The United Grapes of America - New Jersey - Tomasello Winery Rkatsiteli

From the plans of the southern Caucasus in the Republic of Georgia Tomasello Winery.  The winery is one of the country's oldest, opening right after Prohibition was repealed (license #68). Three generations of Tomasellos have operated the winery, producing an assortment of vinifera, labrusca, hybrids, and fruit wines - can you say New Jersey blueberries. And Outer Coastal Plain Rkatsiteli ($12). We had hoped to share this wine during our Discovering Georgian Wines for #winechat tasting, but the
to the outer coastal plain of New Jersey, the ancient Rkatsiteli has found a home at
logistics of online ordering failed us. Oh well. This wine starts with typical floral aromas, and continues with some apricots and spice on the palette. The wine seems drier than the Horton Vineyards and Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars - although the sugar levels are similar.  Not as acidic either, but just enough to balance the equation. Kudos to Tomasello Winery for producing a truly unique wine.

StarChefs.com: The United Grapes of America

#winechat - Rkatsiteli and Saperavi - from Georgia to America

#winechat will reconvene in 2013 on January 9th with a focus on the birthplace of wine-making - the Republic of Georgia - where archeologists have unearthed viticulture artifacts from 5,000 to 8,000 years old. Accompanied by the Georgian Wine House, we will discuss Kvevri terracota vessels, the popular Rkatsiteli and Saperavi grapes, and counterfeit wines. Georgian wines are available through Potomac Wines & Spirits. Rkatsiteli and Saperavi have also migrated to the United States where a handful of wineries cultivate and vinify these grapes. We hope to have representatives from Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars (NY), Standing Stone Vineyards (NY), Horton Vineyards (VA), Tomasello Winery (NJ) and Avanguardia Wines (CA) as well as Castle Hill Cider, who utilize Georgian Kveri terracota fermenting containers in their Keswick Virginia cidery. We are looking forward to seeing everyone online on the 9th - 9PM ET on Twitter.

Update: Facebook event describing the wine is now available #WineChat talking Rkatsiteli & Saperavi

Mulled Wine - No Need for a Recipe

Saint Wenceslaus - Morgan Creek Vineyard

Tis the season for all the major food websites to break out their mulled wine recipes. Never heard of that style? Well, according to wiki:

Mulled wine (otherwise known as Glögg or Gløgg) is a beverage that ranges from alcoholic to non-alcoholic. It is usually made with red wine along with various spices and raisins, served hot or warm. It is a traditional drink during winter, especially around Christmas and Halloween.

Being lazy, out household takes the easy route and purchases mulled wine from local wineries - then fortify it with our favorite rum. Here's a few we have enjoyed in the past and some we are seeking this year (including the winery's tasting notes):

Burnley Vineyards (VA) - Spicy Rivanna ($12)
This is our Rivanna Red to which we have added cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice, anise, orange peel, lemon peel and residual sugar. This wine is best served either well chilled or steaming hot like tea.

Brotherhood America's Oldest Winery (NY) - Holiday Spice Wine ($8)
The tradition of mulled wine in our country goes back to before the Revolution, when it was quaffed piping hot in taverns, inns and homes. Brotherhood’s Holiday Wine carries on this colonial tradition. Its moderate sweetness is balanced with tartness.

Rose Bank Winery (PA) - Mulled Apple
Like apple pie in a bottle. This wine starts with freshly pressed apple juice. After fermentation, it is sweetened to about 4% sugar (medium-sweet) and lightly flavored with our own custom blend of spices. Serve warm or cold.

Cream Ridge Winery (NJ) - Holiday Spice ($10)
This wine is made using a Niagra grape. We add spices so its great served cold straight from the bottle. However, serve it warm with our own Organic Mulling Spices and some fresh fruit and you can turn this into a warm Winter Sangria!

