I am a nerd when it comes to wine. OK, I’m a nerd in many ways but let’s stick to wine for today. I get super excited when I get a chance to try a wine that’s different from the typical wines I encounter. Tasting wines from unique grapes or regions is a big deal and something that I get excited about.
When I opened the box and saw these two wines from St. James Winery in Missouri I was thrilled! I’ve never tasted wine from Missouri before. And the grapes in these wines are not your typical wine grapes. Nope this is a chance to taste norton, rougeon, chardonel and vignoles from the Ozark Highlands AVA.
I know a lot of people wouldn’t even give this wine a chance. They would assume that there’s no way a wine from the Ozark Mountains could be good. But I was optimistic. I really, really wanted to love this wine. I wanted this to be a chance to squelch those naysayers.
But alas, I couldn’t walk away from this tasting saying that I loved the wines. There are aspects to them that I like and I think they’re good enough to surprise the doubters.
I do respect these wines. And I respect the producers at St. James Winery for what they’ve created. Producing wine from this region must be a challenge. Many of the typical wine grapes won’t work well here, so producers work with other grape varieties, which will produce flavors that are different from what most wine consumers are familiar.
I’m not giving up yet. I think there’s potential for great wines from Missouri and from St. James. These two are just OK. But I look forward to tasting what else the region has to offer.
St. James Winery, Pioneer White 2012
This wine is a blend of chardonel, seyval and vignoles.
The nose is very elegant and enjoyable. It’s loaded with peach and citrus aromatics. If I were only reviewing the aromas on this wine it would be a 90+. But the palate is disappointing after smelling the wonderful aromatics. It offers light peach flavors, which are good, but it’s lacking the acidity it needs to make it pop. Fortunately it’s not overly sweet, which makes the lack of acidity somewhat forgivable. But it just ends up being rather dull. It doesn’t have any bad flavors, just not enough life to the flavors that are there.
Wine: St James Winery, Pioneer White
Variety: White blend
Vintage: 2012
Alcohol: 12.5%
Rating: 82
Price: $10.99
Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.
St. James Winery, Pioneer Red 2012
This wine is a blend of norton, chambourcin and rougeon.
The nose of this wine shows a lot of black cherry and plum aromatics, along with some floral notes and oak. While the aromatics are pleasant, they aren’t quite harmonious, that is to say it’s as though the different aspects of the aroma seem to exist along side one another versus “singing in unison.” The palate is much the same, black cherry being very dominant, with some plum and raspberry to support it. It tastes good, but the flavors don’t gel together in that magical way that makes a wine exceptional. The acidity is good and the mouthfeel nice. It is a relatively light wine.
Wine: St James Winery, Pioneer Red
Variety: Red blend
Vintage: 2012
Alcohol: 12.5%
Rating: 83
Price: $10.99
Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.
While neither of these were a “knock my socks off” wine, they are still very drinkable and worth a try so that I can say I’ve had a wine from the Ozarks.