It was a celebration of both old and the new at Jamesport Vineyards Saturday.
The Main Road winery celebrated 30 years in business with its first “Burning of the Vines” celebration on the same night it released a new bottle.
The vineyard saved what it clipped from the vines this past harvest season and used the flames to cook up a special celebratory menu for guests.
“I thought it was just a neat concept to be able to take vines that we had pulled out and release the new wine,” said general manager Ron Goerler Jr. “There’s the end and there’s a beginning.”
Jamesport’s new Thimeo Reserve, a blend of cabernet franc and merlot, is the product of a collaboration with the French barrel company Tonnellerie Bossuet.
Jamesport Vineyards winemaker Dean Babiar created the special reserve blend in Tonnellerie Bossuet barrels and named it after the grandson of Tonnellerie Bossuet owner Jean-Louis Bossuet, who traveled from France to attend the event.
“The collaboration with Bossuet is even more interesting in that they gave us brand new barrels to work with that had never come into the U.S.,” Mr. Goerler said. “This is a blend of 75 percent merlot, which is the most widely planted grape out here and 25 percent cabernet franc.”
Only three barrels of the blend were produced, accounting for 90 exclusive cases. The wine is designed to age over the next 10 years and is expected to sell out quickly.
More than 80 wine lovers, including Jamesport Vineyards wine club members came from as far away as Connecticut to celebrate the vineyard’s special anniversary and to taste the new release.
The crowd gathered on the outdoor patio, where they sipped Jamesport wines and enjoyed a variety of appetizers that had all been either smoked or roasted over the vines, including vine-charred asparagus with walnut crema and pecorino cheese and vine-smoked pork shoulder with pickled peppers on potato buns.
