Two Down Five To Go

Today we decided to explore our new local and stumbled upon Newport Vineyards.  So we decided to stop in and do a tour and tasting for $7 per person.  You get to chose five wines from their list of something like twenty-eight wines and keep the glass.  One selection is a hard cider.  The tour took you out to the vineyard and was a bit lengthy, but I'm not sure of it's accuracy.  They proudly mentioned how the machine they have can bottle 133 cases an hour, but they normally only did 120 cases an hour.  That equals to about 1,440 bottles an hour.  Jim and I chuckled remembering how quickly we bottled back at Ingleside.  I thought we were quicker than that, but Bill and Maria might tell us we're wrong.  They also mentioned how their machine came from a company in Italy that only produced two a year.  (Insert eye roll here)

Of course Jim and I shared our tastings so we could try more wines.  It's so hard to chose only five when their are so many to chose from.  I think they do it so you'll keep coming back.  So I tried the Sauvignon Blanc, which had almost a bit of sweetness to it.  But a nice acid and we bought a bottle.  They are a bit liberal with the pourings.  I then tried their Gewurztraminer, Vintner's Select Pinot Gris, Sanctuary and Pinot Grigio.  I enjoyed the Pinot Gris, but not their Pinot Grigio.  Which is odd because I'm a big Pinot Grigio fan.  Their Pinot Grigio was sweet and not to my liking.

Jim tried the Rose Pinot Noir, which was nice and we decided to take a bottle home.  It's a nice dry rose.  We blame our rose addiction on Maria.  She started it all with the Rosato.  He then tried Rochambeau, Blaufrankish, Gemini and Pinot Noir.  All which are reds.  None really grabbed us though.  But reds are hard to do up in this area.  Or so they keep telling us.  And who am I to argue?

As much information as they tried to give you on the tour, they were pretty quiet at the tasting.  No information was given to us about the wine and we were 

pretty much ignored.  They just poured your wine and walked away.  Sad really.  I really would have liked more information, but I had a feeling they didn't know much about the wines they poured.  The one thing I did like that you might notice from this picture is they inserted the cardboard from their wine glass boxes to keep your bottles and souvenir glasses from bumping into each other. 

Overall experience?  There are a lot more wines there to try.  So we might to back, but the staff doesn't seem that knowledgeable.  Some are friendly while others seemed a bit put out at having to pour.

So we left there with two bottle of wine to continue our exploration of our new area and came across a sign for another vineyard.  So being the curious people we are we followed the signs.  We came across an old, old barn that had the tasting room in it.  Hmm.  That brings back memories. 

For $8 a person we were able to try six wines and take home a souvenir glass.  One of their wines was currently sold out.  Funny thing.  Their winemaker used to work at Williamsburg Winery.  We weren't going to hold that against him though.  We were greeted by a very friendly woman who gave me a South Eastern New England Wine Trail Guide to get stamps on.  Something Newport Vineyards didn't do.  We got into a discussion about the different grapes that could grow in this area versus Virginia.

But I digress.  First off we tried the Rosecliff Pinot Gris, which was very delicate.  Then on to the Greenvale Chardonnay which is done in 40% French oak and 60% stainless steel.  Very nice.  Done with some of their younger vines.  We decided to take a bottle of that home.  Then we had their Chardonnay Select which was all oak and nice.  Then Vidal Blanc, which had a nice bite to it and I insisted we get a bottle of.  Hey we need summer wines and I know we're not going to get any serious reds out here.  Then we tried Skipping Stone White which is a blend of Cayuga, a grape I'd never heard of (no shock there) and Vidal Blanc.  And Cabernet Franc which wasn't too bad.  Their Elms Meritage was sold out, much to Jim's dismay.  Mine too.  But we've been told to try back in July.  So we will.

After that we got to talking again.  We both needed a chance to sober up.  The portions around here are nuts!  I swear it's like I'd had a glass or two!  I mentioned how I used to work at a winery.  The woman told me I should come back on Tuesday because the owner would be back then.  They're always looking for help.  I smiled and thanked her.  Don't think I'll be doing that though. 

Overall experience?  It's a newer winery, but I'll definitely be going back.  They have some nice wines and friendly/knowledgeable staff.  And you get to try all their wines!  Plus they have jazz on Saturdays after Memorial Day.  Which Jim and I think would be fun to take a picnic lunch, buy a cold bottle and enjoy the music.  It was the best of the two and I'll be recommending it to everyone. 

