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It’s summer, which is supposed to mean slow, relaxing, lazy days, but for us, summer sometimes seems more like a hectic race to get all that relaxation squeezed into a few short weekends.
Fittingly, our column this week is similar, a jumbled mess of different topics, but all of them involve our favorite relaxing beverage.
We think you’re going to be seeing a lot more Creekbend Vineyard wines in the near future.
Creekbend Vineyard is a line of wines started by Oliver Winery in Bloomington ( www.oliverwinery.com) a few years ago. While Oliver is best known for its “soft trio” – the sweet Soft Red, Soft White and Soft Rosé – Oliver makes many outstanding dry wines.
And the Creekbend wines are yet another step up – every Creekbend wine is an estate wine, meaning all the grapes were grown in Oliver’s Creekbend Vineyard about 5 miles west of the winery.
The Creekbend wines are more expensive – the 10 currently available range from $12 to $25 – but these are serious wines. For example, we tried the 2007 Valvin Muscat ($25) at Vintage Indiana, and though it is a Muscat (probably better known as Moscato), this one is bone dry and wonderfully complex. It was like drinking rose petals.
This is only the second vintage of the Valvin Muscat. The first year was so popular that it sold out and prompted Oliver to double the number of Valvin Muscat vines planted, meaning the amount of wine available will double in 2012.
Creeekbend is really coming into its own and even had its own tent at Vintage, separate from Oliver.
Take it from us, these are wines to watch. And definitely wines you should try.
More news from Oliver: Two more wines have joined the Harvest Flavors lineup. These are wines made with natural flavors and sweetened with honey and available in strawberry, mango and black cherry. Now, you can add watermelon and passion fruit to the list.
Anyone who likes Soft Red will probably love these, while anyone who thinks Soft Red is too sweet should try them as a spritzer: one part ice, one part Harvest Flavor wine, one part ginger ale. Perfect on a hot summer day.
Also from Oliver, we tried another gem we’ve never had before – the 2007 Valdiguie. We’ll write more about this winner in a few weeks.
Need another reason to go to Vintage next year? We got to try three wines that had just been released the day of the festival. It doesn’t get any fresher than that.
In March, we told you about Forty-Five North, the Traverse City, Mich., winery owned by Warsaw ophthalmologist Dr. Steven Grossnickle.
Now, there’s more news about that up-and-coming winery. The 2008 Leelanau Peninsula Pinot Noir Rosé was named the best Rosé at the 2009 Pacific Rim competition recently. That news is amazing by itself, but it becomes phenomenal when you find out that there was no Rosé category in the contest.
There were about 2,000 wines in the competition, and because there was no Rosé category, it competed against 953 red wines, where it came in second only to the Grand Champion.
“Your wine certainly knocked the feet out from under the judges and caused a great stir. … The judges were so upset at the lack of a Best Rosé Award that it was agreed we had to create one,” a contest organizer said in an e-mail to the winery. “You have made history.”
Mind you, Forty-Five North’s 2007 Riesling – their first vintage ever – was named Best White Wine in last year’s Pacific Rim contest.
Forty-Five North’s Pinot Gris is available at Wine Time at Jefferson Pointe, and they can order the Rosé.
If you’re in Indianapolis looking for some great wines and a great time, check out Easley Winery’s Groovin’ in the Garden. The downtown winery (www.easleywinery.com) has a wine garden in the summer, and it features live music every Tuesday evening and Saturday afternoon through September.
If you’re not familiar with Easley but love Oliver Soft Red, then you need to try Easley Reggae Red.
If you’re looking for a way to taste wines and help a good cause at the same time, head up to Black Pine Animal Park, the animal sanctuary in Albion, for the organization’s first-ever wine tasting next Saturday.
The event starts with a staff-guided sanctuary tour, followed by the tasting, which will feature hors d’oeuvres, music, and plenty of time to enjoy the peaceful setting and learn more about their mission to provide exotic animals permanent refuge.
The tour starts at 5:30 p.m. and the tasting begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $30 each, and all proceeds benefit the animals at the park. You can buy them online at www.blackpineanimalpark.com, by phone at 260-636-7383 or at Josh’s Bar & Grill in Kendallville.
Cheers!
