Napa, New Hampshire?

Sarah Breen in the vineyard

There is a new wine bar/ restaurant/ retail wine shop in Nashua, New Hampshire called Napa East.  For those of you who haven’t ventured out there yet, it’s well worth the trip.  With over 100 wines by the glass dispensed by climate-controlled machines from Napa Technology, you can taste sips of any wine on the list for an average of $3 a pour.  You can also get half and full glasses.  More expensive options, like the famed Opus One, are available as well and provide the chance to try a wine before investing in a pricey bottle or even a full glass.

The bar at Napa East

They serve lunch and dinner and offer free tastings of a selection of wines in the retail store at the entrance to the restaurant.  Hopefully they will be featuring Jewell Towne wines in the near future.  If any one of our Jewell Towne fans makes a trip to this wine mecca, please request our wine!  It would certainly expand our reach to have a tasting venue in the southwestern part of the state.

And when you go to Napa East, be sure to say hello to Jewell Towne intern Sarah Breen.  A recent graduate of the University of New Hampshire where she majored in EcoGastronomy, Sarah has completed Levels I & II of the Comprehensive Survey of Wine at Boston University.  She hopes to work in wine sales and reach sommelier status in her continuing wine education.  She works in the retail shop at Napa East in addition to offering her expertise in the vineyard and tasting room at Jewell Towne. 

Check out their website at http://napaeast.com/  or call (603) 595-WINE for more information.

Bonta Goes Local

The newest restaurant to carry Jewell Towne wine is Bonta, on Route 27 in Hampton.  It is a beautiful facility with a revitalized menu of creative and fresh northern Italian fare.  Kevin Riley, the Executive Chef,  put together an incredible menu for the “Glocal” wine dinner featuring local wines from Jewell Towne, Zorvino and Sweet Baby Vineyards.

Creamy fontina polenta, slow braised veal 

breast, broccolini and grana padano with

Jewell Towne's Leon Millot

While I was there pouring wine with representatives of the other vineyards, we also got to sample some of Kevin's pairings and I have to say that his food and our wine made for a pretty special combination.  The whole was greater than the sum of the parts, as the saying goes.

He started the dinner with our Frose, typically served with dessert, as it is a sweet ice wine-style wine, but his pairing with a Chicken Liver Mousse topped with caramelized cipolllini onions was a fresh take on the classic Sauterne/ Foie Gras match.  The Polenta con Vitello matched beautifully with our Pinot Noir-style Leon Millot as well.  If Kevin gives me the recipe for this dish, the secret won’t be safe.  I will post the recipe here and I highly recommend drinking it with our light, fruit-forward Leon Millot, available at Jewell Towne or Bonta restaurant.

The dinner was hosted by the Exeter Rotary and the wineries gave 10% of retail sales that evening to the local charities sponsored by the Club.  Local wine, local restaurants and locally sourced food are all good for the community.  Bravo Bonta!

To see Bonta's full menu or to make reservations go to www.Bonta.net .

Eat, Drink and Learn

On Saturday night the Northern New England Chapter of the American Wine Society held their semi-annual spring meeting at Jewell Towne Vineyards.  There were some amateur Cabernets to taste made by one of the members and the usual potluck dinner that included everything from venison meatballs to couscous salad with lemon ginger dressing. 

Unfortunately there weren't enough amateur wines to taste for the usual judging, but Peter led a talk about hybrid wines that gave a comprehensive history of the French, Minnesota and Cornell hybrids with slides and a sampling of Jewell Towne's vintage wines.  We tasted Marechal Foch,  Leon Millot and Valvin Muscat— all made from hybrids grapes that are grown at our winery.    

For those who don’t know him, Dr. Peter Oldak is the owner of Jewell Towne Vineyards and an authority on these hybrids.  So if anyone has any questions about growing grapes (that make palatable wine) in New Hampshire, he is the man to ask.   He has mentored many New England winemakers and is the President of the New Hampshire Winery Association. 

As an employee at the vineyard, I always learn something new about these grapes.  For example, the reason they don’t benefit from oak aging— their strength is in their fruit character, not their structure, according to Peter. 

I recommend joining the American Wine Society. It’s an unintimidating format to learn about wine as a substantive topic, not a stylish one (and did I mention that there’s lots of wine to drink?!).   I did miss the wine judging component this go ‘round since it’s a great way to refine your palate.  Typically you rate each amateur wine on a scale of 1 to 10 based on color, nose, flavor and varietal consistency. 

If you want to join, contact Peter at jewelvin@rcn.com, Jim Barnard at jimwynmkr@aol.com or go to their website at www.americanwinesociety.org/.  

2011 Harvest Photo Contest Winners!

Congratulations to the winners of our first ever Harvest Photo Contest! We recieved so many beautiful photos it was hard to pick just three winners...so we didn't. We have a tie for third place and many fantastic honorable mentions! Thank you to all that submitted!!

1st Place and the winner of the $100 Gift Certificate for JTV Wine!

Peter Zoltai

2nd Place and Winner of $50 Gift Certificate for JTV Wine!

Debi Rapson

TIE 3rd Place and Winner of $25 Gift Certificate

Bob Morin

TIE 3rd Place and Winner of $25 Gift Certificate for JTV Wine

David Petty

Honorable Mentions and Winners of $10 Gift Certifiate for JTV Wine

Roger Ouellette

Rosemary Stanley

MaryLu Burke-Petty

Wine & Cheese Event!

This past weekend we harvested Seyval and boy what a large harvest it was! Our vines were as full as ever, taking us the entire Saturday to pick, and that was with the help of over 20 volunteers. While the rain held off most of the day, the grapes were slightly damp, making it a bit messy for picking and crushing.

We finish our harvest next weekend (fingers crossed). Stop by the vineyard to see the last of it before the grapes are all picked!

2011 HARVEST BEGINS!

So sorry for the delay in blog posts, but to make up for it we will be detailing our favorite season...HARVEST! We kicked off this year's harvest on September 17th by picking Aurore, Canadice, and Leon Millot. And boy what a weekend it was, whew! We have been busily picking, crushing, destemming, pressing...

We will continue picking until the middle of October as many of our varieties have been pushed back due to slow ripening. Next weekend we hope to get Marechal Foch in the tanks!