smaller, skinny Old Mission Peninsula projects northward from Traverse City, slicing the interior of the bay in two. It all adds up to more than a hundred miles of waterfront.
To ease into your exploration, sidestep Traverse City at first and head due north on Old Mission, a 22-mile strip that’s narrow enough in stretches to let you drive up its spine while taking in bay views in both directions. It’s home to six wineries, soon to be seven, including the Chateau Grand Traverse and Chateau Chantal, both of which have guest houses with rooms overlooking the vineyards. All offer daily tastings of their rieslings and pinot noirs …
“The sweeter the better,” admitted both Dave and Debbie Bridgewater, loading up on bottles of their favorites at Chateau Grand Traverse. They were soaking in the calm of the peninsula on a roundabout route from their home near Detroit to their weekend cabin in nearby Lake City. “We come quite a bit — for the wine,” said Ms. Bridgewater, 48, a hairdresser.
In addition:
Forbes featured an article on the expansion of the Michigan wine industry …
Appellation America does a fine job of covering Michigan wine news ...
Michwine.com, an independent web site covering Michigan wines, just launched …
Here’s hoping that a cordial wine revolution, featuring fruit wines, starts to take hold, pulling Midwestern and East coast wineries up by the boot straps, creating legitimacy for wines that can simply be enjoyed for what they are, and, oh, maybe sneaking in a nice Pinot while they’re at it.
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January 16 2007
There’s a maxim by leadership guru John Maxwell about the “leadership lid” —the gist of the maxim is you can only be as successful as you envision for yourself. If you fancy yourself a CEO then chances are good that you know the steps to take to enable yourself for success towards that goal.
Despite this knowledge of self-limiting thought patterns, I still pause when I see a mention of a Midwestern winery or related news. It happened on Monday when I received an email from Appellation America and there was an article on Peninsula Cellars from Michigan. And, I remember being shocked (SHOCKED) a couple of years ago when an Indiana winery, Oliver, was named to Wine Business Monthly’s Hottest Brands list.
By now, I shouldn’t be surprised when wines of the Midwest get called out for special mention and I am officially pulling off my own “leadership lid” for Midwestern wines. God bless Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio because a member of our brethren had his number called this week.
Black Star Farms, something of a winery + agri-business in Northern Michigan is featured on the Wine Business Monthly (WBM) online site today as their Hottest Small Brand #9. They will also be featured in the February issue as a part of the Top 10 Hottest Brands article.
From the WBM article that can be found in its entirety here, and quoted below from Partner Don Coe:
“The one thing I know is it is not that hard to ‘make it’ when you have good land, good growers and with Lee Lutes, a talented winemaker,” he said. “It is hard however to sell it. The world does not need another wine and especially a wine from Michigan, which is only now evolving as a wine region. For that reason Black Star Farms delivers experiences.”
Black Star Farms bills itself as an “Agricultural Destination” and links its products to value-added agriculture and agricultural tourism. Its best marketing tool is word of mouth and personal involvement with its wine, brandy and cheese makers on a working horse farm. The approach has made it popular with tourists, attracting more than 60,000 visitors last year from 20 countries and 40 states.
Products include traditional table and dessert wines, fruit wines and cider, fruit brandies, preserves, syrup and toppings, a Bed & Breakfast, a creamery, orchards and vineyards.
“Our mantra is that successful agriculture is no longer just growing something but instead, growing, processing, retailing and marketing, all occurring on the farm,” Coe said.
Don is a smart guy: they “deliver experiences,” use “word of mouth,” and most important, they make good wine.
My wife and I along with friends of ours visited Black Star in the fall on a wine tasting trip through the Leelanau Peninsula in Northern Michigan. The tasting room on that Friday afternoon, at the peak of color season for turning leaves, was jammed. It’s a large tasting room to begin with, making many California tasting rooms that I’ve been to look absolutely pedestrian by comparison, and it was filled with at least150 people with two-deep lines at the tasting counter and a snaking line at the cash register.
Under normal circumstances, that kind of overwhelmingly busy situation can be off-putting to customers, particularly for people looking for a more quaint experience, but somehow, because the folks at Black Star are very friendly and cordial and the wine quality is high, very high for a Midwestern winery, you end up rooting for them, happy to take your wallet from your pocket; not coincidentally many people were joining me that day with the Black Star credit card machine humming.
The majority of their whites really shine—particularly their Rieslings across a sweetness spectrum from dry to a semi-sweet late harvest aperitif style wine. Their Pinot is well-made and a definite winner for a Michigan Pinot and their dessert wines are all excellent without cloying sweetness. I have a bottle of the Cherry dessert wine that’s made in a Port style, though a touch lighter in body. I’ll likely move that bottle up in the drinking queue now.
Congrats to Black Star Farms for their inclusion on the WBM list. Despite their obvious progressiveness if we could now just get them to take a momentary focus off of delivering experiences and word of mouth marketing to selling online, others might be able to experience their wine, as well. Unfortunately, you have to download and fill out an order form off of their web site. No ecommerce. Hmm ... in this regard, I hope they take off their leadership lid. Based on the crowds I saw, it might be a good idea. Check them out at: www.blackstarfarms.com and see the future of Midwest wine.
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February 3 2006
Who doesn’t like a good double entendre?
Dating to Shakespeare and the epilogue for As You Like It, Rosalind says, "If it be true that good wine needs no bush, ‘tis true that a good play needs no epilogue. Yet to good wine they use good bushes, and good playes prove the better by the help of a good epilogue."
The proverb means that good wine needs no advertising and goes back to Roman times. According to Endell Fritz in his 1916 book, Old Tavern Signs, in times when only a few people could read, a sign told travelers where goods could be purchased. Ancient tavern signs were a bush or a garland of ivy to indicate drink (wine) and a checkered board for food.
Historians indicate that the wine signs were in the form of ivy or holly wreaths, or a tangle of evergreen branches. Ivy and/or bush likey derived from Bacchus, the God of Wine, who wore a crown of ivy.
Cheers to good bush and good wine.
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