The Bros: Iowa

As I said last week, we're going to talk more about Iowan wine this week.  In that post I went on a little diatribe where I described the merits of Iowa wine.  If you truly loved me, you should have already known about it, read it, committed it to memory and possibly formed a small cult using that paragraph alone as the central tenant of it's teachings!

Sorry, about that.

My point is, that Iowa wineries are a type.  This week's guest very much fits in to that classification.  Smith Brother's makes wine mostly from local varietals including the popular Norton grape, a variety more or less unheard of outside the Great Plains.  They offer fourteen different varieties and blends.  I tried a fair amount staying clear of the sweeter wines for this trip.

Norton-Cynthiana: This variety has a very distinct cherry, raspberry jam aroma.  The flavor is very fruity, lots of plum and cherry with a little pepper mixed in there as well.

Frontenac: The aroma on this was leathery with a little pepper.  There were lots of earthy, woody flavors here mixed in with a little fruit and a touch of pepper.

Big Bang: A red blend of several local grapes.  I almost enjoyed the aroma on this wine more then the flavor and the flavor was excellent.  The aroma was this light floral strawberry blend.  Lots of light fruit on the flavor; strawberry and pear mostly.

Concord: Honey apple aroma here with lots of berry apple fruit flavors and just slightly sweet.

Encore: We're changing it up here.  Up to now it's been almost exclusively red wines, but I did give some whites a try.  This was another local blend with a citrusy-apple nose here.  The flavor profile is something a friend of mine likes to describe as a breakfast wine.  It has a light, slightly sweet fruity flavor featuring strawberry, apple and grapefruit.

Sweet Edelweiss: Sweeter wine with an apple pear aroma and flavor.  It's sweet, but lacks that heavy- syrupy texture.  Makes for a nice summer evening sipping wine.

South of the 80: Iowa

It's back to the green hills and tulip beds of Southern Iowa again, kids.  I don't get to sample as many of the wine areas in the country as I would like and Southern Iowa is definitely one of the stranger places I tend to find myself wandering aimlessly.  But I do and I entertain myself somehow.

Last year I marked two wineries off the ol bucket list.   So, once again, consider this an addition to the greater saga that is Southern Iowa wine country.  This week, it's Tassel Ridge.

The thing that is attractive about wine in this area is that it is rather unique.  There are a couple of varietals that are only found in the Midwest and there are places that have built a business around selling the kind of stuff grandpa used to make in the barn.  Rural probably isn't the right right adjective, but that's as close as I can get.  There are very few cheese platters around and some guy named Guston isn't pouring the samples, but Napa Valley doesn't have anything like Piestegal.  Seriously, I think you could run your car on that stuff.

Tassel Ridge really doesn't fit in with this group.  They make fine wine, don't get me wrong, but they miss some of the local feel that other wineries in the area positively ooze.  The vast majority of their wine is made from juice they have shipped in from other states and their entire product line consists of nearly forty different styles and blends of wine.   Selection is nice, but... holy crap on a cracker.

They were, I will grant them, very nice about sharing though.  I didn't try all forty since I didn't feel like wandering punch-drunk through a corn field this week.  But I did run down their line of dry reds.

Pizzeria and Pasta Too!: A wine designed to pair well with... well, I assume you can guess.  Lots of dark fruit aroma.  It has a unusual peppery, fruity almost hoppy flavor among the dark cherry and plum.

Zinfull Red: Peppery, fruity aroma.  Lots of both in the flavor as well, slightly tart and very, very dry.

American Syrah: Floral blackberry nose.  I picked up pepper, leathery and woody flavors along with something almost... minty?  Maybe not the right adjective, but there was something herbal in the back there.  Fairly complex and enjoyable wine there.

2008 Iowa St. Croix: This is one of the few wines made with grapes grown at the vineyard. Not sure about this one.  The aroma was kind of unpleasantly skunky smelling.  The peppery, woody flavors underneath were fine, but there was something off about the smell.

In the Dark: A blend of Merlot, Syrah and local St. Croix grapes.  The aroma had a light, sweet strawberry and honey feel to it.  I pick up some green apple, strawberry and cherry in the palate.

American Merlot: This one had a strong floral aroma to it.  The flavor was intensely fruity; lots of plum and black cherry there with a hint of black pepper.

