Pleasant Surprise

Doing some research on the net about wine, and I stumbled upon a website for a winery in the Scranton, Pa area: Cartegna Family Wines.

On our usual Friday night out, Heidi and I stopped by. This place is nestled in one of the most hidden spots of a local mall, down a wing that holds a hair place, and a discount clothing store. In the 9 months it had been there, we'd never seen it, and had never heard about it from any of our wine drinking friends.

We were very pleased with their wines. They have a variety of reds, whites and fruit-based wines. Their 2 blends, based on family recipes were tasty, not for someone who likes sweeter wines, but pretty easy going drinking wines. Their Syrah was delicious; with a buttery feel I was assume came from malolactic fermentation (something I'll be trying this fall.) We tried their Gewürztraminer; they let it go very dry, and to me that ruins some of the character of the grape. But, that's my opinion, and you may love it. The real treat was the late harvest Riesling. Holy Cow! This was absolutely delicious, very much a dessert wine, but holding all the traits of a Riesling.

We left with a few bottles, a blend, the Syrah and the Riesling. Can't wait to share these with some friends or family. Thinking the blend is coming out the next time we have homemade pasta and sauce for Sunday dinner.

The lesson today? Google your area for wineries. Make some time to go check them out, you might be really happy with what you find.

One last note: I love Google! Gewürztraminer came up in spellcheck!