Wines off the wine path

by Ben Moyer

Whether you’re a hibernator who burrows into the couch in cold weather or a winter warrior who embraces the cold, visiting a winery may not be the first option that comes to mind for winter diversion. A winter visit to a vineyard, though, can be a great mini adventure. Wineries across our region stay open during those cold, dark months, welcoming visitors and offering vintages to help you take winter in stride.

Likewise, Greene County may not be the first destination that leaps to mind for wine. Most wine enthusiasts think of the Lake Erie Wine Country or the Laurel Highlands as Western Pennsylvania’s wine regions. But Greene County boasts two wineries of its own. Award-winning Thistlethwaite Vineyards in Jefferson is among the Pennsylvania Tourism Office’s (visitPA. com) recommended stops on the Southwest Passage Wine Trail. And Shields-Demesne Winery in Spraggs is a unique winery with an unconventional, earthy, but passionate approach to winemaking rooted in Hungarian tradition and West Virginia’s nearby hills.

Thistlethwaite Vineyards

With its rustically appealing, red-roofed tasting room, set at the end of a long, narrow lane amid hills cloaked in ranks of grapevines, Thistlethwaite Vineyards evokes the classic image of wine culture worldwide. While approaching the vineyard on Thistlethwaite Lane, a moment to savor the setting is part of a visit’s reward, even in winter.

“Winter is a quiet time around here. We’re not picking grapes or making wine,” said owner and vintner Jamie Thistlethwaite. “But the bottles are pouring, and the tasting room is open for tasting and sales.”

The Thistlethwaites grow 10 varieties of French hybrid grapes on the farm that’s been in their family since 1892. Those 200 acres, typically hilly, produced more traditional regional crops for generations. “When I told my grandfather I had decided to grow grapes and make wine, he was stunned at first, but the whole family supported the idea.”

Jamie planted the first grapes in 2000, and the vineyard went commercial in 2008. Thistlethwaite now offers 15 wines, red and white, with flavor profiles of citrus, vanilla, berries, plums, oak and more. The taste of each wine originates in the blend of grapes used and the aging process. Thistlethwaite ages some wines in stainless steel barrels and others in barrels of Pennsylvania white oak.

Some of Thistlethwaite’s wines include Chambourcin Reserve, Colonial Red, Farmhouse Red, Very Berry Good, Naked Blanc, Thistleberry and others.

“We attribute the quality of our wines to growing our own grapes. The clean, ripe fruit we produce makes us stand out,” Thistlethwaite said. “Others might buy grapes or juice from the Lake Erie region, and they have that taste. But our wines are unique to this place because the grapes grew in Greene County soil, in our weather. We think of it as a ‘vine to wine’ process.

“A lot of people think of Pennsylvania wine as sweet wine,” Thistlethwaite continued. “But we make dry wines and semidry that people who like chardonnay or merlots will enjoy. We do make a wonderful, sweet wine, to be sure, but we go beyond sweet to complex flavors in drier wines.”

Thistlethwaite credits Penn State University’s Extension Service and established local wineries for help and coaching when he got started.

“Penn State has done so much great research on grapes as an alternative form of agriculture in western Pennsylvania, so

“Here, we get a growing season that’s typically three-anda-half weeks longer than up north in Erie or in the mountains to the east,” he observed.

Thistlethwaite Vineyards is home to frequent events during the spring, summer and fall seasons. The vineyard’s been the site of Greene County’s early-September Farm to Fork celebration for five consecutive years. Thistlethwaite also offers paint and sip sessions, Sunday Football events, and Wine Down Wednesdays, with special prices offered on some wine varieties.

“In winter, we’re not really an event kind of place,” Thistlethwaite reflected. “But we’re open here except on the major holidays, and we stay open until 7 p.m., even on those dark winter evenings. So, our tasting room is a great place to break that cabin fever that everyone gets from being penned up for months. Stop out and taste some great wine. You’ll sleep better.”

