Because of an unfortunate scheduling conflict caused by the growing habits of grapes and the party-giving habits of winemakers, I missed the annual Stone Hill spring Norton festival a couple of months ago. That’s the time for an annual party when the winery holds a vertical tasting of the last 10 vintages of its premier wine, the estate-bottled Norton. The most recent to be released-usually on the day of the party-was the ‘06 a few months ago, and visitors also got to taste the 2007 and 2008, not yet bottled but aging happily in barrels.
Winemaker Dave Johnson has created some brilliant wines for Stone Hill, and while the Norton probably is not the best seller, it’s the flag atop the winery. Norton grapes, a native American that has been used for wine in the Midwest and along the East Coast for more than 160 years. Like many wine buffs, I think Norton produces the finest and most elegant of Missouri red wines.
Most Missouri wineries produce a Norton, and it’s usually the most expensive because it’s a wine that needs aging, so it’s at least three years from harvest to check-out counter as compared to whites that are drinkable a year or so after harvest. I think that most Nortons need another year or two before they start to peak. In other words, if I’m opening a Missouri Norton for dinner, I’d be looking for a 2004 or a 2003.
However, th e ‘06, from Stone Hill’s Kemperberg and Cross J vineyards, is a fine wine today and will improve over the next decade. With a color so dark red it’s almost black, its aroma is of plums and other dark fruit, often with a hint of leather, and its flavor shows blackberries. The comparison on the palate is with a hearty Syrah (or Shiraz, in the Australian nomenclature) and it’s a great companion to a steak or ribs coming off the grill, blackened just a touch at the edges. Excellent balance and a long finish.
After the fermentation process, the Nortons spend a year in barrels of French, Hungarian and American oak.
Looking to the future, the ‘07, to be released next year, is a wine with much promise. It has the deep earth tones and rich color that typifies Norton, and another year of age will soften some of its rough edges and lengthen the finish. The 2008 is a relative baby, hard and filled with sharp tannins, but many good things happen when a young wine matures.
While Stone Hill has the high ground in Hermann, Hermannhof has the riverfront in downtown, and Jim Dierberg has spent time and money in that area. In addition to the winery, which overlooks the Missouri River, Hermannhof has taken over the Festhalle, a few blocks west of the winery, as a bed-and-breakfast property and as the headquarters and registration area for a handful of old homes that have been turned into inns. The breakfast is served in the Festhalle, and registering guests receive a glass of one of Dierberg’s fine California Sauvignon Blancs from his Santa Barbara County vineyards and winery. The family also has opened a small brewery, Tin Ceiling, a block or so east of the winery. The various sleeping quarters are in old, well-restored buildings with elegant touches.
Interestingly, Dierberg-grown grapes are shipped from Santa Barbara to Hermann and made into a dry rose called Vin-Gris (gray in French, and a term often used for European rose wines), while California red grapes are made into a Barrel Select.
I tasted a few Hermannhof wines on a recent visit to Hermann, and was extremely pleased by the Seyval Blanc and Vidal Blanc, a couple of French hybrids that can be made into excellent white wines, with the former showing flavors like a Sauvignon Blanc, the latter lighter and more like a Pinot Grigio.
A first-rate 2004 Norton also was on the tasting table at Hermannhof, with all the Norton qualities but a little more delicate than the one from the top of the hill. I prefer the lusty quality of the Stone Hill version.
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CHOCOLATE WINE? READ ON: The Horton Vineyards, in the Gordonsville, VA, make a wide variety of wine, including a very good Norton which they call – of course – Horton’s Norton. Now the winery is making chocolate wine. It’s called XOCO, pronounced SHO-ko and made from a Portuguese grape called Touriga, along with what the winery describes as "chocolate essence."
-Joe
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During this years (2009) Pamlico Beach (NC) Christmas Cookie Baking event, one of the participants brought a bottle of Horton’s XOCO. The intense red grape/chocolate mix was delightful with all the cookie samples going around.
Norton wines from other states (with only one as good as we found in Missouri) can be found in two articles:
Developing a Taste for Norton: http://www.wine-compass.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=3&tabid=14
Deep South Norton Wines:
http://wannabewino.com/2010/02/01/deep-south-norton-wine-travels/