Bucks County Winemakers Continue a French Tradition, Crossing Vineyards and Winery Festively Celebrates the Release of its Le Nouveau 2010

By Catherine J. Barrier

Wine in Pennsylvania?  Most definitely!  And the Pennsylvania wine industry is prospering—in Bucks County and elsewhere.

According to the Pennsylvania Wine Association’s Fact Sheet, Pennsylvania actually ranks 4^th nationally in the production of grapes, most of which are used for juice, but the state ranks 7^th nationally in the production of wine from grapes.  There are currently 123 wineries in Pennsylvania and more in Pennsylvania than in most of the other individual states in the Union.  And Pennsylvania’s tasting rooms were already receiving more than half a million people per year throughout the state’s 7 wine regions and 4 wine trails in 2003.  Today, there are 11 wine trails throughout the 7 wine regions of the state.

The Winery at Crossing Vineyards

This weekend, both Saturday and Sunday afternoons November 20 & 21, from Noon to 6 p.m., Crossing Vineyards and Winery, located at 1853 Wrightstown Road, in Washington Crossing, PA, will celebrate the first fruits of the season’s grape harvest with the release of its Le Nouveau 2010—just in time for Thanksgiving.  Live entertainment will be provided both days from 1-5 p.m., and wine tastings, by the glass and bottle, will be available for purchase.  For more information, see www.crossingvineyards.com, call (215) 493-6500, ext. 19, or e-mail to info@crossingvineyards.com.

“The Festival is a [Bucks County] Wine Trail event,” said Chris Carroll, one of the principals of Crossing Vineyards and Winery and its Director of Marketing/Public Relations.  “Maybe not all the vineyards [on the Trail] are making a new wine, but they’re all participating in the event in some way.  People should check the individual vineyards for the event schedules.”  To do so, see www.buckscountywinetrail.com.

 “What we are doing is to draw from the tradition in France, where they release the Beaujolais Nouveau each year—on the third Thursday in November,” said Carroll.  “We’re doing a wine that represents the first fruits of the vine for the year.  It’s typically not a wine geared for aging, although it can be aged.  It’s a very fruity, refreshing wine, lower in tannic structure and lower in alcohol content—about 11-1/2% to 12%.”

“On Friday night [November 19], we are hosting a special event for our Wine Club members,” said Carroll.  “The members are invited to a private event, where we offer them a tasting of the Le Nouveau wine.  It’s a kind of pre-release party and is complimentary to our Wine Club members.  We’ll serve hearty hors d’oeuvres with the wine.  [The Wine Club members are] good customers, and they know our wines.  This is something special we’re doing for them.  Of course, we offer special wine-purchasing discounts to our Wine Club members throughout the year. ”

“We’ll release the Le Nouveau wine to the public on that Saturday (November 20^th), and it’s a celebration of all our hard work over the growing season; it’s our ‘baby’, and we’re very proud of it,” said Carroll.

“Our 2010 Le Nouveau wine is made 100% from [our] estate fruit, that is, all the fruit used to make it is from our vineyards (15 active acres),” said Carroll.  “The name of the grape that the Le Nouveau wine is made from is chambourcin.  French winemakers whose wine bears the Beaujolais Nouveau appellation use gamay grapes to make their wine.  This Le Nouveau 2010 event, it’s our way of honoring the French tradition.”

The Harvesting of the Grapes in the Vineyard

Crossing Vineyards is dedicated to creating world class wines from the finest Pennsylvania fruit.  At Crossing Vineyards, the winemaking begins with fresh, hand-picked grapes that are processed within hours of being harvested.

“The method we use to make our wine is the French traditional method,” said Carroll.  “It’s called macération.  It’s basically a beaujolaise macération carbonique.  It’s a natural process of fermentation.  You don’t add any yeast.  In America, winemakers typically use yeast, but we use the French method.”

“Here’s the beauty of it for Thanksgiving,” said Carroll.  “It’s the perfect wine to pair with Thanksgiving dinner.  This wine is perfect, fruity, light, a ‘sauce’ for your turkey.”

“We are having live music [at the Le Nouveau Festival],” said Carroll.  “On Saturday, Karen Rodriguez’s Latin Jazz Ensemble will be performing between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m.  They’re great—so entertaining!  We have them for summer events, too.  We use her [and her Ensemble] for a lot of things.  On Sunday, Café Duo will perform, also from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.  They play flute and accordion, and it’s very French—like in a French café.  It’s a perfect match with our event.  The live music always makes the event very festive.”

On Saturday afternoon, the Karen Rodriguez Latin Jazz Ensemble returns to Crossing Vineyards for this festive event.  The Ensemble, which plays a lot of the jazz venues in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, features Karen Rodriguez, who can sing in Spanish, English, and/or Portuguese.

