Wine of the Carolina Coast: South Carolina, North Carolina

This post is a little odd.  The Southeastern United States actually has an impressive number of wineries.  Driving back home from this area of the country is always a bit of an exercise in willpower as a seemly endless stream of billboards advertising nearby wineries pass by on the Interstate.  But all of that is mostly inland around the Appalachians.  In the coastal area choices are a little harder to find, but not impossible provided you are armed, as I was, with Google maps, a GPS device and a determination that boarders on a mental disorder.  With that in mind:
 
Boardwalk Winery:


Boardwalk Winery

The first stop is in a tourist-aimed area known as the Boardwalk.  It has all the trappings one would expect; restaurants, bars, a small amusement park and various other trappings for out-of-towners.  The winery itself is located in a docked boat... or at least a building that is built to resemble one.  Apparently it is against state law in South Carolina to offer free samples of alcohol, so wine tasting costs $5 here and they let you pick six different wines to sample.  Their wine list is quite expansive at first glance.  A closer look reveals that they offer the same wines in various levels of sweetness.  For example, you can buy a bottle of the Blueberry wine in three different sweetness levels:  Semi-dry, Semi-sweet and Sweet.  The latter probably should be followed by an insulin shot, just to give you an idea of the relative scale we are talking about.  Unless you like your wine so sweet that it boarders on alcoholic Kool-Aid, Semi-Sweet is probably as far down on that scale you will want to go.  Here were my selections:

High tide: Carmel and dark fruit aroma.  Lots of spicy pepper and smokey flavors and tobacco.  It lacks a lot of the body of a really good red wine, but it's not bad.  I was informed that the grapes are grown on old tobacco fields and that was how the grapes developed their smoky tobacco flavor.  I'm sceptical, but it's a good story so I will keep it.

Merlot: A young, un-oaked Merlot.  Very strange.  Has almost none of the usual flavors associated with a Merlot.  It has a very fruity aroma.  Lots of raspberry, blueberry and dark cherry flavors.  Almost none of the dryness that is usually associated.  Keep in mind that this is this wineries version of a dry wine.



Gewurztaminer (Semi-dry): Citrus herbal peach aroma.  This is sweeter again, but I kind of enjoyed this wine.  There was it there was some peach and citrus and I picked up some herbal notes that made me think green tea or something.



Resling (Semi-dry): Citrus pear and grapefruit aroma.  Like the others, this was mostly sweeter with lots and lots of fruit.



Blueberry (Semi-sweet): Made with South Caroline blueberries with a little sugar added for sweetness.  A bit of caramel and sour fruit accompany the blueberry flavors in this wine.



Endless Summer (Semi-sweet): This one is a blend of mango and peach wine.  This one borders on a dessert wine. The flavor is pretty self-explanatory.  I wish I could talk about the levels and levels of flavor that I noted, but they just aren't there.  Peach and mango... simple.

Mango: There is a medium and a sweet version of this and I tried the sweet version.  And it is sweet. It pours like syrup and it tastes like someone took a slice of mango and dipped it in sugar.    It would probably be wonderful drizzled over ice cream, but by itself... just not for me.



Carolina Winery:

This Winery is so similar to the Boardwalk Winery, that I thought this was the Boardwalk winery location in North Myrtle Beach. They both share the same specialty in sweet and fruit wines, they have a similar system of adding sugar in different grades,they are both located in tourist shopping and dining centers in each city and they even give the sheet of information about their wines look strikingly similar.  They do offer slightly different wines, but that's about the only difference.

Merlot: I can't be sure without doing a side by side taste test, but this tasted exactly like the wine at Boardwalk.



Amythist: This did not appear at the other winery, this is a blend of Merlot and elderberry wine.  Lots of fruit flavors with just a hint of pepper and some herbal notes that made me think of mint or peppermint.



Syrah: Smokey fruity and peppery.  It had a lot of same tobacco notes that I noted in the High Tide.



Elderberry: I've never actually had an elderberry, and I kind of assumed some of the flavors I couldn't identify in the Amethyst was a product of this fruit, but I'm not so sure now.  This had a sour cherry, raspberry flavor with some caramel sweetness.



