The Wine Road - Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has a huge number of wineries, and that number keeps growing. I was only able to visit a few, and only in two out of the seven general regions. Therefore, I can't speak for the rest of the State, but those wines I did get a chance to taste, were impressive.

I just happen to be out here, appraising a wine cellar, and like any good wine writer, I couldn't pass up the chance to visit the nearby wineries. I am glad I made the effort, because the wines that I tasted, with few exceptions, exceeded my expectations.

This is no easy task. Those of you that have been following my Wine Road series know that I have been concentrating less on the quality of the wines, and more on the wine touring experience as a whole. In part, this has been in response to a flurry of disappointing wines, as well as to my desire to convince the world that visiting wineries is just plain fun.

In particular there have been three wineries, each quite different from the others in appearance, but similar in approach, that have caught my attention. It is the desire to improve, the willingness to experiment and the passion for their craft that make these producers stand out.

The first, in order I visited rather than any indication of ranking, was Chaddsford Winery. Situated in the Philadelphia Countryside region (according to the Pennsylvania Wines Guide), Chaddsford makes a huge variety of wines. The staff is not only knowledgeable, they are passionate about their wine education. The winery encourages this, going so far as to assist them in the economic side of learning about wines. I have rarely seen any winery, anywhere with such a highly trained staff. All of their wines are worth trying, but I was particularly impressed with their Pinot Noirs.

The next two wineries are in the Lehigh Valley region, just west of Allentown. It was there that I had the pleasure of visiting Vynecrest Vineyards and Winery. Vynecrest has been growing grapes for years. Carefully assessing the success of the varieties they grow, and showing a laudable willingness to experiment with new and even untried grape varieties. There is no question that they are are performing an invaluable service for the neighboring wineries, as well as for those throughout the rest of the State. I have asserted before that matching grape varieties to specific regions is one of the most important keys to quality, and Vynecrest is leading the way.

Also in the Lehigh Valley is the Clover Hills Winery and Vineyard. At first I was somewhat dubious as I approached the winery. The tasting room was a massive structure, with plenty of parking for busses, all too often a sign that the winery is less interested in promoting quality than they are in making a buck.

I could not have been more wrong. Clover Hills was not a new winery, as the impressive edifice had led me to believe, rather it was one that had grown due to its success, and now offers a place for corporations and other groups to come and learn about wines. The tasting room was spacious, scrupulously clean, and above all, as if to please just me, bright with plenty of white surfaces to inspect the color of their wines.

All three wineries produce high quality wines that would not be out of place anywhere in the world, but are particularly impressive for a wine region that most people don't even know exists. Time will tell if Pennsylvania is about to become one of the few commercially viable wine producing states, along with California, Washington, Oregon and New York, but it is certainly well on its way.

If you live in the Mid-Atlantic States and have not visited these, and their neighboring wineries, it is time to take a trip. If you have not visited recently, it is time to go back. If you can't get out to this part of the world, remember, there are almost certainly wineries near you that you can visit, and while they may or may not be of this quality, chances are you will still have a great time.

The Wine Road - Colorado

This is my home state, and I would love to be able to report that the wines are wonderful and that Colorado wines will be appearing at all the best restaurants around the world.

While I would love to give that report, this isn't it. Colorado wines are better than some, but with very few exceptions, simply are not very good - yet. The exceptions, as is so often the case, are the odd dessert wines here and there.

There are the usual plethora of wineries, just as in the states to the east of us. And just like those wineries in the Midwest, it is the touring itself that is worthwhile, more than the wines.

The tasting rooms are pleasant, even if I never saw one with a tasting friendly white counter (it is hard to judge the color of wine without a white background to look at). The people at the wineries are kind and helpful, albeit they tend to be a tad biased about the quality of their wines.

What keeps the Colorado, and so many other region's wines, from being as good as the more traditional wine producing areas? This is a complicated question, and I am far from having the whole answer, but let's look at what is required to make good wine anywhere.

Climate/ Micro Climate - The average temperature is one of the best known ways of judging if a region is suitable for grapes, and by extension, which grapes. Average temperature is not the entire story. The extremes count, and so does the amount the temperature can fluctuate in a day. Cloud coverage, the amount of rain, unusual weather like hail and frost, these are all climatic considerations for planting wine grapes.

Micro climate are small areas where the weather is different than all around. River valleys, and hillsides are two common examples.

Soil - The soil that a vine is planted on is critical. Unlike many crops that require rich topsoil, grape vines thrive in gravel and soils with good drainage. That is because a grape vine is like an iceberg, most of it is hidden from view. A mature vine can have roots that are 30 feet long, or even longer. Slight variations in soil, along with micro climate, are responsible for a great deal of the specific character of a wine.

