2nd Annual East Coast Food & Wine Festival.
Part 5 of 5 of the review of 2nd Annual East Coast Food & Wine Festival.
Our final destination of the day was the host winery, Hopewell valley Vineyards.
These guys are at many of the NJ festivals and I have tasted quite a few of their offerings over the years. I have had mixed results with their selections. Compile that with the fact that they had the worst space layout of all the wineries present you understand why I waited to deal with them.
Outdoor wine sampling events are actually quite simple and have a very basic requirements. 1. Have a square tent. 2. Have three of the four sides of the tent as long tables in order to serve your wines.
Now what boggles my mind was their decision to leave 2 of the 3 tables…empty. leaving just the front one to serve the throngs of people who want to taste what they are trying to sell us. Every other winery had all 3 sides ready with servers and wine. Only saving a small corner in the back for the exchange of money if you intended to purchase something. Very crowded and very warm, we chose to target only select wines and move on out of there.
By doing this I missed tasting their Chambourcin, their Rosso Della Valle and ports. All of which was on my list. Oh well. They could have possibly earned much more money then they did from us that day. Fuck'em, their parking lot idea was bullshit anyway. Dicks.
REDS:
Merlot - 2006 - 15.95
Not bad but certainly not good enough for me. Continuing trend of subpar NJ Merlots. 6 of 10.
Barbera - 2007 - 16.95
I was really eager to try this one. As there was no way I'd easily fit my large ass in the tasting line I sent K in to retrieve this Italian favorite. Bleh, Not very good at all. Seemed too young and too mixed up to be considered among the true Italian Barberas. No thanks. 5 out of 10.
Sangiovese - 2005 - 20.95
Now this was much better then the first two I tasted. Knowing that this winemaking family came from Italy I was wondering when I'd see a them create a good Italian wine. This is was it. The wine was damn good. Full-bodied. Dry finish with loads of spice. 8 out of 10
Cabernet Sauvignon - 2006 - 17.95
Back to the bland again with this one. Not much body and lifeless. Drinkable, but hardly worth the effort it took to get in there to try it. 5 out of 10.
WHITES:
Stony Brook Dry Blush - 2007 - 13.95
A blend of Vidal Blanc and Chambourcin Medium-bodied and pleasantly sweet. Light and fruity wine with accents of cherries and strawberries. I can see this with mild cheeses, ham or turkey on a summer day. 7 out of 10.
DESSERT & SPARKLING WINES
White Merlot - 2008 - 15.95
Light bodied with a bouquet of peaches and pears. This crisp wine displays sweet fresh fruit flavors that really made us take notice. Being it was so warm out this absolutely hit the spot. We loved it. Awesome, awesome blush wine. I highly recommend this wine for your summertime enjoyment! Serve chilled but not cold at around 45 degrees with cheeses, fruit slices or just by itself. 10 out of 10. (1 case purchased)
Spumante Secco (Dry) - NV - 15.95
This sparking wine was pretty good. Dry and crisp. It's good for exactly what sparking dry wines are good for, toasting and sipping with hors d'oeuvres.
Spumante (Sweet) - NV - 15.95
Again, Hopewell Valley shows that they can do sparkling wines well. As above this one was also pretty good. If not a step or two better. A well balanced sparkling wine. Though I'd say this could be drank more freely then the dry. 8 out of 10. (2 bottles purchased)
All in all it was a very fun day at the festival. Regardless of the earlier troubles we had a blast. I hung out with my best friend, tried tons of different wines and walked away with over 4 cases of good NJ wine. Since that is really a ton of wine for just two people, we would love to be able to share them with everyone who may be interested. So, if you have bothered to read this far in to my reviews you are invited to a summertime wine indulgence day here at out home. All you have to do is reply here with anything and I will be in touch to set up a day/night of wine, cheese, meats and maybe some anime. What? We've been over this, robots are cool damn it! Seriously, there's no room for all these bottles. So, be a trooper and help us out! ;-)
Our final destination of the day was the host winery, Hopewell valley Vineyards.
