The United Grapes of America - Maine's Savage Oakes Vineyard and Winery Maréchal Foch Rosé

Savage Oakes Vineyard and Winery opened almost a decade ago as Elmer and Holly Savage looked for ways to augment income from their Barrett Hill Farm. While principally raising Belted Galloway cattle, the couple also sold blueberries that grew wild in their fields. Since they had a natural source of fruit, Mr. Savage spent 4 years researching wine making and grapes that excel in northern climates. The family toured several wineries throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, and New York to determine which grapes were suitable to Maine’s climate. They chose Seyval Blanc, Cayuga, Frontenac, St. Croix, St. Pepin, Leon Millot, and Maréchal Foch.

Ironically, when the winery opened in May 2006, there were not enough wild blueberries to produce blueberry wine, which was the original impetuous for the winery. Instead the winery opened with five grape wines, with almost all produced from grapes grown in their vineyard. One of these was the Maréchal Foch Rosé. The grapes were cold pressed with little skin contact, then aged in stainless steel tanks. The result is a rather tasty wine that has the flavor profile and texture of the Foch grapes as well as being light and refreshing. Your summer picnic or pizza wine.

StarChefs.com: The United Grapes of America

The United Grapes of America - Delaware's Nassau Valley Vineyards Indian River Red

StarChefs.com: The United Grapes of America

Our next The United Grapes of America feature moves from this country's newest state to the oldest, Delaware, and Nassau Valley Vineyards, a winery that was listed in the original StarChefs.com post. Nassau Valley will be celebrating their twentieth anniversary next year and proprietor Peg Raley actually drafted the farm winery legislation that allowed wineries to operate in the First State. The estate is located near the popular seashore resorts of Lewes, Rehobeth, and Dewey Beach and receive plenty of tourist traffic. And being near the coast, the vinifera vines - yes vinifera (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot) are planted in very sandy soil. This provides plenty of drainage and the sea breezes cool the grapes at night allowing for a decent diurnal variation. The "perfect" location for a vineyard. The winery produces single varietal wines from these grapes - the Chardonnay is my favorite of these - but their pride is the "Indian River Red" Vintner's Blend. Priced at $30.00, this is a blend of the estate's best fruit and for 2010 the blend consists of 73% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was then aged in French Oak for eight months.  This is a big wine, earthy and leather, but also exuding dark cherry flavors. The tail contains some pepper and plenty of mouth drying tannins.  This is the type of wine that really surprises you - made in a very unlikely area. Yet, if you can swallow the price - a nice example of a local wine.

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.