Saturday, December 13, 2008

Karamoor samples like a champ

Many of the barrels contain the
Karamoor juices, as you can see
of the face of the one below.



Drove down to Allegro Vineyards yesterday, but as much to try a wine that owner and winemaker Carl Helrich is making for someone else. Sampled five juices from a vineyard called Karamoor in Fort Washington, in suburban Philly.

While it’s not a wine producer that the populous around here is familiar with, this is a project that includes wine guru Lucie Morton (more about her in an upcoming post) and vineyard manager Nelson Stewart. It’s an up-and-comer that those in the East Coast wine family are calling a model vineyard and one that will help further blossom the industry in this region.

The 2008 juices are spectacular, and there isn't a bit of exaggeration in that assessment. The colors alone go deeper and display more body than what you’ll normally find in any wines in these parts. And the taste, particularly the Merlot, was enough to make me want to just sit down in Helrich’s rustic “laboratory” and wait for the first bottle to be filled.

Except that could be a long wait. He said it might be at least a year and a half until this wine is available, as Karamoor first gets established and then hop-scotches through all the requirements needed before a winery can get up and running.

But, similar to Maryland’s Black Ankle, this will be a winery that will win awards quickly and likely will find a similar if not higher price point. Black Ankle charges $40 for its
Crumbling Rock, a four-grape blend dominated by Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Certainly, the bottles that come out of Karamoor could yield a little more at the cash register, and likely would get it over in the Philly market and from those willing to spend more to buy something of a higher quality than they’re generally going to find.

While I’ll on the subject of
Allegro Vineyards, located in The Brogue in southern York County, let me mention its holiday open house today at the Wine Gallery, its shop at Olde Tollgate Village, 2459 S. Queen St., York. Running from 2 to 5 p.m., it will feature complimentary tasting, noshes, gift ideas, wine specials, and jazz guitarist John Link.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

we tried Karamoor estate chardonnay 2007. It waS GREAT. wWhere do we buy the wine? And where is the vineyard located.

Ron, yardley

Anonymous said...

ron. i am a former summer employee of karamoor farms and the vineyard that is located on that land. the wine is not yet for sale and, most likely, won't be for a long time. the owner, nicholas karabots, originally started the vineyard only a couple of years ago "just for fun". however, as the reviews of the wine get better and better, i'm sure mr. karabots, who is an extremely shrewd business man, will start selling in local liquor stores soon. as for the vineyard, it is located on the karabots nearly 300 acre estate, called karamoor farm, which is right off of 76 in whitemarsh.