Largest AVA? Napa? Sonoma? Think Again!

The world’s largest wine region would be where, do you think? If you guessed Bordeaux in France, or Australia‘s Barossa Valley, or even California‘s Napa Valley, you’re off by thousands of miles.

Last July, a federal ruling designated a new U.S. wine appellation, and you can be in the thick of it in just a three-hour drive from Chicago.

The world’s largest wine region is just a three-hour drive from Chicago.

The Upper Mississippi Valley wine region, which takes in Galena, Ill., covers 29,914 square miles in four states lining the mighty Mississippi. That makes it the largest American viticulture area, and the largest appellation in the world, in terms of land mass.

Actual wine production is another matter. The vineyards in northwest Illinois, eastern Iowa, southwest Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota are small, family-run affairs, most covering just four to 10 acres. You can sample wine in their cozy tasting rooms and peek at the production line. Some even let you stomp their grapes after the fall harvest, if you don’t mind getting your feet wet and purple.

The Upper Mississippi Valley wine region lies in the Midwest’s so-called driftless area untouched by the last advance of Ice Age glaciers. Unlike the surrounding region flattened by the immense sheets of ice, the landscape is marked by deeply carved river valleys, hills and bluffs where a patchwork of farms, fields and leafy groves spreads below. When Jack Frost colors the foliage in the fall, the contrast of greens, golds and reds makes for dramatic viewing.

Fall also brings the first wine release of the season and nouveau wine tastings, along with wine and food pairings, and tours combining leaf looking with apple picking and wine tasting.

While you certainly can tour the wineries on your own, drivers need to watch their consumption to stay within the law. Finding the wineries tucked away on country roads can be a challenge to anyone unfamiliar with the area.

“The signage sometimes isn’t that great,” said Dennis Dieters, owner of Iowa Wine Tours.

In spite of its name, Iowa Wine Tours does 99 percent of its business in the Galena area, Dieters said. He picks up vacationers — the vast majority from the Chicago area — at their lodgings in a van or motor coach. Most groups number from two to 12 people on the five tours he offers daily, though he also offers custom tours and can accommodate larger groups on request. His most popular tour, the Vinny Vanucchi’s Wine Tour, lasts about four hours with visits to three wineries and costs $60 including tasting fees, transportation and an all-you-can-eat lunch served family-style at Vinny Vanucchi’s Italian restaurant in downtown Galena.

A native of Dubuque, Iowa, just across the Mississippi from Galena, Dieters used to work for Galena Trolley Tours. He started his business three years ago and runs tours to 16 wineries in the region, clustering them to keep driving time to a minimum.

“I try to do them so they are no more than 20 minutes to half an hour apart,” he said.

Dieters said he’s amazed by the growing popularity of wine tasting and the number of vineyards that have sprouted in the region in the past 10 years.

“I was a beer drinker,” he said. “Ten years ago I never thought I’d be doing wine tours.”

The Upper Mississippi Valley still has a long way to go to promote itself, he added. “People don’t see this area as a big wine region, so we need to educate them.”

One of the newest wineries in the area, Rocky Waters Winery, opened last year near the hamlet of Hanover, Ill. Jared and Phyllis Spahn bought 112 acres after he left his computer systems job in Peoria.

“When we decided to build a house, my wife said ‘I’m not going to live with the smell of cows,’” Jared said. Instead of raising cattle, they began growing grapes in 1998 to sell to local wineries.

When the Spahns decided to build their own winery, a grandson named it for the rocky streams where the grandchildren play on the property. The names of wines produced here also come from physical features on the land: Log Cabin White, Cottonwood Blush and Pear Tree Blush, which picks up the fruit flavor of a 60-year-old pear tree in the midst of the vineyard. An annual grape-stomping festival takes its name from a popular episode in the old TV sitcom “I Love Lucy.”

The new winery, with its tasting room and shop, sits on a bluff with a panoramic view of the vineyards and valley. The Spahns and their two dogs, Rocky, a 130-pound leonberger, and Razzie, a labradoodle, moved their living quarters into the winery complex. They rent out their former log home, which sleeps 10 and has its own stocked lake.

Massbach Ridge Winery opened in 2003 near a former German settlement outside Elizabeth, Ill. Owners Peggy Harmston, a winemaker, and her husband, a doctor, produce about 2,000 cases a year, corking one bottle at a time.

“We get my mom and a neighbor to help and it’s a simple assembly line and a lot of fun,” Harmston said.

The 15 wines offered in the tasting room range from dry reds to semi-dry and semi-sweet whites to dessert wines, and they’re made from several varieties of grapes, including Marechal Foch, Concord, Niagara and Traminette.

A triathlete and avid hunter, Harmston is often on hand to chat in the tasting room. Ask her about the time she bagged a black bear in northern Ontario.