Tomasello Winery (NJ) - Mulled Spice Wine ($10)
Tomasello Mulled Spice Wine is made from a moderately sweet Native American grape, flavored with traditional mulling spices. Often served warm with a slice of orange and a cinnamon stick, this wine has been called the perfect "après-ski" wine. A popular style of wine in the outdoor street markets and ski slopes of Europe, our Mulled Spice Wine is great for the holidays or any other cold winter night when you’d rather stay in…

Chatham Hill Winery (NC) - Christmas Red ($15)
This semi-sweet red wine will warm you up when the weather turns chilly. Wonderful at room temperature, or chilled, or warm MULLED.

Duplin Winery (NC) - Christmas Wine ($10)
Start a new Christmas tradition with Duplin Winery's festive wine that is sure to warm the soul. Christmas Wine is a wonderful blend of North Carolina Muscadines and brings in the taste of a true Southern Christmas.


Wish List:

Morgan Creek Vineyard (MN) - Celebration Spice ($16)
Our signature Holiday wine! A favorite for fifteen years at Morgan Creek Vineyards and sells out within two weeks of its release every year. A lucious sweet red, rich body, touch of oak, and barrel aged. This Minnesota, French Hybbrid blend is a perfect wine to serve with a variety of main entrees; sweet beef, fruited pork, savory poultry, wild game are all wonderfully paired with this Winter Cycle libation. Even Good King Wenceslaus would serve this at his feast with Page or Monarch. . .

Ferrante Winery (OH) - Celebration Spice ($8)
A sweet festive grape wine spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. A mulled wine that can be enjoyed with a cinnamon stick or citrus fruits.

Easley Winery (IN) - Warm Mulled Wine
From the traditional German recipe comes Warm Mulled Wine, bursting with cinnamon, apple, honey, lemon juice, and spices from afar. Warm a glass and pair with creme brulee or other sweets.

Black Mesa Winery (NM) - Santa Fest ($15)
A mulled spice wine served chilled in the summer or hot in the winter. It's spices of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg will delight your pallet. Warm it for the holidays and the whole house will smell like Christmas.

Door Peninsula Winery (WI) - Mulled Christmas A softer, semi-sweet cherry wine blended with cinnamon, nutmeg and warm ground spices sure to foster fond family memories and cozy fires. Best served warm.

Boyden Valley Winery (VT) - Glogg Glogg is a mulled spice wine that is great served warm in a mug with dried fruits and almonds, or, even better, with any kind of pumpkin desserts or pecan pie. The Recipe came to us from one of those great characters who always seem to just emerge out of the Vermont landscape, our Swedish friend Taug.  Knowing something about cold winters, Taug shared this cozy secret with us, and we are sharing it with you. Glogg is a wonderful treat on holidays, or on any chilly night.

Cascade Mountain Winery (NY) - Heavenly Daze Our kitchen came up with this spice wine and we think it's a winner. Cinnamon, Lemon Zest, and Lemon Juice combined with red wine produce this rich spice wine - great as an after-dinner treat or mulled wine.

Cartecay Vineyards (GA) -  Chimney Noel
A seasonal nouveau Wine only available during the Holidays.  A light drinking sweet, wine with flavors of Berries and Christmas.

Update:

Tasted the Chaddsford Winery (PA) - Spiced Apple Wine ($13) last night. Not bad - will repeat by fortifying with rum. (Apple, cinnamon & spice, just like Ma's apple pie. Heat it up in winter for a soothing hot mulled wine.)

Also, ChiefWino recommended the Chateau Grand Traverse (MI) - Spiced Cherry Wine ($9).  For those on the East Coast this wine is available at Little Washington Winery (VA) through their Dirt Road program. (This wine is a holiday tradition. Made from our Traverse City Cherry Wine, we add natural flavors of cinnamon, clove, orange, and lemon peel. The resulting wine is a classic "Mulled" or "Gluhwein." Enjoy as a warm-up beverage or with soda water or ginger ale for a lighter taste.)

