The United Grapes of America - Nebraska's Mac's Creek Vineyards & Winery Poncu

Mac's Creek Vineyards & Winery came through with another interesting wine at the annual Wine America Congressional Tasting. This was their Poncu ($25) port styled wine. The weather is too extreme in the Cornhusker state for vinifera grapes so Mac's Creek specializes in cold hardy hybrids, many created at the University of Minnesota such as Edelweiss, LaCrescent, and Frontenac.

StarChefs.com: The United Grapes of America

Founder Max McFarland explained how the Poncu is made.  They ferment Frontenac and then send the wine to a distillery where it is distilled into grape brandy. The winery then purchases the brandy, ages it in oak barrels, and then use it to fortify batches of semi-dry Frontenac. As you can see, Frontenac all the way.  The label and name honors the McFarland Family cattle brand and Max's father Dale "Bud" McFarland. Bud enjoyed Stetson hats and Poncu is what 3rd generation and co-owner Barry McFarland called his grandfather as a little boy.

The Poncu is very nice. The nose is cherry, wood, and a bit ethanol.  The oak character persists throughout and with the alcohol dampens down the sweetness.With this wine, Mac's Creek proves with a little ingenuity and working within the state regulations, a winery can produce a unique and tasteful wine - in this case a highly recommended port styled dessert wine. Cheers.

The United Grapes of America - Hawaii's Tedeschi Vineyards Hula O'Maui

4th of July Hula O'Maui.- Ocean City MD

We are going to expand on a great article by Jeff Harding at StarChefs.com on the The United Grapes of America and attempt to taste a wine from each state once per week. And why not on this 4th of July feature a wine from our most recent state - the Tedeschi Vineyards Hula O'Maui. This is a sparkling wine made in the Methode Champenoise style from 100% Maui pineapples. The wines are available in the East Coast courtesy of Vino50 Selections and I purchased at Wholefoods for $23.99.

Although Tedeschi Vineyards\Maui's Winery grow and produce grape wines, we would expect a Hawaiian winery to utilize fruit indigenous to the islands. So we weren't surprised that they offered a pineapple wine - the surprise was the sparkler. And as expected, this wine is all pineapple - the tasting notes mention other fruit characteristics - but let me tell you, this is pineapple - from nose to tail. Many readers might be thinking that the wine must be sweet; and yes there is inherit fruitiness that may be misinterpreted as sweetness.. But the wine is fermented brut - completely dry.  And talk about refreshing - who needs Chardonnay (at least when dreaming of the Tropics); in the words of Andrew Stover, "a fun wine". Happy 4th of July. 

StarChefs.com: The United Grapes of America

Update: Evidently my family has a more sophisticated palette than me because many in our group picked up citrus flavors as well as some clove.