Famous Fossil Winery

Famous Fossil Winery
We create wines that are delicious and best reflect the flavors of the Upper Mississippi region. Our tasting room, deck and events room invite you to linger, relax and enjoy!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Next Big Wine Thing


It can take decades to create a wine region, an area recognized for it's style, character, and varietals. Think Bordeaux, Champagne, Piedmont in Europe or Sonoma and Napa in California and Willamette Valley in Oregon. But people who are excited about wine look for emerging wine regions, not yet acknowledged for making consistently good wines nor known for a tried and true varietal. That's what's happening in the cold climate region of the upper Midwest. Winemakers are exploring, testing, and pushing the limits of what can be made from grapes produced in the region.

The relatively new hybrids, some released as recently as 2006 from University of Minnesota grape breeding program, promise to bring new tastes and styles to the wine world. Some of these varieties are so new that we're not sure what they can do. Will they survive 40 below temperatures in the winter? Questions about trellising, pruning and harvesting still remain. And in winemaking, how much tannins can we hope for? How do we get more fruit and less acidity? How long can we age the wines?

These questions and more fly across the tables at conferences, in blogs and facebook, and in wine industry publications. But more important, wine lovers patiently listen and taste these wines, allowing them to entice, to pleasure, and sometimes, to thrill them. Discovering a great Frontenac port-style wine, an elegant LaCrescent, an earthy Marquette or a soft and satisfying Traminette is a wonderful thing.

So if you're game to add a new wine to your summer sipping, go to a nearby winery and try a wine you've never had before. Here are some of the grapes we use in our winery (all grown in Illinois): Reds are Frontenac, St. Croix, M. Foch, Chambourcin, Marquette. Whites are LaCrescent, Traminette, Vignoles, LaCrosse, Petite Ami, Brianna and Prairie Star. Cheers!

1 comment:

  1. I've certainly been thrilled by your wines!! Thank you for an interesting blog.

    ReplyDelete