Windsong winery

Wine: Winery: Ambiance: Sep 19, 2011

Favorite Wine: Dornfelder

Norton Wine Review: WindSong Winery is another typical hard to find back woods small winery which explores their own Virginia wine niche. This seemed to be a nice place to sit on their deck to observe wildlife in the nearby fields and woods. I noticed a migrating South American red tanager on my walk up to the winery. I was lucky to still find their Muscat which I’m sure will sell out quickly. This had such a unique taste that I had to implore my host to give me a suggestion what to do with this wine. Her response was to poach a wild salmon with this “hints of lemon” Muscat wine. That was an instant buy on my part. Though vines were only planted in 2002, an interesting Norton variation is already bottled. Offered is their 2009 Garnet which is a Cab Franc/Norton blend which is a charming embellishment with the theme of Norton. Of interest to me also was their offering of a German Dornfelder wine. I could only find eight other wineries in the U.S. that offer this grape’s wine (Falukerson in NY; 8 Chains North in VA; Huber and Mukelumne in CA; Starr Hill, Presque Isle and Stargazer in PA; and a DeChaunac/Dornfelder blend from Retting Cellars in IN). Could this German grape be a Norton substitute, ~ no, but it is almost as curious in taste. I sure hope I bought enough to get me through next winter. // This is a Dornfelder wine response I got from my brother-in-law: "I opened the Virginia (WindSong) bottle last night and was favorably impressed. It has a mild fruity aroma which didn't prepare me for how strongly it exploded in my mouth, like humming birds swooping in and dumping blueberry jam on my tongue. That flavor stayed and just gradually faded away. Very low tannins, mellow and smooth. I liked it. I would say it was the best Dornfelder I ever had but, of course, it's the only one."