Tucked away outside of Felton is a small vineyard with a great story. The first grapes were planted by two brothers who learned the wine making business from their father in Sardinia. How they got to this country and ended up outside of Dover and what they did once they were here is a fabulous story that you need to hear for yourself.
I was very lucky. I wandered in to the tasting room early one afternoon and joined some other people who left soon after I arrived. As a result, I was able to sit and try the wines while chatting with Angela who now owns the vineyard. She told me story after story about her father and her uncle. Each is better than the last.
The vineyard itself is gorgeous, truly beautiful. I wandered around the grounds before going into the tasting room because I was so enthralled with the how the various areas have been landscaped. It reminded me of the vineyards I visited in New Zealand. As much attention is paid to where you will sit and what you will look at as is paid to the wines themselves.
Eventually, I made my way into the tasting room and ordered the tasting with a cheese plate. Be warned! You need to call ahead to order food. In the gift shop, there are some (rather pricy) meat and cheese sets for sale. Angela will provide the cutlery, the plate, and a generous basket of crackers. So, eventually being all settled, I was treated to an extensive tasting.
We started with the dry reds. The Merlot is a good drinking wine, better with the cheese. It would be just fine as an everyday table wine. We then moved on to what is called Brother's Tasting Wine. The two brothers were trying to create their signature wine. One preferred the Merlot grape; the second preferred the Chambourcin grape. Their solution was to combine the two. It does not work. The final wine in this category was the Cabernet. This is a lovely wine, beautifully full and flavorful. I could easily drink a glass of this in the cooler weather.
We moved on to the sweet reds of which I am not much of a fan. The one here is called the Wive's Table wine as, if you couldn't guess, it was the favorite of the two brothers' wives. It is a combination of the Chambourcin grape and persimmon. It was the only wine I couldn't finish. Way too sweet and the flavor combination really didn't work.
Ironically, the next wine I tried was my favorite. Called Rosato, it has the color, viscosity, and flavor of a good whisky, Pizzadili categorizes this as a blush which really surprised me. This wine did not work very well with food, but it was a delicious sipping wine all by itself. Angela told me that when the pandemic hit, one of her customers came in and bought two cases. When she saw him recently, he told her that almost every night he would pour himself a glass and feel better about everything that was happening in the world. I have to agree with this man; the wine is delicious and soothing.
We, at last, got to the whites. Because of the pandemic and because both brothers became seriously ill around the same time, very little wine has been made in the past two years. The whites have aways been the best sellers, so there is very little to choose from right now. I had the Chardonnay which was very oaky, but not terrible. Again, this wine worked much better with food than on its own.
We ended the tasting with three dessert wines. The first is called the Delaware because it is made with grapes only grown here. There is a reason Delaware is not known for its grapes. We followed this up with a peach and then a plum wine. Both were very nice. Sweet, yes, but not to the degree that I felt as though I was going to start bouncing off walls.
These are not the greatest wines you are ever going to have. I do, however, recommend a drive to the winery. The atmosphere and the gardens are so beautiful and the stories you will hear are so wonderful that it is worth the detour.
One final very cool thing the winery will do. It will produce custom labels for your event and put the labels on the wine it sells. There is a display case with some of the ones they have done and they look amazing. A great idea for the next big party.
Pizzadili Winery
1683 Peach Basket Road, Felton
302-284-9463
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