Jones Winery
Today, we visited Jones Winery which is part of Jones Family Farm ( http://www.jonesfamilyfarms.com/content_winery.htm ) and one other winery that we did not really like (setup, tasting or wine).
Both Lori and I are visiting farm wineries whenever we get a few free minutes and will do a quick write up of the ones we like. I’m not going to mention the ones we don’t like as everyone should give all of these guys a chance and we all have different tastes.
What I can tell you is that Lori and I enjoy the Wineries where the person who is doing the pouring knows something about the products, the grower, the grapes or other fruit in the wine, etc. I like to know what grapes are in the wine or if the wine was aged in oak in SS. Jones Winery did not disappoint. In fact, they were charming, knowledgeable and spoke of the Jones family with obvious admiration. I was also impressed to discover that the winemaker is in fact a Jones rather than an outsider brought into one of the oldest and best know farms in the area.
The big surprise was what wine I liked. While I enjoy trying all kinds of wines, I tend to prefer the dry reds or dry whites. Other than the Apple Wine at Hopkins (also CT), I normally don’t like anyone’s fruit wines better than what we have made. Then along comes something I was sure I would not like…. Black Currant Bouquet. I never like these wines as they are almost always too sweet and in general not well balanced. This was different – First, the bouquet is amazing. I would describe this as sweet, but with enough acid and alcohol content to balance it out. It actually has just a touch of a bite on the tongue and none of the medicinal character that I normally perceive with elderberry, blueberry or black currant.
We also liked and bought the following:
Woodlands White – is an excellent Cayuga, very nice.
Harvest Time which is an apple/pear. I don’t like this as much as our apple, but it is good.
Ripton Red – one of the first Reds Lori has ever liked as she is a white wine only girl.
We will return in the fall when they move into their restored barn.
The second winery we visited didn’t have a friendly feel to it, I felt a bit rushed even though know one else was there and we didn’t really like any of the wines. Not much else to say about it really.