The oldest winery in the Galena area is also the second-largest producer in Illinois after Lynfred Winery in Roselle. Galena Cellars was founded in the early 1970s by Robert and Joyce Lawlor. The family business now spans three generations with Christine Lawlor-White as winemaker.

Though it produces about 25,000 cases of wine annually, its vineyard covers just four acres. It buys grapes grown near and far. Its 40-plus wines are made from French hybrid and Riesling varietals, Illinois grown St. Croix and Frontenac grapes, rhubarb and fruit, such as peaches, blueberries, blackberries, Door County cherries and Wisconsin apples and cranberries.

Galena Cellars operates tasting rooms on Main Street in Galena and at the vineyard in the Galena countryside, where a two-bedroom farmhouse and a one-bedroom suite above the tasting room are available for rent. A third tasting room and gift shop is located in Geneva, Ill.

(courtesy Sun-Times)

2006 Martin Ray Cabernet Sauvignon – $16

Martin Ray has been around in the Russian River Valley, in form or another, since 1881. This is their entry level Cab, sourced from Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino County grapes and aged for 20 months in French oak.

The color is a see-thru ruby red and the nose is full and fragrant and changes as the wine opens up. The flavor is robust dark fruit, chocolate covered blueberries with a touch of vanilla. Sounds delicious, doesn’t it?

This is a very inviting Cabernet, it really draws you back to take another sip. It does not have a lush mid palate or a long lingering finish, but I don’t care. The tannins are very balanced, just a touch in the back of your palate. Nothing to get in the way of just great tasting Cabernet Sauvignon. Great Tasting Cali Cab at a really nice price, what’s there not to like?

2008 Pacific Rim Riesling – $10

This organic, screw-top Riesling from Columbia Valley‘s Pacific Rim has a lot going for it. Spritzy, but not too spritzy, it’s the “Sweet Tarts” of wine: sweet pears – but not too sweet – and golden pineapple tartness combine in your mouth for a refreshing “breezy summertime in Savannah” party.

Try it with Thai, chili, spicy Asian, Caribbean jerk chicken – or vanilla bean ice cream! Don’t expect much of a BUZZ from this wine though, 9% alcohol will only get beer drinkers tipsy. Unless of course you drink two bottles!

Zin explained – not Primitivo but related

Zinfandel / Primitivo / Crljenak

Zinfandel was for many years somewhat of a mystery grape, as far as its origins are concerned. Recent research in Croatia and at the University of California at Davis, using DNA profiling, has proved Zinfandel is a clone of the Croatian variety Crljenak. While it had been theorized that Zinfandel’s genetic twin, the Italian Primitivo, was the source, this grape also originally mutated from Crljenak. Further research may indicate the very first plantings migrated from Albania or Greece.

In April 2002, the ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO TAX AND TRADE BUREAU announced that they are considering ruling Zinfandel and Primitivo synonymous for use on wine labels. Producers of California Zinfandel objected, anticipating that Italian producers with a bountiful supply would then be able to undercut the market with inexpensive Primitivo wine labeled “Zinfandel”.

Nearly as versatile as Chardonnay in the number of different styles of wine produced from it, Zinfandel only achieved widespread popularity in America, starting about 1980, as a pink, slightly sweet wine. In fact, this popularity so outstripped all other forms, that many fans think that there is actually a grape called “White Zinfandel” (there isn’t)!

Zinfandel as a red wine can be made light and fruity, much like French Beaujolais, or lively, complex and age worthy, like Cabernet or claret. It can also be made into big, ripe, high alcohol style wines that resemble Port. Zinfandel is also a component of most California “jug” wines, since it is the most widely planted red wine grape.

This vineyard proliferation can be attributed to zinfandel’s hardy nature. Adaptable to a wide range of soils and climates, its vines tend to be vigorous and productive. Zinfandel also has a frequent tendency to set a second crop.

The clusters are compact and full and the berry stems (peduncles) somewhat short. These factors make Zinfandel somewhat susceptible to bunch rot and some types of mildew. Water management is particularly critical to raising Zinfandel. Under stress from lack of moisture, it is prone to raisining. It also ripens more unevenly than most other varieties and it is not uncommon for green and raisined berries to occur within the same cluster. This tendency to can be aggravated by poorly-timed irrigation. Uneven ripening also means that machine-picking is impractical and a Zinfandel vineyard may often require a few passes, days apart, to harvest all the fruit with the same level of maturity.

Because of its vigor, generosity and resistance to vine disease, many zinfandel vineyards exist that are 75 to 100 or more years old. Zinfandel aficionados believe these “old vines” produce the best wines, because the older vineyards set smaller crops and the grapes tend to ripen more evenly.

