When you have the entire day to visit wineries and they are only a few miles from each other it is easy to try to stop at all of them. Our next 2 stops were on the way from Lakeview Wine Cellar to the fabulous dinner spot owners Sam and Becky Best had recommended - Noosa. Looking at the map, Madam Ambassador realized we would pass by and have time to stop at Arrowhead Wine Cellars and Heritage Wine Cellars.
Arrowhead is also located right on U.S. 20, making it a convenient stop no matter which way you are travelling through North East, PA. The tasting room boasts a great wine-related gift shop, in addition to the wines and the tasting bar is spacious. And, rinsing the tasting glass after every pour shows great attention to detail and an effort to make sure the customer tastes each wine individually!
Here we shared a tasting of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Blend, both nice full-bodied reds. The Merlot had nice fruity and tobacco notes while the Rosso was an excellent Italian-style (appropriate given the owners are from Italy) table wine. The Strawberry had one of the best strawberry nose I have had and truly tasted like summer in a bottle. The Port had a very grape nose and was more ruby than tawny in style.
Then it was on to Heritage, established in 1977, and now owned by the third generation. The tasting room is located on the upper floor of a charming late 1800s barn. The majority of the wines here definitely leaned to a sweeter palate but there were both red and white dry/semi-dry varieties available. Madam and I chose a selection of everything!
The Rose de Chambourcin, Heritage Red and Cabernet Sauvignon were all nice dry reds that would pair well with both beef or spicy foods. The White Riesling was done in the dry German style and had a crisp finish to it.
Since fruit wines are their specialty we tried the Blackberry and Winter Pear varieties, both of which were true to the namesake fruit in nose and taste. The Almonderia, an almond dessert wine, was a very nice surprise - not too sweet and with a definite almond nose.
Lastly, we tried all of the port-style wines they offered. Cresendo is a barrel-aged red while Flagship Red is made from Concord grapes and then fortified. The Johnny's Jack, a sweeter port, is made from apples and then fortified, a nice change of pace. Peach Punch is a fortified wine flavored with peach. Matt's Mash is a blend of red grapes from the family-owned farm that is then fortified.
Both cellars had unique qualities to them that made us glad we had stopped.
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