Our Bent Mountain estate vineyard is growing!  The Traminette vines seem to love growing on top of the mountain and we’ve decided to expand their numbers by planting an additional acre.  This white variety does well with our long, cool growing season and develops beautiful citrus and floral characters that we feel are indicative of the variety and an expression of our unique site. 

The style of wine that we make from Traminette is similar to that of many off-dry German Rieslings.  Traminette grapes maintain their naturally high acidity late into the growing season, protecting them on the vine and allowing us to pick with advanced flavor development.  We keep the fermentation cool and slow to preserve as much of the fruit characters as possible, then arrest the fermentation when we feel that we’ve reached a good balance between sweetness, acidity and alcohol.  We bottle the wine young, usually in the winter or spring following the harvest.  This makes for a vibrant and refreshing wine with generous floral and tropical aromatics.  Depending on the vintage the alcohol remains in a modest 11-12% range and the sweetness between 1-2.5% (although it often tastes a bit drier due to the naturally high acidity).

One of the great things about Traminette is it’s versatility.  Because of the low alcohol and refreshing acidity it can pair wonderfully with a broad range of foods, acting as a counterpoint to exotic, spicy cuisine, a cleanser, cutting through richer dishes, and as a complimentary match to garden fresh fruits and veggies.  Of course it also makes for a perfect thirst quencher on a hot day.

We’re excited about our upcoming release of the 2010 Traminette (only a few cases of the 2009 left) and the new vineyard plantings, feel free to come by the winery and get acquainted with them.

If you’d like to learn more about the Traminette grape vine and it’s history you can visit an informational page here.

Cheers!

Daniel Sweeney

-Winemaker