(courtesy best-fine-wine.com)

Boo…….13 More Halloween Wines

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2005 Lapis Luna Merlot – $9

Lapis Luna loosely translated means “blue moon”.  What is a blue moon?  A blue moon is when two full moon’s occur in the same month.  There are 41 blue moon’s each century.  The next blue moon will occur in December on the 2nd and the 29th.

Alright, enough of the astronomy lesson and on to the wine!

Once in a blue moon (pun intended), I get to taste a Merlot that is under $10 that is delicious.  Lapis Luna Merlot is just that.  It starts with a nose of black currant.  On the palate you get black cherry and pine (yes, pine).  It’s like Christmas in your mouth!  It has a wonderful cherry, strawberry and pine finish that lasts for 20 seconds.  It’s amazing for $8.99.  Buy this one by the case, it’s a rare find!  I tasted it twice because I couldn’t believe it either.  Let it breath for 30 minutes and drink it with lamb, salmon, pizza or pasta.

Science proves white wine with fish rule – sort of

It’s one of the most vexing problems in modern science: which wine to order with the Chilean sea bass. One thing’s for sure, though—you’d only ever order a white wine, never a red wine with fish. The flavors just clash. But now researchers have pinpointed the problem with red wine and seafood. And some reds may actually go fine with fish.

Japanese scientists asked study subjects to try 38 red wines and 26 whites while eating scallops. Some of the wines contained small amounts of iron, which varied by country of origin, variety and vintage. The tasters noted which wines really didn’t work with scallops. And the researchers found that those wines all had high levels of iron. So they doctored the wine with a substance that binds iron, keeping it away from the tasters’ tongues. And voila, the bad taste became a bad memory. The study appears in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

With that knowledge in hand, wine lovers should be able to find reds that taste terrific with tilapia. So look for red wines with low iron. Just for the halibut.

(courtesy Scientific American)

2007 Hey Mambo Red Blend – $10

No offense to Lee Meriwether or Eartha Kitt, but my “purrfect” Catwoman was Julie Newmar. Meowing in that leather outfit, she simply purred sultriness.

Just like this “Zorked“* wine! A blend of Syrah, Barbera, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Malbec, and Alicante Bouschet, she bills herself as the “Sultry Red” and has notes of Catwoman’s leather on the nose as well as dark fruit and tobacco.

And just like Julie back in the day, this wine is soft, silky, supple and intense. She stays with you for a long time after feeding you dark berries, cassis, black pepper and spices. She will intoxicate you as well with her 13.5% alcohol content.

Drink her in with some pizza, burgers, pasta or turkey chili.

*Zork: an alternative wine closure that seals like a screw cap and pops like a cork.

A Little Something About Italian Wines

Cheapwinefinder recently attended the Vinitaly Wine Tasting at it’s Chicago stop of the tour. We sampled a dizzying array of fine wines from Tuscany, Piedmont, Amarone, Vento, Marches, Abruzzo, Campania and Basilicata, along with wonderful wines from Sicily. We were a little dizzy after we tasted all these wines, but that’s another story!

Wines from the (DOC), Denominazione di Origine Controllata, basically the government defined boundaries of a specific growing region and the (DOCG) Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garanita, which is the government guaranteed “sweet spot” of that region, can be a little pricey. Well worth it, they are very tasty wines, but out of our every day price range.

So look to Sicily and wines from areas outside the DOC and DOCG it find wines that give a pretty good “bang for the buck”. In Sicily, it seems every village has a wine made from their own indigenous grape. These villages take great pride the their wine, which translates in to quality wines at affordable prices. One that stood out for me was the Fourplay Rosso No.1, which was a blend of 4 Traditional Sicilian Grape Varietals, very delicious.

With the Holidays coming up, I paid special attention to the Italian sparkling wines, Prosecco and Spumante:

(Wine Tip #1: The cheap Spumante is made under high pressure in large vats, if you notice Asti Spumante is now just Asti, they didn’t want consumers confusing the cheap process with the more traditional process. The better stuff is made under low pressure to more naturally add the fizz.)

(Wine Tip #2: Spumante is the Italian word for sparkling wine, no matter what grapes are used to make the wine. Prosecco is sparkling wine made from the Prosecco grape.)

(Wine Tip #3: The French get the bubles from adding a little sugar to each bottle, so there is a second fermantation in each individual bottle. The Italians can make sparkling this way, but usually do the second fermantion in large vats. This make the bubbles a little less intense and makes for a softer and slightly sweeter wine.)

Standouts from the tasting were:  Ribolla Gialla Spumante and Prosecco Spumante, Valdo Spumante Prosecco Cuvee di Boj and Vinea Proecco Spumante. Spumante/Prosecco is more affordably priced than French bubbly, now is the time to experiment with different Italian Sparklers, so when the holidays arrive you can turn your guests on to an awesome wine, and who does not like bubbly at a party?

As seen on a wine bottle …

Makes me hungry. I mean thirsty.

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