Winery Visit- Chateau Morrisette

My first official winery tour was of the infamous Chateau Morrisette. We went for one of my best friend's birthday and it was a wonderful experience!

Tasting Room

Chateau Morrisette was founded in the 1978 by the Morrisette's. The couple's son, David, was the winemaker who traveled to Mississippi State to learn more about Horticulture. Upon his return, he adopted a black Labrador retriever named Hans, who followed him all around the vineyard. One fun fact about Hans: When he was found in the cellar acting oddly sluggish and tired, David soon realized that Hans was drunk off of the leaking wine from the barrels! Once Hans passed, the Morisette's decided to honor him by placing a picture of a black lab on their label on a blend that wasn't doing well and named it The Black Dog. With this new marketing, the winery saw an increase of 200% in sales for this particular wine. The family also did the same with the next dog they adopted, Blue, and revamped their unsuccessful Riesling and renamed it Our Blue Dog; they saw a 600% increase in sales.

Since we arrived at the winery with about half an hour to spare, my friends and I decided to do the wine tasting before the tour. Below are the ten wines we sampled:

• 2008 Star Dog:  The aroma was full of fresh citrus fruit and the taste was filled with beautiful green apples and kiwi. I really enjoyed how refreshing it was with the carbonation aspect. I will definitely enjoy this wine again. 
• 4 White Grapes: This wine was not a good follow up to the Star Dog. The smell of limes and vanilla were really inviting. However, I think the alcohol overshadowed the flavors of this wine. At 12.5%, I felt like it was a bit much for a white wine as Gary says "it was too hot" for my pleasure. 
• 2012 Vidal Blanc: This wine was very similar to the Star Dog in that it had apple and light fruit flavors. The pineapple aroma just screamed summertime to me. The finish was smooth but I think I would have enjoyed this wine more if I had some food to pair with it
• 2011 Pinot Noir: The cherries were in full force in this wine. This was a lighter Pinot Noir than I am used to and I could tell that it was not too dry due to less skin contact from the skins of the grapes. The finish was smokey and smooth without too much tannins. 
• Chambourcin Reserve: This wine was full of black cherries and an oaky flavor. I really enjoyed it but it would taste a lot better with a big, juicy medium rare steak.
• The Black Dog: This wine wasn't my favorite. It was fruity and full of berry flavors but I did not like the spicy finish. That would be my biggest complaint about red wines. I think I would need to try this again with food. 
• Our Dog Blue: I absolutely love rieslings and this was an excellent one! The flavor exploded with melons and citrus. The acidity and finish was perfect. I could definitely see myself enjoying this wine all summer long.  
• White Muscadine: This wine is definitely meant for beginner wine drinkers. Because my palette has transformed since my early days of sticking to Moscato, I immediately had an aversion to this wine. I felt like I was drinking a liquid jolly rancher or a pink starburst. This wine was too much of a fruit attack for me. However, sweet wines are meant to pair with spicy foods so I would reconsider this wine in that situation.
• Farmhouse Sangria: I've never had a Sangria from a bottle before. I am used to Sangria served in a pitcher with plenty of fresh fruit. However, this wine was absolutely delicious. It was the perfect blend of fruit with a lower alcohol content that would make it perfect for a summertime bbq. 
• Heritage: This was my first high alcoholic wine and wow it was delicious. It is a dessert wine meant for sipping, which I did have to do. This wine was filled with dark chocolate and plum. It had so many levels that I wanted to keep trying more. Most of my friends didn't like it but I would love to go back and buy this wine!

Machine used to crush grapes

 After the tasting, my friends and I proceeded to take a tour of the facility, with a couple of us purchasing a glass to sip while on it. The grapes are usually harvested in October. However, not all of the grapes are grown on-site. The same goes for the fruits that are characteristic to their wines such as the Sweet Mountain Apple and the Blackberry wine. Chateau Morrisette is known for outsourcing their cherries, apples, and blackberries. 

   

Storage barrels for the grapes

Once the grapes are harvested, they are placed into machines for crushing. This machine pictured here is most often used for crushing white grapes. A smaller machine to the right, which is not pictured, is used for crushing red grapes. There is also a third machine that is used to pluck the grapes from the stems, which is still an arduous process in itself.

As we moved through the winery, we also got to see the storage vats where all the wine was fermented. The winery currently produces 28 wines which requires this much storage.The storage vats are made of stainless steel. Here, the grapes are processed into wine and are fermented with yeast.

 After the grapes are crushed, they are moved to barrels for aging. The winery uses three different kinds of oak: American, French, and Hungarian. The cheapest American oak barrel costs $500 while the the cheapest French or Hungarian barrel starts at $1200. Typically, these barrels can get about 3-5 years of life before they are no longer useful to the winery. Before they are used, the are sterilized with Aristocrat vodka. The tour guide also mentioned how a school in Maryland is designing a prototype barrel that would not only last longer, but also be more environmentally friendly. They had one on site but it was broken so I unfortunately did not get a picture of it. The winery is currently waiting on a new model to test out.

Vats used to ferment the wine

When the wine is ready to be bottled, it goes through a machine where it is corked and properly pressurized to avoid any oxidation. The cork is inserted using a machine but the owners preferred that every bottle be foiled by hand. This is a boring and arduous task. The tour guide mentioned that people who are assigned to this task usually get stir crazy after two hours so the staff usually works it in rotation. Once the wine is bottled, they are placed in cases that fit 12 bottles each. Each crate and hold 75 cases and then subsequently shrink wrapped. Chateau Morrisette has employed a new winemaker earlier this year and by 2015, he hopes to have produced 90,000 cases.      

After the tour my friends and I decided to head by to the tasting room to grab a few bottles for ourselves. I bought the Sangria, Our Dog Blue, and was recommended to buy Archival 1. Overall, it was a successful day and a great time trying wines!