8/27 - Stonington & John Edwards Wineries

Disheartened that the end of my summer was being overtaken by rain, Jaime and I set out for another Vineyard tour. It had been a good almost two months that Jaime had not joined me on a viticulturalist excursion so it was fun to get another two notches on our wine belt.

We headed down to the Stonington area because we heard that the vineyards down there were pretty good.

Our first stop was Stonington Winery. They have two huge rooms, but the layout is so ill-planned that it makes for an akward tasting experience. In the larger back room, a small wine bar is squeezed into the back corner. That means, all the people that come in are pretty much piled on top of each other. Opening up the wine-bar design and location would make better use of the normal foot-traffic common to the human mammal.

We tried a selection of whites and reds. The most notable being their Seaport White at the cheapest running $8.99 a bottle. I also liked their 2004 Cabernet Franc but Jaime wasn't impressed. There selections include:

2004 Cabernet Franc
2003 Chardonnay
Seaport White
2005 Triad Rose
2005 Sheer Chardonnay
2003 Vidal Blanc
2004

We moved onto Jonathan Edwards. Practically everyone who had been at the Stonington Winery followed us here. One thing I did note about this area's wineries versus the ones in the Litchfield Hills are the flashy cars in the parking lot. I counted one silver hummer, three beamers, a slew of Volvos and other higher end domestics. Inside, the people were just as flashy as their vehicles, the woman in fancy heels and the men in their brook brothers weekend casual.

The place was crowded and it took about 10 minutes for us to finally reach the wine bar. Once there, we had some very friendly chatty people to our left. Then we had two yuppie couples to our right who were very vocally playing a game of "Keep up with the Joneses" one-upsmanship. One husband grabbed his wife's hand to proclaim that it was 1.25 carats. The other husband told his wife to show them her ring. The wife was hiding her ring hand under the sweater draped over her arms. When she pulled out her hand, it was a small stone but her husband urged her to tell them how he proposed. She expounded how romantic a romantic hike to a river climaxed in him down on his knees, ring in hand. This went on with the 1.25 carat lady showing off what looked like a 10-carat total weight tennis bracelet. Romantic hike wife flashed her earrings. 1.25 karat wife flashed her necklace and on it went.

Technically, what you will find here is a lot of people going through the motions of wine-tasting. They don't really care about the wine, they just care about the appearance that this is what people with money are seen doing. Thus, they need to be seen emulating the behavior of the rich. I'm sorry to say, most millionaires are never identified as millionaires. Mainly because they don't go mouthing off about the 1.25 carat ring they bought their wife.

The wines here reflect the crowd in the wine-tasting bar: one-dimensional and over-priced. The one redeeming wine was their Blackberry Port. At $40 a bottle, the most expensive wine, but the only one worth purchasing in my opinion. Try to get there on a week day if you can. The cloying stink of nouveau riche is not one you can wash off or forget easily.