This week I broke out of my mold a little and made a trip to three Arkansas wineries.  I have never had an Arkansas wine besides the home-made stuff from when I was a kid.  With that as my template, I sallied forth and braved the unknown waters of local wine. 

Among the wines that I tasted, the real stand-outs were from Cowie Wine Cellars in Paris, AR and Mount Bethel in Altus, AR.  At this point, none of their wines are in the store, but that is soon to change.

Mount Bethel makes a Merlot that could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with anything from California at the same price.  For vinifera in Arkansas, this is the best that I have tasted.  If there are others out there to match this, I would love some responses to direct me to them.

Another wine that really impressed me was was the Vidal Blanc from Cowie Wine Cellars.  A bit like a demi-sec Chenin Blanc with  palate-coating richness that leads to a drier, more crisp acidity.

Cowie also produced a Port-style wine that showed a nutty caramel palate and aromas of sweet tobacco leaf.  Very impressive.

I know this is a short overview, but these were the wine that really distinguished themselves to me.  As always, I welcome all comments. 

Cheers,

Chris Calvert

This entry was posted on Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.