-Michelle

Edited to add:

Hey guys, just wanted to throw in my 2 cents.

Newport Winery:

What interested me about the tour here was the detail in the description of how they grow the grapes. Their vines are oriented north to south so they can get maximum sun exposure to the grapes during the day. They also said they remove leaves that block the sun from the clusters. They recently added a irrigation system as well. And because they have such a large vineyard (50 of their 70 acres have vines on them) they use a harvesting machine. I'm guessing agricultural workers are tougher to come by up here. 

The tour guide also described "free fall" juice (I have no idea what that means really, hopefully a reader can comment and explain it to us!) that they will use in a second fermentation process.  I'm guessing that's for their two ports. If I recall correctly, they make two ports.

Newport Winery makes ~16,000 cases of wine a year. Like Michelle said, they have something close to 30 wines! Twelve of them are sweet or "semi-dry" (i.e. Blue Crab type wines). Their reds are only aged for 9 months according to our tour guide, which to my mind explains why their Pinot Noir was very very weak. In my humble opinion their Pinot Noir was best used in the Rose, which was totally dry. They are trying to age their reds longer, i.e. over a year, but we were told that their inventory turns over too fast. 

That last line irks me somewhat. Their location, not their wines, is their saving grace. They get a lot of tourist traffic, and they have two tasting bars to accommodate the crowds. (One of them is in their barrel room, sounds familiar?) 

I have to say that I'm with Michelle, I don't know what relevance the rarity of the bottling machine has to the average winery customer. It seems more important to me that they are able to bottle when the winemaker wants to! The one neat part of their bottling machine was that it can do screw caps as well as corks, but it lacked the turntable on the finished end. According to our tour guide they only put one person on the finished end, which may be why they can't bottle as fast as the machine's potential. The tour guide said that the person on the finished end also has to staple the case boxes shut. Without help, a turntable, and having to staple the case boxes, I can understand the hold up. Still 1440 under those circumstances is pretty good.

The picture that Michelle took of the cardboard insert must be expounded upon. It's simply ingenious. I know from my time behind the bar that people don't want to put two bottles in one bag. Some wineshop workers prefer to put two bottles in the three bottle box and then put the glasses in one of the wine bottle slots. It's a waste of a box. What Newport does is take the inserts from the wine glass cases and simply cuts them into the X's you see above. Then you insert the X into the bag. One bottle of wine on each end, and the glasses on either side. Whala!  A no-cost option to keep the bottles from banging around in the bag.

Greenvale Vineyards:

What Michelle didn't tell you about the person doing our tasting is she was a Navy wife as well. In fact, it appears she's the wife of one of my instructors up here. Small world. 

The synergy of wineries exists up here as well. We were told that Greenvale uses Newport's facilities to bottle and to process the grapes after harvest. 

Greenvale is a small winery. Twenty-four acres under vine, 20 whites, 4 reds. They bottle ~3500 cases a year. They're located near the water and have to endure high humidity summers, sounds familiar. Their winemaker left Williamsburg Winery in the early 90's, and the estate has been in the current family for five generations.

They do two Chardonnays. The first is with their "young vines," which are 18 years old. It has a very fruity taste to it. The second is with their older vines, which are upwards of 30 years old, or so we were told. Their Pinot Gris was very delicate. I'm not sure why, but it wasn't as fruity as Newport's. We were told that their Pinot Gris vines are very young, so that may have something to do with it. Their Cab Franc, and Lord knows I'm not a fan of Cab Franc, was very clean. It lacked the earthiness I tasted in VA Cab Francs. Perhaps that is a climate thing. I don't think Cab Franc fans would like this one because, like Newport's Pinot Noir, it was weak. Unlike Newport's Pinot Noir, the Greenvale Cab Franc was ~25% Merlot, which gave it a pleasant color and more body. Overall, I liked it because it didn't taste like the Cab Franc's I've come to know.

What will be interesting is the Petit Verdot that Sakonnet Vineyards supposedly does. I can't imagine that it will hold a candle to Bill's Petit Verdot. I can't see how it can be as full-bodied given what we have seen of the reds here so far.