Thistlethwaite Vineyards’ address is 151 Thistlethwaite Lane, Jefferson. Most visitors will approach from Carmichaels. In Carmichaels, go north on Route 88, continuing north as it becomes North Eighty-Eight Road. At the village of Dry Tavern, head west (left) on Route 188 to Jefferson Borough. Turn right (north) on Pine Street, then left (north) on Chartiers Road and go 0.9 miles to veer left onto Center School Road. Proceed one half-mile to Thistlethwaite Lane. For more information on Thistlethwaite Vineyards, check thistlegrape. com.

Shields-Demesne Winery

Before visiting Shields-Demesne Winery, it helps to expand your mental image of what a winery must look like. First, the location. Shields-Demesne crouches tight against Route 218 (Also known as Smith Creek Road) 11 miles south of Waynesburg and 1.5 miles north of Blacksville, W.Va. The winery is indistinguishable from the Shields Herb and Flower Farm at the same location, where proprietors Leigh and Lillian Shields grow 700 varieties of herbs and perennial flowers in their greenhouse.

But they make wine there, too, and a cozy wine shop next

Please see Wines, page 10

Wines

Continued from 9 door is where the winery part of the business begins to make sense to visitors.

Shields-Demesne’s wines are different on the palate but delicious. They’re a style called “melomel,” made with water, fermented fruit and fermented honey. Depending on the flavor the melomel winemaker wants to achieve, the added fruit can be grapes, pears, apples or berries. Shields-Demesne even makes a melomel made with fermented pomegranate.

“We call it wine with taste; it’s definitely full-flavored,” said Leigh Shields. “It’s technically a sweet wine, but it’s honey sweet, which is different from simple sugar sweet. Honey has more complex molecules with more taste, and then there are the full flavors of the fruit and fruit juices we use.

“Our melomel wines are also unfiltered because filtering can take the taste out of it. The wine has a nice warm look to it in a glass.”

Shields said many of his customers like melomel for winter drinking, especially because of the wine’s full flavor and body.

“Melomel is different from other wines. It’s more like a port. When you open a bottle, whatever you don’t finish gets better and better every day because of the honey. Honey is magic stuff.”

The Shields age their wines in used bourbon barrels they get from distillers in Kentucky. Their offerings include varieties called Ambrosia, Irish Moss, Jewel of Opar, Golden Harvest, Bloodroot and many others.

The Shields admit that mid-winter can be a slow time in their wine shop but opine that people don’t know what they’re missing by waiting until spring to wine-taste and shop.

“One of the things we do here in the winter is offer our version of mulled wine to guests,” Leigh Shields said. “With typical mulled wine, you add herbs and spices, heat it up and drink. But with our melomel, you don’t have to add anything because it’s got that spicy full taste on its own. If someone comes in the shop on a cold day, we can just heat it up and add a cinnamon stick to be festive. It makes you warm and keeps you happy.

“It’s easier to get here in winter than before, in the old days,” Shields continued. “For years, on the day after Thanksgiving, we had an open house celebration here, and if it snowed one inch in Waynesburg, it snowed eight inches here. It doesn’t seem to snow anymore but we have a good time, and people like to come here to just walk around the greenhouse among the flowers to anticipate spring. We’re not really an event place. We’re a personal service place with handmade melomel.”

Shields learned to make melomel from Dr. Frank Androczi, whose family had made wine in Hungary for generations. Uprooted during World War II, Androczi came to the United States and planted a small vineyard on a hilltop above Buckhannon, W.Va. Shields met him at a culinary arts show at Lakeview in Morgantown. They became friends, and Shields helped Androczi in his vineyard for years. When Androczi’s health failed, he implored Shields to continue making his Hungarian-style melomel.

“He had his own separate way of doing this,” Shields said. “And we still don’t use chemicals of any kind, just fruit and honey. We’ve always been an organic greenhouse, and we approach winemaking the same way.”

Shields Demesne Winery’s address is 374 Smith Creek Road, Spraggs. Their phone number is 724-435-7246. Except for major holidays, the winery is open Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can email Leigh or Lillian Shields at contact@shieldswinery. com.