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.

For Allegro owner, another 'Christmas' behind him

I took it as a compliment knowing I had a little bit to do with owner and winemaker Carl Helrich's blog on his Allegro Vineyards Web site. He was the first winemaker I interviewed when I started this blog, and we have continued to talk off and on since then, sometimes for publication and other times just to catch up.

A couple months ago he rolled out the blog and provided his followers, including me, with lots of insight. His newest one was posted earlier this week at the end of harvest, what he calls the "best time of year. Think of it as Christmas," he adds a bit later.

What's fun about Carl is that he's not much for fluff; neither with his wines nor his comments. You know where you stand. and the blog reads that way, too: direct, lots of passion squeezing between the lines. "I will admit it makes me tired some," he writes later on in his post. "OK, a lot. I'm 39, and this is my 12th harvest. Not a lot, yet. But I can tell a difference. I still wake up early, too excited to sleep, but I can't go go go like I used to. Ray--my assistant winemaker--is starting to show it, too. When he first showed up here in his late 20s, he used to help with harvest then head to the bars. Now, four years later, it's been a few weeks since he's done that. We all get older, but the feelings for this only get stronger."

Two other things to mention about Allegro, located in The Brogue in southcentral Pennsylvania. A member of the Uncork York! trail, he will be participating in the trail's first Nouveau Weekend (or what they are calling New Wine Off The Vine) on Nov. 20-22. It will feature 10 of Uncork's wineries, including Allegro, which will be open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $10 per person and will include tours of the cellar and tastings, plus many of the wineries will pair with local restaurants for a wine and food extravaganza from Nov. 19-22.

In addition, Allegro's Bridge will be one of the wines features in my next Vintages column for In Central Pennsylvania magazine. A 2006 vintage, it's a Bordeaux-style Merlot blend with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. He wrote in an e-mail that the wine, which sells for $27, pairs well with beef dishes and should hit its prime in 2011 (although you can certainly open it now). And if you're in a cellaring mood, he said it should keep its life anoter eight or nine years beyond its prime.

As for the name, Helrich wrote that "it was created initially in 2001 as a "bridge" between John Crouch's Cadenzas and mine. The 2001 Bridge was really nice, but not quite a Cadenza. In 2006, I felt that the wine wasn't quite Cadenza quality, but much better than our regular bottling. I brought back the name in 2006, and we bottled a 2007 as well. We may have one from 2009 . . . we'll see."