This was an enormously important week in terms of both wine and life decisions. My husband accepted a position with Amazon in Seattle. Seattle is our favorite place in the U.S. We have visited several times for work and for leisure. It’s the first place my husband ever flew to. It’s the first vacation we ever took together. It’s also the place that we got engaged, so it holds so many specials memories for us. We are very excited to be moving there and we decided to celebrate by opening our most special bottle of wine.
We had been saving this wine since our first trip to a winery outside of St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis is also one of our favorite cities and we loved the time we spent there. There is a small German town just outside of St. Louis with several wineries. It’s called Hermann and it’s an absolutely adorable little town with some really nice tasting rooms and beautiful vineyards. We went and spent an ideal day tasting wines, walking through vineyards, taking tours, and eating cheese. The weather was beautiful, the tour guides were funny, and the winemakers were passionate. It was here that we discovered the Norton grape.
The Norton grape is native to Missouri and is also the only grape that is native to America. Missouri is really the only place where it is grown in the world. However, there is some debate that the Norton grape is the same as the Cynthiana grape, which is grown in surrounding states. It’s a dark red wine and can be compared to Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. *
This particular bottle was from an award-winning year for the winery. At the time, it was the most expensive bottle that we had ever bought. We bought it with the idea that we would be saving it for something very special. We planned on opening it on our 5-year wedding anniversary. However, that did not work out because we went on a vacation instead and did not have a way to take it with us. At that point, we were looking at trying to find an opportunity to move to Seattle, because we knew that is where we really wanted to be. So, we decided to open this bottle in celebration once we finalized our move there. It did not disappoint.
This wine was from Hermann, Missouri and sampled on March 24, 2018. The color was surprisingly dark. I had to label it maroon. It was the darkest wine to the sight that I have tried thus far. My husband also commented on the depths of this color. We were listening to “Hello Seattle” by Owl City for obvious reasons. Coffee was the first scent to hit me. I thought it was rather appropriate that I smelled coffee when we were about to move to the land of coffee. It was quickly followed by ripe plum. The scent of too ripe blackberries was there as well. The first sip surprised me with its acidity and low tannins. The tastes of bell pepper and dry soil mixed with a lingering jaminess. It was great with the Havarti cheese and not so great with the cheddar. It stood up well to the Prosciutto, but the summer sausage contained too overpowering a flavor. My husband described this wine as 0% abrasive. He thought it very approachable and drinkable and that no flavor was too overpowering.
I gave this wine a rating of 5.0. The setting, timing, company, and experience of this wine were all just right. It was the perfect send off for us and I would gladly invest in another bottle of Norton.
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