While camping in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, I did what I often do in other states, which is search out a store where I can pick up some local twists on wine. I wasn't having a whole lot of luck until we stopped in at the World's Largest Country Store, where you can purchase life-size animatronic dinosaurs, Roman soldiers, statues of Sitting Bull, a stereo shaped like Sammy Davis Jr. (also life size), and local wines, among other things. I chose three: a peach wine, a kiwi wine, and a raspberry sparkler, all from Cherry Valley Vineyards.

The kiwi wine was the most intriguing. When people think kiwi, they don't usually go, "Oh yeah, well, Pennsylvania." In fact, almost everyone I told about the kiwi wine assumed I meant New Zealand wine. No, no. That's far too normal for me. What made the kiwi wine even more interesting is that it was only sold in half-bottles -- and it was the only wine there sold in a half-bottle. Everyone assumed that telegraphed a nightmarish experience ahead, but it turned out that the kiwi wine was actually fairly tasty. Not a sophisticated wine, by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm not a sophisticated wine drinker. The taste was semi-sweet, definitely kiwi and a mix of other citrus flavors I'm too dumb to identify. The bottle was polished off without much problem. It was a bronze medal winner at 2004 Pennsylvania Wines competition, and it deserves the accolades. A pleasant surprise, especially from something so many people thought was going to reek.

Next up was the raspberry sparkling wine. It was a thick, dark purple that reminded me of Welch's Grape Juice and would, I assume, make one hell of a stain if you got carried away with splashing it around. Like many of Sorrenti's Cherry Valley vintages, it was a gold medal winner in the 2000 Pennsylvania Farm Show and a "Governer's Cup" winner in the same competition a year later. I really don't know what the Governer's Cup is, but it sounds to me like Pennsylvania farmers love their raspberry spumante. It turns out, so do I. Well, maybe not love. I found it a little thick and sweet for my taste, but I tend toward dryer, crisper wines. But the taste was delicious, and since wines made from something other than grapes don't carry the stigma of tradition or convention, I had no problem mixing the spumante with a dash of soda to take the edge off the sweetness. Now that worked wonders, and I'm pretty sure I downed most of the bottle over the course of a single evening. And I'd do it again, I tell ya. Definitely something I'd buy and drink again.

Finally, there was the peach wine. I knew at first sniff that it was going to be too sweet for me, and it is. Not plum wine sweet, but definitely a dessert wine. Luckily, someone somewhere invented ginger ale, and that soda does wonders for countering an overabundance of sweetness. Mixed cocktail style, the peach wine was pretty good, but honestly, it's difficult for me to judge its merits since I shy away from sweet wines. I enjoyed my bottle, mixed as it was with carbonated beverages, but I doubt I'd pick up another bottle. I'd save that money and get another bottle of the raspberry spumante.

So all in all, a decently successful tour of Pennsylvania's Cherry Valley offerings. Nothing was vinegary foul like this Georgian wine (as in the country, not the state) I had a while back, and both the kiwi wine and raspberry spumante are worth drinking again. The peach wine is, I'm sure, a delightful dessert wine for people with a taste for sweetness, and it makes a delicious cocktail. I'd be interested in trying their apple wine. I can't for the life of me figure out why I didn't buy a bottle. I must have been distracted by the entire crew of scalawag pirates you could purchase, or the "tunnel of two-foot-tall frogs standing on two legs and playing fiddles," which is a dangerous walk to combine with alcohol.

Labels: Drink