Holiday gift ideas from Blue Mountain Vineyards

The holidays are coming soon, so start planning now to get a head start.

It's hard to believe it's the end of September already! We know nobody wants to hear it, but Christmas is only 15 weeks, away. Instead of waiting until Christmas Eve, why not get a head start? We have some great gift ideas for you.

Custom Labels

Our Custom Label program offers endless possibilities at an affordable cost. Whether you're celebrating a special occasion or looking for a personalized gift, we can customize your label to fit your needs. Labels can be produced in black and white or color and can include any scanned image.

Adopt A Vine

Have you ever dreamed of owning your own vineyard?  Blue Mountain has made that dream a possibility! In August of each year you will be invited to a plaque ceremony. During the first ceremony, you will be given a plaque with your chosen inscription to place next to a vine of your choice. Starting the second year you will be presented a specially labeled bottle of wine at the ceremony for the next five years. The ceremony is followed by a wine tasting with entertainment and hors d'oeuvres.

Wine Club

The Connoisseurs Club at Blue Mountain Vineyards is a quarterly wine club aimed at giving our customers incredible value while adding a level of information and excitement. Be among the first to taste new releases, and have access to limited vintage that are not readily available elsewhere.

For more information about The Connoisseurs Club, email us at info@bluemountainwine.com or call us at 610-298-3068.

Easter dinner food and wine pairing recommendations

The owners of the nine family-owned and operated wineries of the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail understand how important the Easter meal is for gathering with family and friends, and offers the following food and wine pairing suggestions for this year’s dinner.

Amoré Vineyards & Winery, Nazareth - Pair Amore Pink Passion with ham, pork and sauerkraut or Rose Amore with baked ham. After dinner, relax with a glass of Rapport or Vidal Blanc dessert wines.

Big Creek Vineyard and Winery, Kresgeville - Their Vin di Pasqualina is a great all-around wine for traditional Easter dinners. Both sweet and dry wine fans will enjoy the glass-filling aroma of this semi-dry rose. It is a blend of three grapes, but the bouquet and character come from Niagara, an aromatic white grape that can stand a little chill and still deliver lots of flavor. It works as an aperitif, or with ham, turkey, or baked ziti.

Blue Mountain Vineyards, New Tripoli – Their 2013 Pinot Noir (a silver medal winner in this year’s Finger Lakes International Wine Competition) is a dry red wine with fruity and subtle earthy notes will compliment a glazed Easter ham. Their dry 2013 Riesling, non-oaked 2011 Chardonnay and semi-sweet 2013 White Merlot, with their balanced fruitiness and silky acidity, will also compliment the smoky flavor of ham.

Clover Hill Vineyards & Winery, Breinigsville - Riesling is a great option for Easter ham and the winery produces a dry Generations Riesling and a semi-sweet Riesling. Try making a Holiday Ham Glaze with 1 cup of Clover Hill Holiday wine mixed with 1 cup of brown sugar. Blend ingredients, coat ham, and baste frequently.

Franklin Hill Vineyards, Bangor - They suggest a blush like Kiss with ham, and a complex red like Evanswood for prime rib. For dessert, make a Jelly-Bean-tini to pair with your cake and pies. Three days before Easter pour a bottle of Vidal Blanc in a container and put 2 tbsp. of white, pink and yellow jellybeans in it. Once the wine is infused with the sweetness, pour in a half-cup of vodka and enough Passion, Desire or Bliss wines to give it color. Separate your infusion and drop a jellybean in the bottom of the glass for garnish.

Galen Glen Vineyard & Winery, Andreas – Winery Owners Galen and Sarah recommend what they are serving at their own Easter celebration: their semi-dry Riesling with honey mustard glazed ham, their Stone Cellar Chambourcin with braised lamb shanks, and their Stone Cellar Vidal Blanc Ice Wine with cheesecake.

Pinnacle Ridge, Kutztown - Their Vidal Blanc is the perfect companion for traditional Easter fare. To make more of a splash, their Brut Rose sparkling wine would be a festive choice.

Tolino Vineyards, Bangor - Celebrate with your family by sharing a bottle of 2013 Vidal Blanc.  This dry white wine has a pineapple and tropical fruit body that goes great with ham and gives the meal a refreshing taste. For red wine lovers, pair Easter ham with their 2012 Cabernet Franc. The fruity notes pair well with the sweet glaze of the ham, and the subtle spice complements the seasoning of the meat. Their dessert wine, Sweet Frances, is the perfect after-dinner treat that boasts a mango, pineapple body with high acidity.