The Karen Rodriquez Latin Jazz Ensemble

“We’ve been together since 2000, and we play a lot of different kinds of music, such as the Salsa and the Cha Cha,” said Karen Rodriguez.  “We do some Brazilian rhythms, such as the bossa nova, but we also do Cuban rhythms.”

“For the 20^th [of November], we’re going to be in a trio arrangement,” said Rodriguez.  “We’re usually a 5-piece ensemble, but we’ll still do a mix of our Latin, Brazilian, and Cuban rhythms.”

“Crossing Vineyards has had us there numerous times over the past year and a half,” said Rodriguez.  “The property is gorgeous, breathtaking, and the people, Chris and Tom, are welcoming of all kinds of music.   It’s fantastic there!  We [always] have a wonderful time.  They just make us feel like family.  We just love it!” 

“And the wine is fantastic!” said Rodriguez.  “I’ve sampled the wine, and if one hasn’t done so, I’d say you should.  It’s well worth the trip there [to do so].”  For more information about the Karen Rodriguez Latin Jazz Ensemble, see www.gigmasters.com/latin/KarenRodriguez/ or www.myspace.com/karenrodriguezlatinjazzensemble.

On Sunday afternoon, Cathy Block on flute and Dallas Vietty on accordion, as Café Duo, will create a European atmosphere for the festival.

“[As] Café Duo[, we perform] French and Italian music,” said Cathy Block, an accomplished flutist, in both classical and jazz music.  “They are popular melodies that most people recognize and often get very excited to hear again.”

Café Duo has been together for about 5 years, and both Block and Vietty work with several other ensembles as well.  Cathy Block graduated magna cum laude from the Berklee College of Music with a degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging.  She has also studied at The Boston Conservatory of Music and has orchestrated for symphonic orchestra, big band, and small combos.  She is a music educator on faculty at Solebury School, and is the director of the jazz ensemble.  She also teaches songwriting and composition, and some of her songs have been recorded by well-known artists such as Diana Ross, Kool & the Gang, and Al Jarreau, just to name a few.  For more information about Café Duo, see www.buildingblockmusic.com/cafeduo/ or call (215) 794-2517.

“We help create a fun, European, and romantic ambience,” said Block.

“And we enjoy the people who visit Crossing Vineyards, as well as the staff there, who have always been very friendly,” said Block.  “We have performed [at] Crossing Vineyards many times and are always happy to return.”         

At Crossing Vineyards, music and wine mix to create a pleasant, festive afternoon.    



The Wine Tasting Room at Crossing Vineyards & Winery

 “We offer several wine-tasting options,” said Carroll.  “For our Standard Wine-Tasting option, we offer a sampling of 8-10 different wines.  The cost is $8.00.  Our Premium Wine-Tasting option offers a sampling of between 12 and 14 different wines, some, such as sparkling wines, not included in the Standard option.  The cost for the Premium Wine-Tasting option is $15.00.  Then we always have a wine and chocolate-paired tasting for $20.00.  It includes a box of chocolates, all arranged and paired with the wines.  That’s very popular!”  These tasting options are available this weekend and throughout the rest of the year.  The tasting room is open daily, seven days a week.  Private tastings with a certified wine educator can be arranged.

“We have a big variety of wines: our American Originals Series is our fruity wines, and then there are several other categories organized by pricing and the complexity of the wine,” said Carroll.  “There’s our Vintner’s Select [Series] wines, which are the medium-tier of wine, including some blends and some less complex wines.  We then have our Signature [Series] Wines, made with vinifera—these are the European wines, the wines with the European names that people recognize and are accustomed to; and then we have our Premium [Series] Wines, which are the estate wines.”

“Our Chardonnay ’08 won a Silver [Award],” said Carroll.  “Our Chardonnay is probably our most popular wine.  It has won all over—in California, in the Finger Lakes, and in regional competitions.  It doesn’t have too much of an oak taste.  It’s a good wine and a good value at $18.00.”

“We’ve done very well in competitions,” said Carroll.  “One of the most interesting recently is an award for our 2008 Riesling.  It won a Top Gold Award in a California competition in the spring of last year.  There were consumer judges, which means a lot to us because they are the kinds of people who come out and buy and drink our wine.  It’s a really good, ‘off-dry’ wine, and we still have some left.”  To date, Crossing Vineyards and Winery has won more than 90 awards for their wines.

