United States of Wine

Paradise Springs Winery – Norton – 2022

Price: $35

One of America’s native wine grapes is the Norton, first cultivated in Virginia in the 1800s. It thrives in the Virginia climate and soil. I sought out a bottle of Norton wine from a Virginia winery, to taste one of few fully American wines.

We drove through the hills of Northern Virginia, past land that once belonged to Lord Fairfax before the American Revolution. Our sights were set on Paradise Springs Winery in Clifton, Virginia, where a Norton wine is made from grapes entirely grown in the state.

Our initial taste of their 2022 Norton caught us off guard. This wine carried a powerful punch. We decided to take the bottle home, where we waited until the Kentucky Derby to do our official tasting for this blog.

The wine poured in a dark ruby color, which appeared a red violet against direct light.

But the initial scents and sips after allowing the bottle to get air for 30 minutes were difficult to savor. There was a slight musky scent in the middle of an overly flowery fragrant smell. It immediately reminded me of the smell of old motel rooms that used cheap laundry detergent. It was hard to get past the smell to want to take a sip, but sip we did.

Dreading the taste of a wine with hints of Econolodge, I was surprised at the softness of the wine as it first touched my tongue. The softness quickly evaporated to a bright tartness. My tasing partner was surprised that while the wine didn’t smell great, “it doesn’t taste bad.”

I found it hard to describe that initial softness in the wine at the beginning of each sip, as if I was putting fresh tiny marshmallows in my mouth. That tartness, though, felt like sour grapes, and we found that the wine left a filmy feeling in your mouth.

We waited until the bottle had been opened for an hour before getting our second taste. By that point, the wine shifted some. Instead of cheap floral musk, it smelled more like really old wood, like opening an unused cabinet in your grandparents’ house.

The softness had evaporated, and the tartness took over. Luckily, the tartness had smoothed out, making it less sour than in the first glass. It almost became an ‘OK’ wine to drink after that.

When rating this wine, I had to remind myself this 2022 Norton wasn’t a bad version of a French wine, but a fully American wine from a fully American grape. There is no real comparison.

I would note that it’s best to let this wine breathe as long as possible, but make sure to drink all of the wine in the first day. We saved half of the bottle for the following day in the fridge, and by then, it had lost all of its characteristics. It was just harsh, yet bland, red wine.

Score: 5.0