After 5: The Native Grapes

In a year featuring 242 wines from 35 Missouri wineries, the Best of Class table at the 2010 Governor’s Cup Awards on July 15 in Columbia looked like a Stone Hill Winery display. Rarely has one producer so dominated a prestigious statewide competition – including the top honor, as judges selected Hermann-based Stone Hill Winery’s 2009 Vignoles as the best wine in Missouri. Stone Hill also nabbed the ’09 Governor’s Cup.

Missouri is currently a Top 10 U.S. wine producer with 98 wineries operating and more than 1,600 acres bearing fruit. This year’s competition was held at the University of Missouri, where educators are planning to build a facility for an integrated food, wine and hospitality program.

The winning wines reviewed below will be on display at the Aug. 12–22 Missouri State Fair in Sedalia and are available at area grocery stores and wine retailers (including Brown Derby’s International Wine Center, where Springfield Business Journal held its photo shoot).

A listing of all medals and categories is posted at www.missouriwine.org.

Best of Class Award Winners

Sparkling: Les Bourgeois Vineyard Brut.
A very good sparkling wine with a classic dry finish, this Champagne-style wine has a toasty nose and medium body. It is very smooth with a touch of citrus on the finish.

Dry White: Stone Hill 2009 Dry Vignoles.
Stone Hill has perfected this native grape. This light-bodied, refreshing wine – with its peach and honey on the nose and mixed fruit on the palate – pairs with light foods or makes a nice summer sipper.

Semidry White: Stone Hill 2009 Steinberg White.
Blended from hybrid grapes, it’s made to taste like a German riesling or liebfraumilch. I’ve liked other vintages of this wine, but this one was slightly cloying, and the finish was somewhat out of balance.

Sweet White: Stone Hill 2009 Vignoles.

This is a sweet version of vignoles, but not overly sweet, and shows good balance with a candy confectioner’s sugar on the palate and a smooth finish. It pairs with spicy foods or cheesecake and is great as an aperitif.

Dry Red: Stone Hill 2008 Cross J Vineyard Norton.
This is a former Governor’s Cup winner, and I would have chosen it this year. It has a fabulous nose with earthy and spicy aromas like Bordeaux with an exotic streak. The wine develops in the glass as tobacco and pepper give way to wild game, dark fruit and currants. It pairs with rich, flavorful meats and cheeses.

Semidry Red: Stone Hill 2009 Steinberg Red.
A likeable wine made from red and white hybrids, it is light in color with medium body and fruity with candy apple notes. It is a simple wine for simple foods – or simply to enjoy.

Sweet Red: Pirtle Winery Mellow Red.
This surprising nonvintage bottling of Concord grapes is a picnic wine with bubble gum and grape juice flavors. It is extraordinarily well balanced, with no “foxy” character, and is not at all cloying. No unpleasant aftertaste makes this a wine that’s impossible not to like.

Blush: Chaumette Winery 2009 Spring Rosé.
This completely dry blush wine is made from the chambourcin grape. I found it overly acidic and out of balance. It could accompany seafood, and salmon in particular, but lacks appeal on its own.

Fruit Wine: Pirtle Winery Blackberry Mead.
Not truly a fruit wine, this is 83 percent honey and only 17 percent blackberry. The nose is nice, but the flavor is underwhelming with the blackberry almost lost. It’s really a honey mead with a touch of blackberry, and while it certainly isn’t bad, it doesn’t really fit in either category.

Late Harvest/Ice: Stone Hill 2008 Late Harvest Vignoles.
In this vignoles’ third appearance, it comes as a dessert wine, oozing sweetness. With a flavor profile of honey and fruit cocktail, it is less an ice wine and more like fun in a glass.

Dessert/Fortified: Stone Hill 2006 Port.
Made from norton grapes in traditional port style, it’s particularly sweet and the alcohol level shows more heat than flavor. With aging, this may balance out, but its relative youth really shows at this stage.[[In-content Ad]]