I went to 4 wineries/vineyards in this order
- Pindar
- Laurel Lake
- Jamesport
- Paumanok
The two tasting rooms I most enjoyed were Pindar and Jamesport. The experience as well as the wine. Remember when you go wine tasting, it's not all about the wine, it's about the experience and the tasting room staff plays a large part of what your experience is going to be.
At Pindar I tasted 8 wines. The one I like the most was the 2005 Chardonnay - Peacock Label. This is a new release that also won a Gold Medal. It was crisp with hints of pear and apple with subtle notes of vanilla from oak aging. This wine was very reasonable priced at $9.99 a bottle.
We tasted a lovely 2006 Sauvignon Blanc at Jamesport. The wine I liked the best was the 2003 East End Cinq. Unfortunately the only bottle they had left was the bottle we tasted out of. Bummer.
The Riesling at Paumanok was very good. It was semi sweet and will pair nice with spicy food.
Overall, it was a nice day, tasting some nice wines. I was however disappointed in the reds I tasted. They lacked depth and character. As we move into the colder months, I personally tend to drink more red wines. I was surprised all my purchases were white wines.
5 comments:
Wish I would have known you were coming down...could have suggested some better wineries in some cases.
Laurel Lake isn't making much of interest these days, so I would have crossed them off the list right away.
Pindar? Eh...they have a couple decent wines, but they are not making the regions best.
What did you taste at Paumanok?
And I'm surprised to hear you say that you liked the Cinq, but found the reds you tasted lacking depth. That's a nice little gulping wine, but it's not rich or deep!
Next time you come down, make sure that you get to places like Lenz, Raphael, Bedell and Roanoke Vineyards...where reds shine.
That is funny, Lenn, because I was going suggest Raphael and Bedell as well... I also like Wolffer if you are willing to go to the South Fork.
I've been to most of the others and those 4 were ones I had never tasted. Have to give everyone a try.
Lenz and Shinn are two of my favorites and I wish we did stop there. However, I believe Shinn is only open on weekends.
They actually sell and taste Wolffer at Roanoke...
I love wine tastings along the wine trails. We make a whole day out of it. Such nice memories of Sunday drives :)
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