K.C.-area wine trip: Baltimore Bend

Recently we took a winery trip to the Kansas City area with our good friends, Steve and Donna Koehler. Over the years, we have become familiar with wines from southwest and central Missouri, as well as the Hermann-Augusta area. This trip led us into new territory, with slightly different tastes.

One difference that stood out was the numerous options for sweet wines and the widespread use of the Concord grape. At a couple of stops, we heard that sweet Concord was the best seller.

However, all of the wineries also offered dry wines, and most had long wine lists that covered a spectrum of tastes.

We found considerable variation in treatment of individual varieties. Among Chardonels, Terre Beau's is sweet with a big floral emphasis, Belvoir's is heavily oaked, and Baltimore Bend makes an off-dry varietal called Mo Gold.

Baltimore Bend was the first stop and one of the more satisfying ones. With astute timing, we finished our visit just as a busload of happy people pulled up. A few notes:

Baltimore Bend proprietor
Sarah Schmidt

Norton: There were two choices from the 2010 vintage. The reserve was aged in French oak for a robust effect. The regular release was aged in American oak for a smoother result. As I recall, I was in the minority in favoring the American oak.

C2: A blend of Norton and Chambourcin aged in stainless steel — a rich and lively combination. I usually stay away from red blends because they often smooth over the distinct aspects of all elements. Instead, C2's boldness grabbed my attention. Wow!

Trey Blanc: Tasteful citrus notes from this blend of Chardonel, Seyval and Vignoles — semi-dry with more body than you might expect from an unoaked white wine.

Cirrus: A semi-sweet wine based on Catawba. This grape benefits from a little sugar to manage its strident flavors, so the impression was not that it was sweet, but that it was Catawba. And it had a slightly tangy finish of pure Catawba for balance.

More later on other K.C.-area wineries.