Red, Red Wine

Back in October 2012, we visited some local wineries when we stayed in this campground in Westhampton, Massachusetts.  Of course, we blogged about it.

This visit is during a different time of year.  Note the fall colors in the leaves in the photos in that original blog entry.  This visit is during July, and the warmth and greens of summer are fully leafed out.

There are perhaps six wineries in the region around Northampton.  Of those, we visited four in 2012, and of those we recalled really enjoying two.  We took a quick look at information on some others in the area, but decided to limit our visits this year to the two wineries we remembered most fondly from the last visit.

Our first stop was our most favorite:  Mount Warner Vineyards, located on Mount Warner in Hadley, Massachusetts, east of the Connecticut River.

The owners, Gary and Bobbi, manage a small operation with deep knowledge and artisinal wizardry!  We've liked each of the wines we've tasted.  In 2012, we were so enthusiastic, we purchased a whole case, but this year, we need to beware our impending border crossing into Canada.  We promised ourselves we would only buy two bottles.  We held pretty fast to this pledge, and only bought six.

In 2012, Gary hosted us and explained their approach to winemaking.  This year, Bobbi was our guide.  Here's a photo of Bobbi and Kathy in front of some of the prize vines:

The view down into the valley, with University of Massachusetts in the background, and a rustic grey barn, is very striking.  You can find more scenic photos from the vineyard, as well as more information about the wines, on their website.

Here are the three dry red wines we purchased:

Of these, the Corot Noir was absolutely one of the very best wines we've tasted in a long time! As the vitners' tasting notes, explain, "Corot Noir is one of the great, newer red hybrid grapes developed by Cornell University."  Other local wineries produce the same type of wine, but they just don't reach that black cherry peak of taste that this one does.  David would have loved buying just the Corot Noir, but then we would have missed revisiting the two other red wines from Mount Warner Vineyards, which we also liked very much.  One of the other reds is named, "Secret," because the Petite Pearl grape the winery grows and uses in this wine is so new that it isn't even eligible for identification on the label of the bottles.  But it is very tasty and blended very well.

Our second winery was Black Birch Vineyard, which is located in Easthampton, Massachusetts, west of the Connecticut River.  Owned by two couples, it had just opened early in the year we last visited.  Even now, their vines aren't mature enough to use their own grapes, so they are starting out by making wine from other local grapes.  We enjoyed two of their dry reds, the Cabernet Franc and the Corot Noir, so we brought those home with us.

The view from Black Birch Vineyard is also striking, as it perches near the top of a sweeping hillside, as in this beautiful photo we snitched from the Web:

After our wine trek, we retired to our camper and sat outside, enjoying current episodes of "camp TV" as the weekend campers drove in to fill the campground for the weekend.  We sipped one of the wines and had thoughts that can only be expressed by this performance of "Red, Red Wine" by UB40.

Gambei!