Talking a little Mischief and 20 percent sale at Pennsylvania winery called Black Walnut

Should you get in the vicinity of Chester County, east of the Gap around the point where Route 30 turns into an elevated four-lane highway, steer down Lincoln Highway and stop in to Black Walnut Winery. A member of the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail, Black Walnut now has its facility open for business. Nose around the 200-year-old renovated bank barn, and give the wines a try. It's a winery owned by two couples -- Val and Lance Castle and Karen and Jack Kuhn -- that's similar to a few others around the region in that it imports all of its grapes.

Was reminded of the winery, which officially opened in August, when we opened a bottle of their wine last night called Mischief. It's a medium-bodied to full-bodied white that blends their 2006 Pinot Gris and 2007 Chardonnay. Dry, with some hints of oak and the distinct smell of citrus. We just sampled enough to sip and enjoy, but it would have gone well earlier with the mix of vegetables, salad and shrimp we had out on a platter.

Black Walnut is open four days a week, from noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Also worth mentioning: As of Black Friday the winery launched its 20 percent off sale on all of its inventory that will last through the end of the year.

Black Walnut's spacious bank barn becomes Pennsylvania's newest winery

Congrats to Val and Lance Castle and Karen and Jack Kuhn, whose longtime dream of opening a winery was realized on July 31 when Black Walnut Winery in Chester County opened its doors. The couples go back to 2001 when they first started winemaking; several years later they took the first steps toward transitioning their passion into a business.

Overcoming a number of hurdles the past year, and still with some work to do, the renovated (almost) 200-year-old bank barn opened for business a little more than a week ago. It's worth the trip out Route 30 (about 2 miles from where two-lane Route 30 turns into an elevated bypass and heads toward Downingtown and King of Prussia) to see what they've done and try the wines. By the way, if you're headed east of Route 30, stay on the business route. You'll find the winery on the right-hand side about 2 miles after passing a Wawa and crossing Route 10.

From the wide-planked flooring to the gorgeous high ceilings, you'll spend the first few minutes just wandering around the top floor and marveling at how they've converted what some called the oldest antique shop in America into the home of Pennsylvania's newest winery. A member of the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail, expect it to open officially Labor Day weekend or the weekend after. But already on Friday afternoon, as we were finishing up our tastings, several parties were funneling into the place. The winery itself is located below the tasting room. Tasting hours are noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

No grapes are grown on the premises, all are brought in from other vineyards, primarily from other members of the trail. Tastings are $6 to try any seven of the six whites and five reds that the winery has bottled. We wound up carrying away a bottle of Mischief ($18), a blend of 2008 Pinot Gris and 2007 Chardonnay that we found interesting and worthy of a spot in our wine refrigerator. And, frankly, we liked the doggone name.

And there were other to savor. Wine writer Roger Morris, who has earned the title of expert when it comes to the wines of the Brandywine Valley, included Black Walnut's Blanc Franc ($16) on his third annual News Journal Case of the Brandywine. The Black Walnut's owners describe this 2007 wine as made of grapes "harvested two weeks before the other Cabernet Franc grapes, crushed and pressed within 24 hours after crush to limit the contact between juice and red skins. The result is a white wine with soft fruity flavors and with about 1 1/2 percent residual sugar, a soft sweet finish."

In short, congrats to the state's newest winery. Here's to a long and fruitful future of producing good wines.

Black Walnut gets mileage out of Bank Barn Red

Owners Lance and Vicki Castle and Jack and Karen Kuhn, a picture taken off the winery's Web site. They've been pouring wines for tasting under a tent that has been set up for the month while work on the winery building continues.

You have one more weekend to do a drive-by at the Black Walnut Winery in Sadsburysville. Where is that? As one who drove 10 years to Philly from Central Pennsylvania, it's located a couple miles past the point where Route 30 (heading east) changes from a two-lane road into a four-lane elevated highway that heads toward Philly.

After this coming weekend ends, after the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail's Barrels on the Brandywine finishes for another year, work will resume on the almost 200-year-old barn that will open for business as the winery/tasting room sometime in June. Maybe early June. Maybe late. They're not sure yet. But at least they feel like they're honing in on the specific month now.

The four owners have been working on restoring the barn for a couple of years now. One of those owners, Lance Castle, said by phone on Monday that things are coming along rather well. “We just put the hardwood floors in the special events room and in the tasting room,” he said, “and they look very nice. We’ve gotten some building inspections done and gotten some good responses from the building inspectors, saying things look good.” Left to decide is whether they can hook directly to the sewer line or go to Plan B, which is put in a septic system.

Castle said that the response from folks who have stopped by as part of the Barrels tour has been positive. Some have taken advantage of the opportunity to fill out comment cards, which has helped bulk up the winery’s e-mail list to send out blasts regarding the opening and any events to follow.

The wines, he said, “have been getting some very good feedback. I’ve had a couple people tell me that, ‘Wow, you know, I don’t go to a lot of Pennsylvania wineries, but I didn’t expect this kind of quality.’ I said, great, we strive to get you to say this is a great wine, and not have the little words after it that say ‘for a Pennsylvania winery.’

“Obviously we always know there’s room to grow but we absolutely are working real hard to know there is some quality stuff and people were very accepting of it. They enjoyed a lot of them.”

Perhaps the surprise hit has been what Castle called a Bank Barn Red, what he called “a little bit of a sweet big red wine. It was four grapes from two different seasons, ’06 and ’07 that I even ages in French and American oaks. It had a lot of flavors going on in there, a lot of complexities. I was thinking it was going to be too much for people, but it has been the surprise hit of the tastings.”

It includes Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot from 2006 and the first three from 2007. “[I] left some residual sweetness in the second year and blended it into the first to get a softer, slightly sweet red wine, and they’ve really stepped up and said, ‘Wow, this is great.’”

Here's the specs on the Bank Barn Red:
This wine has the largest concentration of Cabernet Franc (59.16%) of our blended red wines. This red blend presents the strongest strawberry and fruit flavors while being unbelievably smooth. With a small change in blending, you can appreciate the greater influence of the flavors and structures of our two Cabernet wines.

Black Walnut to roll out Plan B for Barrels

One note about the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail's Barrels on the Brandywine in March. Black Walnut Winery in Sadsburyville has been pushing to get its tasting room opened; it just won't happen in time for the annual wine trail event. But Lance Castle, one of the proprietors, wrote in an e-mail that there will be wine there for the tasting.

"We cannot let people in the building but we are putting up a tent with heaters," he wrote. "It won't be ideal but I think we will have a lot of fun."

You need passports to visit any of trail's wineries during weekends in March. That entitles you to tastings and whatever goodies they have laying about. Go to any of the wineries or the trail site to purchase a passport.