Crescent Moon: A chardonnay, peach wine blend.  It had a very crisp refreshing mouthfeel.  Peach more or less dominated the flavor profile, I didn't taste any acidic or buttery notes I usually associate with chardonnay.



Southern Belle: Peach and plum wine mix.  This had a very creamy, rich mouthfeel that had me thinking about peaches and ice-cream.  The plum wine added some body and some caramel and dark fruit notes to the peach wine.


La Belle Armie:

La Belle Armie Vineyard
It was time to head farther North and get out of the cities and into wine country proper... such as it was.  This particular winery had it's own eccentricity, though. It's not unusual in my experience for a winery to specialize in a particular style, but this winery specializes in a single grape varietal.

Anyone that didn't grow up in the South has probably never heard of the Muscadine grape.  They are a type of grape native to the Southern United States and is really the only grape they can grow in the climate around the coast of South Carolina.  They are good eaten strait of the vine (or so I am told, I would need to be here around September to find out first hand) or made into a variety of different wines.

In total they make eight different wines using the Muscadine varietal.  I sampled four of them.  The all share a similar flavor profile: sweet pear or peach flavors combined with earth and nutty notes, and vary mostly in color and sweet vs dry.  For example: The Southern Gentleman is a drier rose' as opposed to the Goddess which has quite a bit more sweetness and a lighter color.  All four were fantastic, and defiantly unique.  It's hard to describe the unique flavor in words alone; it probably should be experienced to be truly appreciated.


Outside of their speciality, they do produce other wines as well.  I found myself so engrossed in the Muscadine, that I really didn't spend a lot of time with the others, but I did try a couple:

Heavenly Body: A dry red Cabernet. I picked up a lot of pepper, lots of dark cherry and acidic qualities.

Poor Bastard: La Belle's Merlot.  Lots of spice, acid, dark fruit and an incredibly dry finish.  Still doesn't have the body of most merlot and it has considerably more sour fruit flavor than I am accustomed to. 



One additional interesting fact about this vineyard, you're going to hear the word, "bitch" thrown around a lot, mostly by the two women behind the counter talking about wine and the incredible health benefits of muscadine grapes.  Although to be fair, the word is probably more accurately written as, "B.I.T.C.H"; as in Babes In Total Control of Herself (or Babes in Total Control of Him, depending on the situation.).  That's just a single example of the 'education' I received at this winery.

Silver Coast Winery:
I decided to visit one more location while I was in the area.   I continued even farther North and  crossed the border into North Carolina.  It's been an interesting trip.  They do a lot of things differently in the South and I suppose that it's only fitting that wine be one of those.  However there was something familiar about Silver Coast.  Maybe it was the fact that my desire for a full-bodied dry red wine was finally satisfied.  Maybe it was the fact that they kept the residual sugars below a level shared by most cola products.  Although that is not to say that it wasn't without it's little surprises:



Seyval Blanc: A crisp, semi-sparkling white wine. I picked up citrus, melon and grapefruit notes.  It is a very smooth wine with a sweet, refreshing finish.



Rose: A blend of several different varietals, I picked up sour fruit, citrus, strawberry.  Pretty good balance between acidic and sweet flavors.



White Merlot: A bit of a misnomer, the wine is actually closer to a rose' or a blush in terms of color.  This wine picks up these qualities because they only allow the wine to sit on the rinds and seeds for a little over a day before they are removed.  The result is a lighter, crisper version of a Merlot.  It still has many characteristics, I picked up some pepper, leather and dark fruit notes, but it lacks a lot of the dryness and body associated with a merlot.



Georgia Merlot: A lot like the white merlot but more so.  This one comes out with a lot of body and finishes a lot drier.  It packs in a little more peppery flavors as well as some chocolate and cherry flavors.



Touriga (Cape Fear Blood Wine): Remember the surprises I was talking about?  Here it is. I am finishing with this one, and it might be my favorite of the entire tour.  The blood grape is a varietal that originates in Portugal.  It is so named because unlike other grapes that have a clear juice when the grape is first squeezed, the juice of the blood grape is dark red.   The wine has a lot of earthy qualities along with smoke, black pepper plum and cherry and finishes very dry.

Still have a couple of dispatches to go from Dixieland before I head back up to Yankee territory.  Until then, cheers!