Iapetus 2016 Tectonic, Vermont

Can an orange wine made with hybrid grapes in Vermont win the hearts of critics? We say yes!

It Ain’t Easy Being Orange

We recently had an odd experience during our Wine Studio online education program. Typical fare for our online tasting is an upper echelon wine or two from a famous wine region.

Never Miss A Beat – Follow Vino-Sphere On Facebook

On this night, however, we were given a curveball. Instead of sipping a Cabernet from Sonoma or Argentina, we had a wine from Vermont.

We actually have had wine from Vermont before, a nice honey-elderberry wine from Caledonia Winery. Honestly, though, Vermont isn’t a hotbed of wine production, ranked as the 26th state in this category. So, we weren’t expecting to be reviewing a wine from the Green Mountain State.

Check out our reports on more than 200 wineries

Iapetus Tectonic is a surprising wine in many regards, especially the color. It is a stunning orange color. Tectonic is, in fact, an “orange” wine – a wine style thought to have originated in the Republic of Georgia 5,000 years ago. Juice from white grapes spend significant time macerating with grape skins to extract tannin and color. Normally in white wine making, the skins and juice have minimal contact to keep the flavors fresh and yield a light, bright color.

Winemaker Ethan Joseph crafted Tectonic with 100% LaCrescent grapes. This is a cold-resistant hybrid grape, perfect for the cold Vermont winters. Many wine connoisseurs sniff at the mention of hybrid grapes – but we’ve tasted many and have several favorites. Tectonic shows just what magic can be made with hybrids.

A New Wine Dictionary

This is a micro-production wine. Only 132 cases were made – displaying the craftsmanship you might expect from a Vermont artisan. The grapes spent 50 days macerating on the skins. After that, three quarters of the wine was sent to neutral oak to age sur lee with weekly battonage (stirring) for three and a half months. The other quarter was aged in stainless steel. The lots were then blended prior to bottling.

Iapetus wines use wild fermentation and are unfiltered and unfined. The curiously attractive bottle looks like an orange lava lamp with swirling sediment creating a cloudy visage.

Sipping the wine, I remarked that a whole new dictionary was needed to describe the wine. This is not your usual bottle of vino. We had the wine chilled down as we typically do for whites. The first sip had a blast of brininess – salt-like. As we puzzled about that, the wine began to warm up and the prominent flavor was an explosion of tangerine rind with notes of clove.

Iapetus, named for an ancient ocean that once covered Lake Champlain, is a collection of experimental wines. Tectonic is engaging and fascinating and one of the most unique wines we’ve tasted in a while.

Technorati Tags: wine,Vermont,orange wine,natural fermentation

Tags: wine,Vermont,orange wine,natural fermentation

Caledonia Winery Honey-Elderberry Wine, Vermont

As they used to say on the Monty Python television show, “And now for something completely different…”

Our palates have changed quite a bit since we started truly enjoying wine with some of the sweeter German wines. Our tastes these days tend to dry reds and whites with minerality and a liberal dose of acidity.

The pendulum may have started to swing back the other way, because we have learned to savor ice wine, albeit in small sips and in the right state of mind. When our niece Carey sent us this bottle of Honey-Elderberry wine, we knew there was a job to do in the name of wine journalism.

When we have seen a meadery in the past, we have been known to make a U-turn to head in the other direction. But we found just the right occasion to try this honey-based wine from Caledonia. We were invited to dinner with our neighbors who enjoy sweet wines with the same passion we enjoy the dry.

As some nice steaks came off the grill, we sipped the Honey-Elderberry wine. My first major surprise was that this wine wasn’t cloyingly sweet. In fact, it could even be classified as off-dry. The next surprise was that this was a pretty enjoyable wine.

Frequently you’ll find a pricey Cab or Syrah that claim hints of elderberry. We’ll this was actually the fruit of elderberry and it was quite good.

Caledonia Spirits and Winery is located in Hardwick, Vermont (just off Log Yard Drive). Todd Hardie has been keeping bees since 1965 and in 2006 began experimenting with small lots of mead (honey wine). The winery makes their mead in 500-liter lots with raw honey that is never heated. It is allowed to age at least one year before bottling.

Three-quarters of a pound of elderberries are used in each bottle. Elderberries support the immune system, so you could say it is really “medicine,” but with a much better taste. The wine is fermented dry, aged in stainless steel for a year, and has a small touch of honey added just before bottling for roundness. The alcohol level is 12%.

In addition to the Honey-Elderberry mead, they make Honey-Black Currant and Honey-Blueberry wines and an Elderberry cordial. This is the first wine we’ve tasted from Vermont, and it is an enjoyable sipper.

Related articles

• Honey brew > Pass the flagon, it's time to try some mead. (newsreview.com)
• Make Your Own Elderberry Wine (thekitchn.com)
• Meadery celebrates its modern-medieval mix (newsobserver.com)