I recently participated in a tasting offered by the Garden State Winegrower's Association about New Jersey Blaufrankisch. The program was over overseen by Tom Cosentino and David Furer. Noted wine grape geneticist Dr. José Vouillamoz, best known for his foundational contribution to Wine Grapes, led a Zoom presentation for a limited number of US wine media about the grape Blaufränkisch/Lemberger on Friday, April 30, 2021 on behalf of Garden State Wine Growers Association. In addition to his talk about the history of the grape, Dr. Vouillamoz also conducted a tasting of five New Jersey Blaufränkisch wines with the assembled media. Just thrilled they called me media, because I have been called much worse.
Blaufränkisch (German for blue Frankish) is a dark-skinned variety of grape used for red wine. Blaufränkisch, which is a late-ripening variety, produces red wines which are typically rich in tannin and may exhibit a pronounced spicy character. DNA profiling has shown that Blaufränkisch is a cross between Gouais blanc (Weißer Heunisch; male parent) and Blaue Zimmettraube (female parent; the offspring of Blauer Gänsfüsser). Historical sources of grapevine classification have provided very solid evidence that the geographic area of origin of the variety is Lower Styria (today Slovenian Styria). In America the grape is also known as Lemberger, Blauer Limberger or Blue Limberger and is grown in Pennsylvania, Washington state, Michigan, New Jersey, Idaho, New York, Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, and California.
Sharrott Winery is a winery in the Blue Anchor section of Winslow Township in Camden County, New Jersey. Formerly an apple orchard, the vineyard was first planted in 2005, and opened to the public in 2008. Sharrott has 6 acres of grapes under cultivation, and produces 4,600 cases of wine per year. Lawrence Sharrott is the owner/winemaker along with his oldest son Larry. They have won numerous awards for thier wines including a gold medal in the largest American wine competition including "Best Chardonnay" in a major international wine competition. Sharrott Winery is in the Outer Coastal Plain AVA, and produces wine from Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chambourcin, Chardonnay, Fredonia, Merlot, Pinot gris, Riesling, Vidal blanc, and Vignoles (Ravat 51) grapes. Sharrott also makes fruit wines from blueberries, cranberries, and peaches.
Larry Sharrott and Lawrence Sharrott
Sharrott Winery Coia Vineyards, Blaufrankisch, 2019 Outer Coastal Plain is a big Blaufrankisch. This is Sharrott's first bottled vintage of Blaufrankisch.
"This was grown by Larry Coia, at Coia Vineyards. It kinda went through our typical, I;ll say red wine fermentation style, being the first time we ever worked with it. So it was treated the same way we would our Cabernet Sauvignon or Cab Franc," said Larry Sharrott. The final product shows it. It is absolutely the biggest Blau I have ever had. And I was struck by its "bigness" at first. Albeit, it's still a medium bodied wine. But it's the biggest medium bodied wine I've ever had. I was kinda thrown off by it at first.
This wine has a fair dark red-purple-ish color. It's a fruity wine. Very juicy. On the nose there's dark plum, hints of tomato, and lovely classic Blau spiciness. On the palate there's a combination of dark plums and big cherry notes. Ripe cherries and dark cherry. The tomato and spices do come through as well. There were also sizable notes of oak on this wine, having again, received a program more closely allied with Cab Sav rather than Blau. This wine is big fruit up front, with nice, but seemingly low tannins on the back end. Despite the dazzling beginning, it's overall flavors are subtle and they keep on coming.
What was interesting, was that after the tasting, I brought the wine over to share with some friends over dinner. The wine absolutely won me over. And it was immensely popular with my friends. It was gone very quickly. It went beautifully with food, and extremely well with grilled meats. For those who like big wines, this Blau was amazing.