Allegro's Bridge hits all the high notes

One of the wines I featured in the Jan-Feb issue of In Central Pennsylvania magazine, published by the Harrisburg Patriot-News, is Allegro Vineyard's Bridge. It's a Bordeaux-style blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc that ages for 22 months in French oak barrels and then is bottled unrefined and unfiltered.

Opened another bottle Wednesday to go with a pre Thanksgiving Day meal (in other words, the day you sit around with family and sample a few wines) and it was very, very good. Wonderful fragrance and color with just the right amount of tannins, it's something you could pair with any number of foods or simply savor as you're sitting around talking.

Carl Helrich, the winemaker and owner of the winery in The Brogue, in southcentral Pennsylvania, had e-mailed me about the history of the name at the time I was writing the story. It served as a bridge, he wrote, between the Cadenzas of former owner John Crouch and the ones Helrich was producing. You could call Cadenza, also a Bordeaux-stlye blend, the previer member of the Allegro line.

"In 2006, I felt that the wine wasn't quite Cadenza quality, but much better than our regular bottling," he said. "I brought back the name in 2006, and we bottled a 2007 as well. We may have one from 2009. We'll see."

It's selling at $27 a bottle. Definitely worth the investment. Helrich had noted that he felt this present vintage for sale (2006) would peak in 2011 and could be cellared as late as 2016 to 2018.

To Carl and wife Kris and all the other supporters and readers of this blog, Happy Thanksgiving and the many, many blessings this holiday brings.