Anything from Heinrich, and other great finds

Now we're nicely stocked up, but we'll need more next year ...

Seven wineries in two days. I suppose we could have crammed in a few more. 

Personal favorites: 


Wonderful wines from nonstandard grapes: Peaceful Bend's Forché Renault and Traver's
Marechal Foch.


Belmont's Cayuga, the blackberry from Horst, the full-bodied Chardonel from Viandel, Whispering Oaks St. Vincent ...

... and anything from Heinrich.

Review of wineries featured in this year's wine tour:

Sweet sells, but there's more — such as Heinrichshaus

Belmont: Views, food paired with wine

Peaceful (but busy) Bend Winery

Horst Vineyards: Creative, competitive, surprising

Viandel Vineyard: From apples to grapes 

Traver Home Winery: Dog’s Breath, Bear’s Den and actual cats and dogs

Whispering Oaks St. Vincent runs the table at La Galette Berrichonne

Whispering Oaks St. Vincent runs the table at La Galette Berrichonne

Whispering Oaks owner Larry Green pours one of his reds. Photo credit: Jennifer Peaco

Whispering Oaks Vineyard and Winery was the last stop on the 2014 wine tour. However, the biggest revelation came a few weeks later.

Some friendly folks we met at Tyler Ridge Vineyard Winery invited us on an outing to the French restaurant in Fordland, La Galette Berrichonne. The expedition included a stop at Whispering Oaks, where we acquired another bottle of St. Vincent, made in a dry, supple style.

La Galette Berrichonne does not serve wine, but it welcomes diners to bring their own wine, no corking fee assessed.

We took the bottle of St. Vincent into the restaurant, not knowing whether it would be a good pairing for anything on the preset menu.

However, the Whispering Oaks St. Vincent stood up admirably to all seven courses!

1. Seafood au gratin
2. Coq au vin croustade (chicken)
3. Quiche Lorraine with salad
4. Pork tenderloin with port sauce
5. Raspberry sorbet
6. Brie with slices of strawberries
7. Tarte aux cerises (cherries)

The touches of fruit and the emphasis on lighter meats helped the St. Vincent run the table. A great discovery. The US 60 Corridor is beginning to become a factor for The Good Life in southern Missouri.

By the way, Lisa Stacy, manager at Majestic Limousines, provided professional and congenial chauffeur service that was, for a big group, rather affordable.

Missouri Wine Snob notes

Vignoles: Best of the variety tasted on this tour: Crisp and not too sweet.

Traminette and Vidal (semi-sweet) have citrus notes.

Catawba has progressed through several stages over more than a decade of development at Whispering Oaks. The current Catawba is sweet, bringing out the full fruit flavor but keeping that grape’s unruliness in check.

Traver Home Winery: Dog’s Breath, Bear’s Den and actual cats and dogs

 

Friendly critters stand ready to spread good will. Photo credit: Jennifer Peaco

Jim Traver makes wine to suit customers' tastes as well as his own. Photo credit: Jennifer Peaco

Smaller projects.
Photo credit: Jennifer Peaco

From a big slate of wines by Jim Traver, one selection was made with advice from customers. With this sweet red, made by committee as his website suggests, he intends to please crowds.

“Curl up on a winter’s night with a glass of Bear’s Den Red,” Traver says with a warm and persuasive tone.His top-selling wine also has an animal-inspired name. Dog’s Breath Red is lighter and sweeter than Bear’s Den Red.

Dogs and cats populate the winery and environs (no actual bears).

However, Traver’s work area, filled with big tanks and smaller projects in bulbous glass containers, produces wines across the spectrum of dry and sweet, often with uncompromising varietal flavors and earthy essence.

Missouri Wine Snob notes

Chardonel: Highly spicy with a touch of oak.

Eleven Point White: This blend of 70 percent Vidal and 30 percent Vignoles is assertively dry and fruity.

Vignoles choices: The semi-dry has some of the boldness of Eleven Point White. With the semi-sweet Vignoles, that edge is smoothed out.

