The Grapes of Youth

Stop in at your favorite Bucks County winery for a special nouveau wine.See Related Story

By: Amy Brummer

TIMEOFF/AMY BRUMMER

Nouveau wine from Rose Bank Winery in Newtown, Pa., one of seven regional wineries that took part in the Bucks County Wine Trail’s Nouveau Festival.

   Just as the harvest winds down, the season’s grapes start to show their colors. Light and fruity, nouveau wines come out just in time for Thanksgiving and make a perfect compliment to a turkey and its trimmings.
   Traditionally released in France the third week in November, nouveau wines celebrate the fruits of labor as well as provide a little glimpse at what the grape may offer further down the line. This year, members of the Bucks County Wine Trail, which includes seven regional wineries, are all offering a young wine, which they uncorked during a Nouveau Festival Nov. 13-14.
   Tom Carroll Jr., wine maker for Washington Crossing Vineyards, created his first-ever batch of nouveau wines this year, an experience that was both exciting and nerve-wracking.
   With nouveau wines, the turnaround time between harvest and bottling is about a month, which gives the tannins little time to mellow. This demands that a winemaker have strong confidence in the grape, because it leaves no room for improvements as it ages. For this year’s harvest, Mr. Carroll chose to use estate-grown Chambourcin grapes, which he fermented using the traditional French process of carbonic maceration.
   "I wanted to shoot for that black cherry, cherry type of bouquet in our wines," Mr. Carroll says, "so that is why I went for the Chambourcin because I know it has those components. The result when I took the lid off was such a fruity smell — a cherry candy smell that comes through in the final wine. Then we press it right away and what you get is a really silky, soft tannin, and this beautiful, fruity bouquet."
   Lastly, the wine is finished with residual sugars, which determine its sweetness. Mr. Carroll explains that in a nouveau, a winemaker needs to let the wine determine what it wants to be, and in the case of the 2004 vintage, it falls on the dry side. On the other hand, Rose Bank Winery in Newtown, Pa., used a Chancellor grape and its 2004 nouveau is sweeter.
   "We are all making our nouveau wines from different grapes," Mr. Carroll says. "There are some using DeChaunac, some are using Chancellor, a lot of us are using hybrids. That is our sort of American twist, our regional twist. It’s going to be so different and I am so eager to see what their interpretation of the growing season and the harvest is because I can guarantee you, no two wines are going to taste the same. That is how much variety there is, and that what makes it really interesting for the consumer."
Crossing Vineyards is located at 1853 Wrightstown Road, Washington Crossing, Pa. Hours: Mon.-Sun. noon-6 p.m. For information, call (215) 493-6500. On the Web: www.crossingvineyards.com. Rose Bank Winery is located at 258 Durham Road, Newtown. Hours: Fri.-Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. For information, call (215) 860-5899. On the Web: www.rosebankwinery.com. Bucks County Wine Trail on the Web: www.buckscountywinetrail.com