These guys are at many of the NJ festivals and I have tasted quite a few of their offerings over the years. I have had mixed results with their selections. Compile that with the fact that they had the worst space layout of all the wineries present you understand why I waited to deal with them.
Outdoor wine sampling events are actually quite simple and have a very basic requirements. 1. Have a square tent. 2. Have three of the four sides of the tent as long tables in order to serve your wines.
Now what boggles my mind was their decision to leave 2 of the 3 tables…empty. leaving just the front one to serve the throngs of people who want to taste what they are trying to sell us. Every other winery had all 3 sides ready with servers and wine. Only saving a small corner in the back for the exchange of money if you intended to purchase something. Very crowded and very warm, we chose to target only select wines and move on out of there.
By doing this I missed tasting their Chambourcin, their Rosso Della Valle and ports. All of which was on my list. Oh well. They could have possibly earned much more money then they did from us that day. Fuck'em, their parking lot idea was bullshit anyway. Dicks.
REDS:
Merlot - 2006 - 15.95
Not bad but certainly not good enough for me. Continuing trend of subpar NJ Merlots. 6 of 10.
Barbera - 2007 - 16.95
I was really eager to try this one. As there was no way I'd easily fit my large ass in the tasting line I sent K in to retrieve this Italian favorite. Bleh, Not very good at all. Seemed too young and too mixed up to be considered among the true Italian Barberas. No thanks. 5 out of 10.
Sangiovese - 2005 - 20.95
Now this was much better then the first two I tasted. Knowing that this winemaking family came from Italy I was wondering when I'd see a them create a good Italian wine. This is was it. The wine was damn good. Full-bodied. Dry finish with loads of spice. 8 out of 10
Cabernet Sauvignon - 2006 - 17.95
Back to the bland again with this one. Not much body and lifeless. Drinkable, but hardly worth the effort it took to get in there to try it. 5 out of 10.
WHITES:
Stony Brook Dry Blush - 2007 - 13.95
A blend of Vidal Blanc and Chambourcin Medium-bodied and pleasantly sweet. Light and fruity wine with accents of cherries and strawberries. I can see this with mild cheeses, ham or turkey on a summer day. 7 out of 10.
DESSERT & SPARKLING WINES
White Merlot - 2008 - 15.95
Light bodied with a bouquet of peaches and pears. This crisp wine displays sweet fresh fruit flavors that really made us take notice. Being it was so warm out this absolutely hit the spot. We loved it. Awesome, awesome blush wine. I highly recommend this wine for your summertime enjoyment! Serve chilled but not cold at around 45 degrees with cheeses, fruit slices or just by itself. 10 out of 10. (1 case purchased)
Spumante Secco (Dry) - NV - 15.95
This sparking wine was pretty good. Dry and crisp. It's good for exactly what sparking dry wines are good for, toasting and sipping with hors d'oeuvres.
Spumante (Sweet) - NV - 15.95
Again, Hopewell Valley shows that they can do sparkling wines well. As above this one was also pretty good. If not a step or two better. A well balanced sparkling wine. Though I'd say this could be drank more freely then the dry. 8 out of 10. (2 bottles purchased)
All in all it was a very fun day at the festival. Regardless of the earlier troubles we had a blast. I hung out with my best friend, tried tons of different wines and walked away with over 4 cases of good NJ wine. Since that is really a ton of wine for just two people, we would love to be able to share them with everyone who may be interested. So, if you have bothered to read this far in to my reviews you are invited to a summertime wine indulgence day here at out home. All you have to do is reply here with anything and I will be in touch to set up a day/night of wine, cheese, meats and maybe some anime. What? We've been over this, robots are cool damn it! Seriously, there's no room for all these bottles. So, be a trooper and help us out! ;-)