Peach: Not too sweet, with a strong peach nose but lighter peach flavor, with an overall experience that sometimes suggests a semi-sweet grape wine.

UPDATE! Marechal Foch: Somehow I forgot to mention this lighter wine with the deep red color — one of the pleasant surprises of the trip. It's not as light as most St. Vincents, and it has darker fruit notes such as blackberry, while St. Vincent often has cherry. This is another great example of a successful wine made with a nonstandard grape variety. Cheers!

Down a gravel road through thick woods, you will find Traver Home Winery.

Viandel Vineyard: From apples to grapes

This vineyard used to be an apple orchard.

Roses figure widely on the grounds of Viandel.

The story begins with an apple orchard and starts moving along when Jon and Cathy Smith decided to plant six grapevines at the urging of David Horst, who owns a winery nearby in the Mountain View area.

The next year, the Smiths liked the idea of a vineyard so much that they yanked out all their apple trees and planted 200 more grapevines in their place. Their plan was to sell grapes to Horst, but they changed their mind and started their own winery.

 
Missouri Wine Snob notes

Bottles in the retail area at Viandel.

Norton: This one won a Missouri Wine and Grape Board bronze award. It has a moderate amount of French oak with a lean profile.

Chambourcins: The 2010 vintage is smoother and less spicy than a typical Chambourcin; 20 percent of the vintage was oaked and the rest was aged in stainless steel. All of the 2011 vintage was aged in Missouri oak for the strongest oak treatment of any Chambourcin sampled on the tour. Usually I back off of strongly oaked reds, but this one works for me. The oak somehow converts the spice into something rich and mellow.

Chardonel: Among all the Chardonels on the trip, this one has the fullest body.

Bee Bluff: This blend of 70 percent Chambourcin, 30 percent St. Vincent has a medium body with fruity notes and a touch of oak. Very pleasant and an ideal choice for a summer red.

A deck has space for dining and lounging.

Horst Vineyards: Creative, competitive, surprising

David Horst and his awards for his 2011 Norton and blackberry wine.

In a battle of Nortons, Horst Vineyards won a silver medal in the 2013 Missouri Wine Competition. The bronze medalist was Viandel Vineyard, less than five miles east on US 60. Stone Hill won the gold.

Owner David Horst’s 2011 Norton — leaner and a little more heavily oaked than Viandel’s — also won a silver award at the San Francisco Chronicle competition.

While he clearly has a competitive spirit, when it comes to the actual results of the wine, he says, “We don’t make the fighting kind; we make the loving kind.”

Missouri Wine Snob notes

Chardonel: A little oak and a lot of body.

Chambourcin: More oak, less spice than typical for this vartiety, with a smooth yet hearty body.

Country Road Red: Half Chambourcin, half St. Vincent — a bright, medium-bodied result.

And one of the best surprises of the tour —

Blackberry: This balanced wine with subtle fruit flavors tastes much less sweet than its sugar content would suggest. The experience is more like a grape wine than a fruit wine. For me, that’s a good thing.

Peaceful (but busy) Bend Winery

The entrance to the tasting room is upstairs to the left.

One of the winery dogs.

When we visited Peaceful Bend Winery, the only beings living up to the name of the winery were dogs. While they lolled on the deck in pleasant stupors, people were coming and going, tasting, drinking, eating and strolling.

While we were sampling, owner Clyde Gill offered tastes of some enchiladas he's just made. It was a nice gesture, and it seemed to be just a part of the flow at Peaceful Bend.

Under and around the shade of tall trees, we found a sprawling installation with several segments of distinct architecture. It was fun just to walk around and look at the building.

Missouri Wine Snob notes

Courtois: A Vidal with more citrus than Heinrich’s.

Dry Creek White: A Viognier with a strong mineral element and high alcohol content.

Norton: This Norton, like others on this tour, is smooth, tempering the impetuous aspects of this variety.

