Thursday, January 1, 2009

Sixteen wineries set for Farm Show stint


OK, I admit. I always head to the Farm Show in Harrisburg as much to watch the rodeo as anything else. But, almost a year into this blog, I'll have to add the "Culinary Connection" section of the show to my list of places to visit.

According to the Pennsylvania Wine & Wineries site, these wineries will be appearing at the show, which starts next Saturday, Jan. 10, and runs through Jan. 17. Results of the Farm Show competition held recently at the Rutgers Fruit Research and Extension Center in Cream Ridge, N.J. , also will be announced.

Jan. 10-11: Eagle Rock Winery, Christian W. Klay Winery, Mount Hope Estate & Winery, Starr Hill Winery
Jan. 12-13: Paradocx Vineyard, Glades Pike Winery, Naylor Wine Cellars, Chaddsford Winery
Jan. 14-15: Shade Mountain Winery, Long Trout Winery, Adams County Winery, Benigna’s Creek Vineyard & Winery
Jan. 16-17: Brookmere Winery & Vineyard, Nissley Vineyards, Sand Castle Winery, Blue Mountain Vineyards

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your good blog. I look forward to future posts, as I have always been a fan of (and probably "romanticized") the Mason-Dixon Wineries.
I also look forward to the results of the NJ competition mentioned by Mr. Mark Chien in his newsletter. Going off on a tangent, I have become a big fan of the Lemberger grape wine, which I discovered at Vynecrest (not sure what you can do about the name, except refer to it as Blaufrankisch or the fabulous Hungarian word, Kekfrancos-think I'll stick with Lemberger). Taking advantage of one of my Christmas gifts, I note that local wine avatar Robert Parker says of the grape that it's Austria's grape candidate, "most capable of international red wine stardom," and mentions a couple of Paul Ach candidates (2003 Blaufrankisch) in the 88 and 91 Parker range.
Since I am on a bit of a roll, Carl Helrich's (Allegro's great and mighty wine maker)comments about Merlot as something to concentrate on in PA, and Mr. Chien's positive comments about Chambourcin, brought to mind the late John Crouch, who with his brother Tim made some mighty fine wines at Allegro (Carl and his boss, Ms. Kris Helrich are most worthy successors to the Crouch's).
Anyway, after a good, long day of picking grapes, and probably drinking too much wine, I was chatting away with John about varieties of grapes as if I knew something, and I opined that Allegro's Chambourcin was just terrific. John looked at me and said, "I hate that !@#$%$# grape! I think we can grow excellent vinifera and make great wine." And I think my beloved friend was talking about cabernet sauvignon, as well as merlot and cabernet franc.
Anyway. Great Blog! Thanks! Will make road trip to buy wine before commenting again. Best for the New Year.