Waltz Vineyards was established in 1997 by Jan and Kimberly Waltz. Situated on a beautiful hill between Lancaster and Lebanon, Pennsylvania, their sixth generation family farm boasts a unique micro-climate and soils. In 2000, they created their first wine in their exterior garage. It was truly a "garage wine". Each year thereafter they tried to perfect the art of fermenting, blending and creating wines that were made only from hand picked, carefully selected fruit.
In 2008, they decided to make their dream a reality and build their own winery! Their fun new facility utilizes the most modern wine-making technology imported from Italy. In addition, all of their wines are fermented in stainless steel tanks and aged in 100% French oak barrels.
The wine of theirs that really wowed me was the 2009 Waltz Vineyards Cherry Tree Merlot. This is a new release. It's 78% Merlot and 22% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine spent 16 months in French oak. They made 297 Cases.
The colro was a deep, inky red, but still dark garnet, not purple. The nose on this wine was impressive right from the first. Ripe cherry came through first, with hints of chocolate & tobacco (as promised). The taste came through with ripe cherry, with hints of plum and a slight touch of cassis. Nice balabce between fruit, acidity and tannins, which were firm, but not aggressive. Nice spicy finish.
This was a wonderful wine every bit as good as many Long Island or Virginia merlots. Very impressive.
Congrats to the Waltz family.