The best Norton ever

We stopped for tasting and lunch at Native Stone Winery, about 10 miles northwest of Jefferson City. Cara and Larry Stauffer maintain a concise menu of wines, including some wines that aren’t theirs to fill gaps in the taste range. Their Norton stood out, carrying forth the theme of our mid-Missouri wine tour.

I ordered a glass of Estate Bottled Norton for lunch and sat down at a table in the restaurant. The wine came as I studied the menu for something to go with it.

Feeling a little sluggish, I pushed my chair away from the table and slumped into the seat, staring blankly toward the glass of Norton. My nose was about 36 inches from the glass. In the still air of the nearly empty room, a comforting aroma reached me, steadily mounting in intensity. For a moment, in my relaxed state, I thought I might have been reliving the tasting experience of minutes earlier. The aroma felt as strong as if I had swirled Norton in a glass, stuck my nose in it, and sucked the essence into my nostrils, face, head, and depths of my viscera. Clearly, it was the glass of wine three feet from my nose, the one at which I was staring — releasing millions of molecules of Norton aggressively populating my space, overwhelming my olfactory capacity with the benevolent force of a sizzling steak or a freshly baked pie.

I have written recently about the need to create Nortons that attain a median between the extreme foxy-spicy characteristics of the untamed grape and, at the other pole, a wine oaked so mellow that the distinctive Norton-ness is lost. Native Stone Estate achieves this goal and exceeds it with the largest nose I’ve ever experienced.

For these reasons, I consider Native Stone Estate Bottled Norton the best Norton ever.

Have I sampled all the other Nortons in the state? No, though I have tried many.

Am I qualified to make this judgment? Of course not.

So, why am I going out on this limb? Because somebody has to.

If you think I’m wrong, I’m sure you’ll let me know.