Winey Tasting Notes: The Sweeter Side of Ohio, or “Go Bucks!”

The Winey Family’s Official Brutus Buckeye

Having now lived in Ohio for over 25 years, specifically Cleveland, I can honestly say that it’s a wonderful place to live and work and raise your family. The only drawback that I can see (and no, in my Winey World, snow is NOT a drawback) is that sometimes, our sports teams are, well, um, let’s go with heartbreaking. I can’t say disappointing, because that wouldn’t give you an accurate idea of the pain felt by thousands upon thousands of Northeast Ohioans at the end of _______ season. (fill in the blank with baseball, football or basketball…and remember, the current NBA season is not over with yet…so there is a little bit of hope shining there… #thereturn #hesback). So what are we to do except turn our eyes about 2 hours south to that scarlet and grey land of hard hitting, game winning football: THE Ohio State University Buckeyes.

This year, our Bucks will be meeting Alabama on New Year’s Day in the first ever college football playoff semi-final round. (I do believe this game is why the Winey Son has delayed his departure until January 2nd.) And where are they meeting? Why, in the Sugar Bowl. Sweet, huh? (stay with me, the tie in is coming….)

So it was with much scarlet and grey happiness that I was sent some Ohio wines from Ohio Cellars, a cool Grove City business that “is about Drinking Local. We want to promote fermented products in our state and make them available online directly to consumers using a convenient commerce platform.” Is that beautiful, or what????? Both of the wines I’m going to tell you about today are the products of urban boutique wineries in Columbus, Ohio (home of Ohio State and oh yeah, the governor of Ohio): Signature Wines and Camelot Cellars. And since both wines are on the sweeter side of the wine tasting spectrum, I thought they’d be perfect for our Ohio State Buckeyes Sugar Bowl win appearance.

Signature Wines was founded and is owned by Kelly Harvey in 2004. I got to taste her unoaked, off dry Chardonnay (NV, California grapes, wine made in Columbus, Ohio). (For those of you wondering, off dry will give you a sweeter wine – not dessert wine sweet, but a wine with some decided sweetness to it.) This is a bright golden colored wine with a very rich nose of honey. The first flavors to hit my mouth were honeysuckle and nutmeg followed by a tinge of sweet wood (not an oakey wood, more like a herb-y wood). It was almost like drinking a Chardonnay with a vein of Port running through it. It felt like thick satin and heavy velvet in my mouth. If you like your whites sweet and layered, this one is for you. Oh and check out Signature’s custom labels – you could have a LOT of fun with them and there is no extra charge.

Next up was a Pomegranate Zinfandel (NV, 7%) from Camelot Cellars, which not only imports grapes from all over the world to make their wines, they’ll help you craft your own too! I was intrigued by the idea of a pomegranate Zinfandel, so I was eager to sip this one. The wine pours out a little bit fizzy and the nose on this is all pomegranate (well, duh of course it is). And of course, the dominant flavor is the wonderfully tart pomegranate, but I also got some dark cherry juice in there (that would be the Zinfandel talking). This is a fruity wine and Camelot suggests pairing it with beef or sausage or BBQ, but I’m going to tell you that it pairs wonderfully with dark chocolate M&M’s and a bazillion presents to wrap. If you visit the site check out their cute #winelover tee shirts too.

You can buy both these wines through Ohio Cellars, but alas, my Winey Friends, if you are not lucky enough to live in Ohio, California or New Mexico, you can’t order it. So suck up to some friends from those states or come visit, right now. Their warehouse is in central Ohio, so any wine ordered to Ohio will get there in two days. Mine did!

I did receive another bottle of wine from Ohio Cellars, but it is being saved for some other Christmas feasting.. so stay tuned.

Cheers and Merry, Winey Christmas!!

I received this wine for review purposes. The opinions are all my own. Go Buckeyes!