Thanks WBC11 - Georgia Wines Are on My Mind - Again

Another wine we found interesting during the WBC11 Speed Tasting was the 07 Chateau Mukhrani Saperavi - which resurrected our fascination with Georgian wines. For, the Republic of Georgia is the cradle of wine making, as evident by the 4,000 to even 8,000 year old wine making equipment unearthed by archaeologists in the country. We are talking Stone Age winos. Many etymologists even consider the modern generic word “wine” to be derived from the ancient Georgian word “gvino”. And what is equally fascinating is that contemporary wineries are using the same indigenous grapes as these early winemakers. We are talking Saperavi, Rkatsiteli, Mtsvani, Ojaleshi - wine grapes tasted by Jason and the Argonauts, Homer, Alexander the Great, Apollonius of Rhodes, St. Nino - thus when tasting Georgian wines - you're tasting history.

And its no wonder that the Republic of Georgia is the birthplace of wine civilization. It's geography is well suited for grape viticulture. Extreme weather is rare; winters are frost free; summers are sunny; and the Black Sea provides a beneficial micro-climate. The largest grape producing region is Kakheti located in the eastern end of the country. This region produces 70% of the country's wine and, understandably, houses some of the largest wineries: Teliani Valley, Telavis Marani, Tbilvino, Kindzmarauli Marani, Badagoni and Chateau Mukhrani. Other noteworthy wine regions are Racha-Lechkhumi, Kartli, and Imereti. Racha-Lechkhumi is currently home to semi-sweet wines such as Khvanchkara, Usakhelouri and Tvishi. The Kartli region is also termed "The Heart of Georgia" because of its central location and the home of the ancient and modern capitals - Mtskheta and Tbilisi. Both Kartli and Imereti are known for their sparkling wines and the later also producing the red wines Oihanuri, Sapere and Saperavi.

The country is home to over a dozen indigenous wine grapes. Rkatsiteli is the most important white variety and at one time was the third most planted varietal in the world. Mtsvani is the next most important white and is usually blended with Rkatsiteli. Saperavi is the most popular red variety and produces full bodied, somewhat tannic wines suitable for aging.

Like the French, Georgian wines represent the name of the source region, district, or village. And many of these wines are blends, such as Tsinandali, which is a blend of Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane. Yet some 100% varietal wines are available -- including the aforementioned 07 Chateau Mukhrani Saperavi. And like most Eastern European wine styles, many of the red wines are produced semi sweet - even Saperavi. (No wine snobs permitted in the South Caucasus.) And fortified wines are very popular.

Rkatsiteli seems to be my favorite of the Georgian grape varieties and at one time was the third most planted varietal in the world. Thanks to Dr. Konstantin Frank, Dennis Horton, and Jack and Charlie Tomasello, it has migrated to the United States and is now available at Dr. Konstantin Frank's Vinifera Wine Cellars, Horton Vineyards, and Tomasello Winery. The wines possess a recognizable spicy character that is balanced by citrus flavors and refreshing acidity.

But what about the 07 Chateau Mukhrani Saperavi? I really can't recall - even after 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sips at #606. I did note, however, that the vineyards were once owned by a major Royal Dynasty - The Princes of Mukhrani. History and Georgian wine are intertwined.

For further research visit any of the linked wineries or check out the Georgian Wine House. Georgian wines will remain in my mind for quite some time.

New Jersey Wineries Coming of Age

Check out this article on the state of New Jersey wineries. Apparently they are flourishing; time to head to the Garden State.

Jack Tomasello checks Cabernet Sauvignon grapes Sept. 8 at Tomasello Winery in Hammonton.