Meramec Red: A blend of Chambourcin and Norton. We have found that this blend always seems to make a good wine. This one has great body and strong oak.

Whittenburg: A blend of Cayuga and Chardonel, similar to a Moscato but not too sweet.
 
Forché Renault: Another boldly oaked red, made with Noiret grapes. This one is a worthy change of pace; we don’t see Noiret much in Missouri ...
... and it's fun to find a good wine
made of nonstandard grapes!

Down the stairs and around the corner, the building sprawls.

Belmont: Views, food paired with wine

Belmont has great views from comfortable indoor and outdoor settings. Photo credit: Jennifer Peaco

A wood-fired over for pizzas.

The big covered patio overlooks rolling hills of vines and livestock, and the bistro features wood-fired pizzas among other fare. Belmont Vineyards and Winery has a stylish yet casual feel, and the wines are appealing as well.



Missouri Wine Snob notes

Norton: Smooth and tempered, similar to Heinrich’s.

Bella Rosso: A lighter, fruity red with a raspberry finish.

Chardonel: Subtle with flavor that veers more toward Chardonnay.

Rommelman Red: A semi-dry wine that looks almost like a blush, but it’s much bolder than a blush.

Cayuga: Every good winery seems to have a pleasant surprise waiting to be sampled. For Belmont, it’s the Cayuga. This one really stands out for its licorice finish.

Travel hints

When you are getting near the winery, disregard your GPS. Use a paper map or your noggin; its not hard to find.

Restaurants on this leg of the trip that we heard are good: Sybil’s in St. James. In Rolla, Gordoz (we ate there and can give it a thumbs up), Matt’s Steakhouse, Benton’s Square.

Restaurants in Cuba that we saw but lack knowledge of: Missouri Hick BBQ and Shelley’s Café. [Just saying there are places to eat there.]

One winery in the Steeleville area that we missed due to scheduling misfortune: Edg-Clif Winery. Nice setting.

In addition to grapes, livestock also are raised at Belmont.

Sweet sells, but there's more

Wine trip to Rolla area and US 60 corridor

We have followed the wineries of the Missouri River from Rocheport to St. Louis. We have headed northwest and southeast and have explored Mid-Missouri. This year, we explored new and old places in the Rolla-St. James-Steeleville area, then we went south to wineries of along US 60.

Last year among wineries north of Kansas City, we noticed a strong trend toward sweet wines, which prevailed on our route this year. However, we also found winemakers who want to make classic dry wines often with oak, even though they recognize that sweet sells.

In the Ozark Highlands part of this year's trip, we ran into a lot of bold and earthy wines.
 

Heinrich Grohe's tastings are full of facts, lore and laughs. Photo credit: Jennifer Peaco

Heinrichshaus

We stopped first near St. James at Heinrichshaus, an iconic place helmed by one of the elder statesmen of Missouri wines of the German tradition, Heinrich Grohe.

It was such a pleasure to get back in touch with his great wines. The last time we visited him, we made a video of our tasting with him. Heinrichshaus wines aren’t all made the same way. Results stretch from subtle (Traminette, Vidal) to bold (Chambourcin). 

Missouri Wine Snob notes

Chardonel: A little sweet, but the full body of the grape provides balance.

Chambourcin: Spicy in a zesty way, and dry.

Prairie Rouge: Earthy, lighter than most of his wines, and mysterious. Heinrich declined to disclose the grape varieties. Steve’s guess: Cabernet Franc, Concord and a white wine. To that combination, Heinrich had no comment …

Cynthiana: After being spoiled by the robust Nortons of Tyler Ridge Vineyard Winery, I had to adjust my taste standards to appreciate Heinrich’s approach. It was actually delicate, serene, refined in a way that I didn’t expect.

Heinrich entered the debate about Norton/Cynthiana on the side that declares that they’re separate varieties. Cynthiana is an outgrowth of Norton, he said, referencing research at Missouri State University-Mountain Grove.

I’m not all that concerned about the botany. They might as well be the same; its what the winemaker does with the grapes.