Tasting the Norton Grape

I was fortunate earlier last month to be invited to taste 28 wines made from the Norton grape, one of the truly American grapes and wines. And one that few people on the West Coast have probably never heard about.

The tasting was conducted by Barbara Trigg, the "Best of Appellation" coordinator for Appellation America, a wine journal that includes editorials from some of the best known and interesting wine writers, as well as formal tastings that can alert the reader where to find some of the best wines around.

Barbara had heard of the Norton grape several months earlier, became intrigued with its history, and determined that she should find some great examples and then let her readers know about them. She wrote to all the wineries that she could find that advertised Nortons, got a bottle from each of them, and then called together her tasting panel.

Now, I can't just taste the wine without knowing something about the grape, so I did some research beforehand. The Norton grape, also known as Cynthiana, was bred by a Dr. Norton living near Richmond Virginia in 1820. The good doctor is not totally sure how the grape came about except that he recounts that he had a "Bland" (another grape variety that has rarely been heard of, and may no longer exist) growing in his vineyard near a "Millers Pinot" (we know it has Pinot Muniere). They may have fortuitously cross pollinated and Dr. Norton's genius was that he actually recognized that a new grape had formed. He planted the seeds and selected out the offspring for propagation.

The Norton doesn't have the 'foxy' taste that some native American Labrusca vines impart to their wines. This may be because the "Bland" parent of the grape might not have been a V. labrusca but instead a hybrid between a Vitis aestivalis and a Chasselas, a very old and popular grape in eastern France and Switzerland. (Some think it started in ancient Egypt). In any event, the Norton made wines good enough to win "Best of Show" in an international tasting in Vienna Austria in 1873. It is also the state grape of Missouri.

Armed with this background knowledge, I was ready to taste. the tasting itself took a little over 2 hours. There were 7 of us, independently making our own notes and then we came together at the end to come up with some general characteristics of Norton and our opinions on the best wines we had tasted that day.

I am not going to name the "best of" wines because I am not really sure how others rated them, you should be able to find that out at the Appellation America website (link above). I can say this, however.

The Norton is a red wine that has a characteristic taste that most of the wines we tasted exhibited. Several also showed some red fruit / raspberry flavors. But like any group of wines, while the characteristic core taste was generally apparent, there were variations on the amount of oak and levels of intensity. The grape seems to make a wine that is generally acidic, I believe that it is high in Malic acid (think green apple tartness) and some of that tends to carry over. The tannins are soft and relatively low for such a deeply pigmented wine. Most of our wines came in around 13% alcohol which since I am used to California high-alcohol reds, was quite pleasant to notice, or in this case, not to notice.

One wine that I think is probably immensely popular is Chrysalis Vineyards "Sarah's Patio Red". this is a $15 light ruby red, almost a rose', it has great fruit flavors, raspberry highlights, and a slight cranberry finish. It is an off-dry / semi sweet summer favorite. As Chrysalis suggests: a great patio wine.

Chrysalis stands out because it claims to be and probably is, the largest producer of Norton wines in the world. They consider Norton to be the "Real American Grape". Some of us Left Coasties, of course, think that should be Zinfandel or perhaps Petite Sirah / Durif. But who is to quibble. America is a big country and should have several real grapes. Norton can be one of them.

john