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.