We couldn’t have chosen a more perfect day for our outing—sweater-weather with a brilliant blue sky to set off the orange, red, and gold fall foliage at its peak. I had almost despaired of having any kind of decent autumn after our long, dry summer, but a bit of rain and a sudden cold snap have made for one of the better leaf shows in recent years.
We began the day at a winery that’s not officially part of the Haw River Wine Trail, the Silk Hope Winery, though we thought our day might be over before it even began when we encountered a CLOSED sign at their front gate. The gate itself was open, however, so we drove up their long, steep, gravel drive to what turned out to be one of the highest points in the Piedmont, with a beautiful view. We saw the couple of acres of vines and a few steel buildings, but no signs of life; disappointed, we began the steep descent. Cindy had the presence of mind to pull out her cell phone (Donna and I still live in the Stone Age without one) and give the owners a call:
“Are you guys open today?…you are?…great, we’re going to drop by…yes, we are the people who just drove through your roundabout without stopping…” (the rest drowned out by laughter).
Back at the top of the hill, the owner’s son led us through a tasting of their wines, mostly Chambourcins and Chambourcin blends—I especially liked their “Grand Vista” red, a dry, slightly sharp Chambourcin/Cabernet Franc blend—and of course we ended up taking some with us, both for ourselves and for holiday gifts. He then walked us through the vines, pointing out their varieties and answering Donna the Gardener’s questions about pruning and drought and pesky critters. Us: "What kind of pests prey on grapes?" Vintner: "All of them." On the way out, we performed our good deed for the day by flipping their sign from CLOSED to OPEN.
Our second and final stop was Benjamin Vineyards and Winery, part of the Haw River Wine Trail. Benjamin is a bigger operation than Silk Hope, catering more to the tourist trade with a larger selection of sweet, dessert wines and a kind of country-cutesy gift shop. They also had some very good dry and semi-dry wines, however, including both oaked and unoaked versions of their Chardonnay and a very interesting Chardonel, which I had never tried before.
Unfortunately their Chambourcin was sold out, so we didn’t get a chance to conduct a “head-to-head Thunderdome match” with Silk Hope’s Chambourcin, but I think if—to paraphrase Tina Turner—“two wines enter, one wine leaves,” then Silk Hope Winery would be the Road Warrior to Benjamin Winery’s Master/Blaster.
2 comments:
I, too, preferred the Silk Hope wines overall. Chambourcin was a pleasing new acquaintance and I enjoyed both the red and white versions -- the red was similar to Merlot in smoothness and body, but with more depth and less fruitiness than the Merlots I can remember tasting. I plan to test its recommended pairing with turkey. The white Chambourcin is a blush but still very dry. Interesting.
The red Chambourcin was in fact good with turkey, though I think the blush would've been preferred by the rest of the company and a good match as well. I'll try to remember for next year.
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