You Say Foxy. I Say Candy Corn

Before we begin, please press play on the music video below to begin the soundtrack for this post.



Flag Hill Winery & Distillery, Lee NH
We visited another local New England winery over the weekend. Flag Hill has over 20 acres planted to several cold hardy hybrid and native grape varieties. Among them, Seyval, Cayuga, Niagara, Marechal Foch, and Chancellor. Flag Hill also has a cool brand new (but antique looking) brass still where they make their General Stark triple-distilled vodka from New Hampshire apples. They are also getting ready to bottle their first run of barrel-aged apple brandy.

So, getting back to the foxy theme...
We sampled the Niagara Reserve which was our first taste of the Niagara grape. Wow. Talk about your distinctive varietal. As I later tweeted, this wine reminded me of Halloween in olden-day New England. It just has a real harvesty aroma. I guess there is a word for this: Foxy (or in the common vernacular: Foxy mamma jamma). I couldn't quite put my finger on exactly what food item it reminded me of--the closest I could come was candy corn.

...and now for something completely different...

There is a lot of Seyval Blanc in New England. If you're going to drink local wines around here, you have to learn to like it. I have come to appreciate the fruit character that can be achieved with this grape in our northern climate.

Flag Hill does theirs differently than Jewell Towne in that they let it see some American White Oak. I generally like a clean steel-fermented Seyval Blanc, but I can still give Flag Hill props for this version. The oak does not mask the fruit and it lends a really nutty component to the palate so you find all kinds of almond notes, running the gamut from toasted almonds, to almond extract, to marzipan. We enjoyed it enough to bring a bottle home ($11.95).

Flag Hill is definitely a New England winery (is there any other kind in New England?). What I mean by that, is they aren't afraid to blend the traditions of wine-making with the traditions of the northeast.

Besides table wines, they are doing fruit wines, Sugar Maple liqueur, apple spirits, and dessert wines. They even produce a red dessert wine blended with maple syrup... I know... We tried it though, and it actually was well done. The off-dry Dechaunac is probably the most marketable of the reds. I actually found their fruit wine quite pleasant. I am not usually a fan of fruit wines. Flag Hill doesn't try to make their's something it's not by making a dry wine from fruit; it is sweet and it tastes like the fruit it is made from.

It's definitely worth the trip to Flag Hill Winery to sample some of the flavors of New England's heritage.

Hudson Valley Wine Trail: Clinton Vineyards

On Sunday we scampered down the thruway from the Albany area to visit some wineries in the Hudson River Valley. After about a 70 minute ride we exited at Kingston and took the bridge to the east side of the river to head over to Red Hook. The first winery we tried to hit up (Alison Winery in Red Hook) was actually closed. Not sure if it was closed for the season or what. So we went downtown to find some lunch before heading further south.

We found a cheap/tasty lunch at Lucy's Tacos on Rte 199 (I dubbed them punk rock tacos) and headed back out to find our next target: The Clinton Vineyard which is situated off a charming tree-lined lane (The Hudson Valley in the springtime is indeed a scene of bucolic bliss).

Clinton Vineyard grows one grape: Seyval. They make a couple of wines ( a dry white, and a dessert) and a couple of sparkling méthode champenoise wines with their Seyval and claim to be the first vineyard to have planted the Seyval vine in the country. The remainder of their line up is strictly fruit wine. We made ourselves comfortable at the antique bar surrounded by a mixture of French art posters, various award medals, and autographed photos of the proprietor with Senator Hillary Clinton. We tasted the dry white, the sparkling Naturale (dry)'champagne', the Seyval dessert, a blackberry dessert wine, and finally their award-winning Cassis.

We couldn't resist walking away with a bottle of the Cassis which had complex black currant, blackberry, smoke, brandy, and vetiver on the nose, and a tart palate of mixed berry. We definitely have some delightful Kir Royales in our future. The tasting room and grounds are lovely and quaint. Though it's a bit off the beaten-path, I definitely recommend a visit if you enjoy Seyval or fruit wines.

Come back to read the next installment in our Hudson Valley Wine Adventure: Will Tasters A and B taste some Hudson Valley Table Wine?