Vynecrest Winery, Breinigsville – Pair their Dry Riesling with Easter ham, lamb, or turkey. It's a dry expression of Riesling with a tropical nose and bold, crisp, acidic finish. And it’s the Wine of the Month for April with 10% off the regular price of $12.99.

Blind taste testing of Lehigh Valley wines by our winery owners proves to be an enlightening experience

Earlier this month the winery owners of our Wine Trail's nine wineries participated in a blind taste test of their own wines as lead by Penn State Extension Enologist Denise Gardner. Read her blog post about the experience here.

Below is her feedback to our winery owners about the blind taste testings and her observations.

"On Monday, June 2^nd, winery members of the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail tasted 21 of their wines blind.  This doesn’t quite mean that each person was blindfolded, but that all of the wines and their subsequent labels were hidden from each participant during the tasting.  What’s the purpose of conducting this kind of tasting?

Tasting wines blind, or by numeric codes instead of having awareness of the brand or label, forces the wine drinker to perceive the wine differently. “I wasn’t sure which ones were my wines,” one winemaker exclaimed at the end of the tasting. That could be a bit nerve racking for any winemaker, but it is an essential practice that many in the wine industry undergo regularly to improve their palate, and hence, improve the quality of wines that they produce.

I have to applaud this group of winemakers for taking these steps. It forces the whole group to minimize their bias and focus on each wine holistically. Is it flawed? Should it be sold as a representative of Pennsylvania wine? Do I even like this wine? All questions that I’m sure everyone was thinking during the tasting, including me.

After tasting through all 21 wines with the group, it was definitely an eye-opening experience trying to guess whose wine was whose! Like most of Pennsylvania, an array of wine varieties and styles were presented during the tasting. In the whites, we tasted everything from Vidal Blanc to Chardonnay, oaked and unoaked, some from fairly young vintages and some wines with age.  In the reds, several red hybrid varieties were tasted, with a heavy emphasis on Chambourcin: one of the leading red wine varieties produced in the Lehigh Valley.

With the vast number of different white varieties made in several styles, some of them were a bit difficult to identify blind. However, as a whole, the Chambourcin wines were quite identifiable by their varietal character, or those attributes that are specific to Chambourcin. Such attributes include a deep red color, crisp acidity – quite “zippy,” with light red fruit and herbal flavors, almost reminiscent of oregano and sage from a spice cabinet. Chambourcin is a French-hybrid variety, which grows consistently well in the numerous climatic conditions associated with Pennsylvania. It’s a flexible wine grape, in which the winemaker has a lot of room to create various wine styles using Chambourcin as the base variety.

If you have your doubts on trying dry, red wines from the Lehigh Valley, I would encourage wine drinkers to give them another try. While most wines produced in warm, dry climates like California produce jammy and low-acid wines, these can be challenging to pair with food. However, the brightness in most red wines produced from the Lehigh Valley and other PA wineries is especially food friendly. For example, I enjoy using Chambourcin for meals that include pizza, spaghetti, and ratatouille. Of the few Bordeaux varietals (varieties like Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon or their associated blends) that were tasted earlier in June, you can pair these with heavier red meats like steak or even hamburgers made on the grill.  Many also go well with hard cheeses or a creamy, white pasta sauce.

And don’t neglect one of the greatest gems associated with Pennsylvania producers: white wines. These wines come in so many styles from dry to sweet, unoaked to oaky, light aromatics to overly aromatic – and there are so many wonderful ways to enjoy them. Vidal Blanc is a friendly white wine to enjoy while picnicking on a warm, summer day, and the Lehigh Valley has many different styles to choose from.  Gewurztraminer and Riesling, a few aromatically intense varieties we tasted, may seem powerful up front, but this wine pairs beautifully with spicy foods like Thai, Indian, and seafood-based cuisine.

While the objective of our tasting was not to identify food pairings with Lehigh Valley wines, consumers should be aware of the great care each winery is taking to continuously enhance wine quality. These tastings are a small part of quality control practices for wines made in Pennsylvania, and I hope that this wine trail will continue this practice in the years to come."