Joel Stein set out to taste one wine from all 50 states — a patriotic experiment to see if good wine can really be made anywhere. He looked for bottles that cost from $15 to $20 to make it a fair comparison (and to keep TIME from going under). “I rated each wine Excellent, Good, Bad or Undrinkable,” says Stein. “As for the methodology, wine critic Gary Vaynerchuk, my wife and I tasted 10 randomly selected wines. Another 20 were downed at a wine-tasting party with a dozen friends. One wine I tried while visiting the state that made it. And my wife and I tasted the rest together. By doing so, we gained an appreciation for the country. The country, in this case, being France.”50 American Wines at Time.Com.
So where does Maryland stand?
Landmark Reserve from Boordy Vineyards, north of Baltimore, recieved a good rating. Not bad! I think I've had a bottle of their Petite Cab and really enjoyed it, part of their Icons of Maryland series.Virginia recieved a good rating as well.
Sorry...no DC.
My homestate of Wisconsin recieved a rating of Bad...I'm not surprised. Too wet, too cold. There might be some regions in the south-western part of the state that could possibly be suited for proper, tradional wine growing with hilly, rocky soil and good warm, sometimes hot summers...but there's tobacco and cattle there...a far more profitable industry than wine; for Wisconsin. As Joel says, stick to beer, which sucks....that's pretty true too...we should stick to cheese! And I'll smack anyone who doesn't like Wisconsin cheese!
The excellent wines: California (are you surprised?). Colorado. Kentucky. Michigan, Traverse City...J-lo we'll have to find a bottle of this and get it?. North Carolina. New Hampshire. New York. Oregon (I've had some great wines from OR.) Pennsylvania (this is exciting, we're heading up to Philly this weekend and might do a wine tasting...we'll see!) Texas (great more bragging rights). Washington (good!)
I found out about this post from MattBites.com.
2 comments:
Wisconsin wineries like to make apple ('cuz there are apple orchards everywhere) and cherry (Door County) wines. Blech. BUT... there is a newer winery in Withee owned and operated by a couple who are very passionate about wine making and appear to know what they're doing. I suspect Mr. Stein wasn't able to try their wine, or he may have made a slight exception.
Indeed - the peninsula near Traverse City is becoming a real hot area for making sweet whites. I'll have to be on the lookout for this one.
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