2009 Marquette:  The second of the two wines made with actual Iowa varietals.  I've run into this type before along with it's fairly unique caramel, fruit and molasses aroma.  The flavor runs much the same way, cherry and plum among the caramel with just a hint of pepper in the back.

Iowa Cuvee' 512: A blend of local grapes and a touch of Muscat.  It was still fairly young when I had it so the flavor still had quite a lot of tartness to it.  The floral, fruity aroma was very promising.  Among the tartness, I picked up some pair and a little citrus.

I've got one more to add to the list next week, so strap in for that.  Until then, cheers!

The Return to Small-Town Beer: Ottumwa, IA.

Ottumwa, is one of those weird places I end up every year at this time.  It's not the only small mid-western town I stumble into regularly, but it's one of the only one's that has a small brewery.  I talked a little about it last year.  I stopped by again, they had a couple different beers on tap and a guest tap from a nearby brewery; it was enough to warrant a revisit on this forum, so it's back to Appanoose Rapids Brewing Company.

 Rasberry Wheat: It has the predictable sweet berry aroma, although it's not quite as sweet as some of the others of this style.  There's just a touch of tart there along with some complexities in the hop profile that make this beer... we'll it's still a raspberry wheat, but it's not bad.  Maybe slightly more approachable for those who hate fruit beer.

Centennial Blonde: Very, very light lemongrass aroma.  The flavor has some of that lemony citrus with some light malt flavors and a hint of herbal hops.  Very, very good for a lighter beer.  The flavors are all very light, but they are there and they blend together remarkably well.

Millstream Brewing; Iowa Pale Ale: Millstream hails from the Amana Colonies of Eastern Iowa.  Their version of the IPA is blended with some qualities of a porter or brown ale.  There is a sweet caramel and citrus aroma and the flavor has a very distinct coffee flavor mixed with the citrus hops of an American IPA.  The result is a flavor clash, but I kind of liked it.  The malty porter style helped balance the bitterness from the hops although the coffee and citrus was an odd combination together.

Bottle Beer Tour #4: Beer, the Great and Powerful

I was down in California a couple weeks ago.  Sadly my free time was dominated by eating enough food and getting enough sleep so that I could be half-way functional for the job I was doing down there.  So now brewery trip.  I did, however bring a few old friends back with me.  So it's bottle beer tour time again, this time featuring some beers that, although I have had many times before, I have never written about and, quite frankly, I can't get them in the Midwest and I miss them.

Dogfish Head; Palo Santo Marron: Okay, so I didn't pick this one up in California.  But it was in the beer fridge and it was begging to be opened. 

Proving the commitment, drive and complete and utter insanity of the good people at Dogfish Head, the Palo Santo Marron is fermented in huge 10,000 gallon fermenters crafted out of a rare South-American wood.  There's commitment and then... well then there's pure, blind obsession.

The aroma has a light caramel, vanilla flavor.  The beer is fruity with hints of spice, vanilla and maybe a little smoke and herbs on the back.




Lanunitas Brewing; IPA: Heavy pine and citrus aroma.  Flavor has lots of the same qualities, but they hit and they are overtaken for a minute by some more malty flavors.  The hops do end the palate leaving a dry herbal taste.  The flavors are smooth enough that, although this is a very dry, hoppy IPA, it's one of the more approachable of it's type.








Widmer Brothers; Hefeweizen: Talk about an old friend.  This was my first exposure to wheat beer and was probably one of the first, if not the first, microbrews I ever had.  The aroma is citrusy and almost like a sweet white wine.  Flavor is light and sweet with some light peach fruit and grassy notes.  The flavor turns slightly herbal and lemony towards the end of the palate.  Was and will remain almost the quintessential summer beer for me.

Stone Brewery; Levitation Ale: Stone is known, first and foremost as the brewer of Arrogant Bastard, a beer that... well that's a pretty accurate description.  It's a big beer with flavors about as subtle as an axe to the head.  For this, they were going for more of a session beer.  The aroma is lemony and herbal.   Herbal, citrus hops hit right off the top and stay.  They have some light malty support right off the top, but it quickly disappears leaving the bitter, hoppy flavors to carry the show.  It's a good beer, but as far as a session ale, I prefer something a little more subtle.  This is too similar to an IPA for a good sit-down-kick-back-have-a-pint, beer.