Photo by: Michael Ein

Wine 101 - Rkatsiteli

Many people are surprised to learn that the third most planted grape in terms of hectare grown is the ancient vinifera, Rkatsiteli. Thought to have originated in the Caucasus Mountains bordering Armenia and Turkey, this grape is popular in the former USSR countries of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldavia, Ukraine as well as Bulgaria and Rumania. Wine historians believe that this varietal was growing in Georgia over 5,000 years ago and Georgia’s most famous wine is Tsinandali, a blend of Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane grapes. One manufacturer, Vaziani, has been producing this wine since 1886. You can learn more about Georgian Rkatsiteli wine at the Georgian Wine House. In Russia, the total acreage of the varietal declined during Gorbachev’s reign, but is starting to rebound. This grape is also popular in China, where it is called Baiyu.

Rkatsiteli is high in acidity with pleasant floral and spicy characteristics, similar to a Gewurztraminer or Johannisberg Riesling. It can be vinified into different type of wines: from dry to very sweet, to sparkling wines, and even to Sherry-like wines.

This grape is starting to catch hold in the United States, where a handful of wineries are producing Rkatsiteli wine. The first American winery to grow and cultivate Rkatsiteli was Dr. Konstantin Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellars in Hammondsport, New York. The winery’s founder, Dr. Konstantin Frank, earned a PhD degree in viticulture at the University of Odessa in the Ukraine. After immigrating to the United States and settling in New York's Finger Lakes region, Dr. Frank's fundamental goal was to introduce the world's best Vitis Vinifera varieties to this region. Rkatsiteli was at the top of this list based on his experience producing the varietal in his native Ukraine. The winery is now run by his Dr. Frank’s son, Willy and grandson Frederick. According to Frederick Frank, Dr. Frank's Rkatsiteli has become somewhat of a cult wine – with a loyal group of wine consumers who love its unique qualities. Their version starts out tasting something like a Riesling, but lingers longer on the palate, and has spiciness reminiscent of, but different from, Gewürztraminer, evoking herbs, strawberries, and fresh ground pepper. Dr. Frank’s Rkatsiteli also receives numerous awards each year. In 2005, the 2004 vintage won double gold at the Great Lakes Wine Competition and gold at the New York Wine & Food Classic and International Eastern Wine Competition. While growing Rkatsiteli is very labor intensive and must be planted on east facing slopes, the winery believes that the final product and growing consumer demand justifies the work involved.

In New Jersey, Tomasello Winery has been growing Rkatsiteli since the early 90's, producing a vintage Rkatsiteli and a Sparkling Rkatsiteli. According to Jack Tomasello, it is one of his favorite wine grapes to grow and one of his favorite grapes to talk about. The grape grows well in New Jersey, remains healthy during the winter, and displays characteristics of a Riesling with pronounced hints of pear. Tomasello Winery educates their customers about this unique grape and has found that unique wines sell in New York and New Jersey. Their distributors have also found a demand for the product in local fine wine shops. Mr. Tomasello also foresees more interest on the West Coast. Recently a California nursery contacted him to request bud wood to graft some vines for next year.

Our first taste of Rkatsiteli occurred while visiting Horton Vineyards. This wine displayed characteristics much like a good dry Riesling: fruity aromas, citrus flavors and a long, crisp finish. We were immediately hooked and have always kept a bottle in our cellar. Located in Gordonsville, Virginia, Horton Vineyards started growing Rkatsiteli because it is a late bud breaking white grape and is extremely winter hardy. They cultivate the grape in the 5 acres directly in front of their winery. Marketed as R-Kats (so that consumers can pronounce its name) this wine is only sold where the buyer can taste the product: at the winery or festivals. In these environments, Horton has found that buyers are more than willing to experiment with new wines and it sells nicely. Eventually, as demand increases, they hope to sell the product in local wine shops.

Wine consumers in many countries are enjoying this ancient wine on a daily basis and it is very unfortunate that it is virtually unknown in the United States. As more wineries such as Dr. Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellars, Tomasello Winery, and Horton Vineyards start to experiment with unique grapes, we hope this situation will change and that one day, Rkatsiteli will be a household name within the American wine community. To learn more about Rkatsiteli and other grape varietals, visit our Wine 101 section at Wine Compass.