Grape Variety - Picking the right grapes for the right combination of soil and micro climate is a hit or miss proposition. It takes 5 to 10 years for a vine to become mature enough for you to tell if the choice you made was correct, so there is a lot riding on getting it right. Combine this with the fact that any grape you can name is actually broken down into many subtypes called clones.

You not only have to pick the right grape variety, you have the pick the correct version of it. Each grape, and each clone of each grape, have varying degrees of resistance to diseases and pests as well their handling of the other variables. Ultimately consumer tastes and the popularity of one grape variety over another is all too often the deciding factor in planting.

Winemaker/Vineyard Manager (the human factor) - The person that makes the wine (as well as the one that tends the vines) has the final say over what happens to the wine. There is an old saying in wine, that I just made up - It takes great genius to make a decent wine from bad grapes, but any idiot can screw up the best of vintages. There are many decisions that have to be made during every point of the vine growing and wine making process. No matter who you are, there is a learning curve to every new wine. You have to work out all of the details, even though the variables keep changing. The best winemakers can adapt and recover from most bad choices or bad luck that happens during the process.

So where does Colorado fall short? The climate can be pretty extreme. In the Palisades region I just toured, it can get to 100 during the day, and 60 at night, That is a lot of stress on the vines. It is a very dry climate (politically as well, water rights are a big deal out here). The soil is too often hard packed clay, not allowing surface water to make its way down to the roots. The grape varieties are even more often the ubiquitous Cab, Chard and Merlot and inexplicably the cool weather grape Riesling.

I also noticed an increasing trend towards the Northern Rhone varietals Viognier and Syrah. In an odd twist I was pretty vocal 20 years ago about the need to choose grape varieties that were better suited to the region. I even mentioned the Rhone grapes, but I was talking about the Southern Rhone grapes, like Mouvedre, Grenach and Cinsault. I would also like to point out the Viura based white wines of the Rioja region of Spain, much less the recent improvement in wine making practices of the similarly warm area.

Making wine is a lot harder than many people think. In theory, grapes left alone and slightly mashed, will turn into wine on their own, or at least a form of wine. In practice, it is a matter of constant vigilance, watching what the grapes, and later the wine are doing, and making sure it all remains headed in the direction you wish it to.

Just from tasting the 50 or so wines I did the other day, I can tell you by their commonality that one of the biggest problems winemakers are facing, is the heat. If grapes are too warm when they are picked, the fermentation can be too hot, and this can lead to many problems. Even if the fermentation goes off as expected, the higher heat means more oxygen dissolves in the wine. The resulting taste is referred to as "baked" and is related to the maderized flavor of wines that are intentionally made in the presence of oxygen.

What is the answer? You can't change the climate, except for irrigation and a very few other factors. Soil can be changed, there are cases of wineries digging more than 50 feet to create more ideal vineyards, but this is outrageously expensive. That leaves grape variety, vineyard management and wine making.

Colorado, for better or worse, has little to none of the hybrid varieties that are found in almost all of the states further east. What it does have are the most popular grape varieties grown in California. That they are not as successful here as they are in California seems to be beyond debate. One of the comments from the "civilian" taster I brought along was "All of these wines are awful, and the wineries always think they are great. Don't they ever taste their own wines?"

So which grapes should Colorado use? There are 10,000 to choose from. A lot more experimentation needs to be done before there is an answer. This also means educating the public that there are wines beyond Cab and Chard in the world.

I saw a lot of awful vineyard management, and that is a shame. There has been a revolution in the last decade or so in the way that vines are tended. More people, and not just in Colorado, need to pay more attention to the details in vineyards.

Wine making will improve in time, with luck. As with any endeavor, some are more gifted than others. Too often, capitalization is more of a factor in success than skill, so those that survive are not always the highest quality. Time will tell.

Colorado has seen an explosion of wineries in recent years, and I have far from covered them all yet. To date I am not impressed with the wines as they stand now, but I have been around long enough to know where they were, and there has been a marked improvement. What needs to happen here, is what needs to happen everywhere, someone needs to lead the way in experimentation. That is what schools are for, and there you will find the next generation who will, without a doubt, know more than I about what needs to be done.

Colorado is a huge area. It has amazing diversity in climates, and not all of it is perfect for wine, but much of it is. This does not mean it is not suited for wine. italy and Spain are similar in size and climate to Colorado and each of them are major wine producers. Colorado has potential, but it needs to learn some tough lessons, or it will never discover how good it really can be.