“The winery is on the property of The David Barton Taylor House, which is on the Bucks County Registry of Historic Places,” said Carroll.  Crossing Vineyards and Winery is located less than one mile from where General George Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776.  One man who participated with the General in that historic crossing was Benjamin Taylor, and the house belonged to his son, David Barton Taylor.  While the exact age of the house, an excellent example of the Federal architectural style, is not known, the original farm was known as “Longmeadow” and was part of the King of England’s land grant to William Penn.  It has been listed as a County historical home since 1983, and Crossing Vineyards and Winery uses a picture of The David Barton Taylor house on its label.



Crossing Vineyards

 “We moved to the property in 1986, and when our then 10-year-old son Tom looked out the window one day, he just said, ‘Wouldn’t this make a great vineyard and winery’,” said Carroll.  “We don’t have a winemaking tradition in our family, and Pennsylvania is not really known for wine, but he just never forgot about that.  In his mid-twenties, he called us and said he wanted to come home and be rooted in the area.  He wanted to plant vines and start the vineyard and winery.  Mom and Dad were not sad to hear those words.  So, it’s a family business, but it’s his dream.”

“We incorporated in 2000 and opened in ’03, so we just celebrated our seventh year,” said Carroll.

Tom Carroll, Jr. the Crossing Vineyards and Winery’s vintner was born in 1975 and graduated from Vassar College in 1997 with a double degree in English and Film.  He subsequently lived in California for 3 years, during which he learned as much as he could about viticulture—the science, production and study of grapes—and enology—the science and study of all aspects of wine and winemaking except vine-growing and grape-harvesting.  Then he came home and, in partnership with his parents, realized his dream.

“This gives the wine a story,” said Carroll.  “And I’m interested in the story [of the wine], sometimes even more than the wine itself.

Crossing Vineyards launched its Wine Institute in September 2004 and offers a number of wine courses.

“We do a variety of things to educate people about wine,” said Carroll.  “First, we have our ‘Wine 101’, which is a 6-week course offered twice a year.  The instructor, Eric Cavatore, is French-born and educated.  It’s a great course!  It’s perfect for beginners.”

“We also have a ‘Wine-Tasting for Dummies’, which is held once a month,” said Carroll.  “My husband, Tom [Carroll, Sr.], teaches that.  He’s funny and entertaining.  There’s a lot of wine, and we offer cheese with it.  It’s always a lot of fun!”

“Then newly offered, in the spring of 2010, is our ‘A Tasting Tour of Spain’, a course on Spanish wine,” said Carroll.  “It’s very popular [,too]!”

“And new this winter will be our ‘Pairing Wine with Dessert’,” said Carroll.  “Our event manager, Kate Sielski, is teaching that.  We’re going to talk about what kinds of wine to serve with desserts.  In this struggling economy, people might have a dessert and wine party instead of a dinner party.  A dessert and wine party makes a lovely presentation and is less costly and less work.  Kate organizes our events and is very knowledgeable about food, wine, and entertaining, so she’s the perfect one to teach this.”

Pennsylvania Grapes Make Delicious Wines

 “The more people know about wine, the more open they are to wine from Pennsylvania,” said Carroll.

“In the summer of ’08, we opened our wine and cheese store (Crossing Vineyards Wine and Cheese Shop) in the Mohegan Sun Casino [at Pocono Downs],” said Carroll.  “Table gaming has been approved recently in Pennsylvania, and the casino’s been there for awhile, but there’s a new building.  We’re beginning to see more interest there.  We don’t have the emphasis on wine and cheese pairing at our main location that we have at Mohegan, although we do sell cheese at the winery.”

“Four times a year, we hold winemakers’ dinners,” said Carroll.  “These are 5-course meals.  This year, between Christmas and New Year’s, on December 28^th, we will hold a winemaking dinner called ‘A Colonial Christmas’, with special guest speaker ‘General George Washington’.  Washington will be talking about colonial Christmas traditions and will bring a few of his military men.  These events are ‘first come, first served’, and sadly [for many who are interested in attending] they sell out quickly.”  For more information, see the Web site at www.crossingvineyards.com.

“People like to taste and drink wine, but they also like to learn [about wine],” said Carroll.  “We’re very passionate about it, and I think that’s why they come back.”

“Since we’ve been making the wine, the thing that I enjoy the most is the different cultures, learning about geography, and the meeting people,” said Carroll.  “Every year it’s a brand new thing.  It’s just fascinating!  It’s interesting to me that an agricultural product can lead to all that.”

“[The release of the Le Nouveau wine] is a very festive time!” said Carroll.  To join in the festivities, head out to the celebration at the Crossing Vineyards and Winery this weekend.

*   Photos of the Vineyards and Winery are "Courtesy of Crossing Vineyards & Winery"
** Photo of the Jazz Ensemble is "Courtesy of the Karen Rodriquez Latin Jazz Ensemble"

© 2010 by Catherine J. Barrier.  All rights reserved.