On October 6, 2012, Cheri, myself and our son Alex stopped by Stonington Vineyards for a tasting. We’ve been visiting this winery since 1998. I interviewed the owner, Nick Smith, back in 1998 for my Study of the England Wine Industry, my major MBA project. Nick was very gracious and talked with me for a while, sharing a lot of information about what had driven him to take up wine making. We’ve been buying their whites, and an occasional red, for over a decade and are one of the early members of their Cellar Society case club. It’s also a beautiful spot for a picnic and they do an excellent Spring and Fall festival.
Here’s a picture from their website, http://www.stoningtonvineyards.com/
We have to sat this tasting was not great. The wine tasting area was a little crowded on a beautiful fall afternoon and the girls working were hustling. What this evolved into was a quick pour and a monotonic recital of some facts about the wine, usually while looking at someone else. It was pushed along very quickly as well, all coming off as very unfriendly. This is not usually the atmosphere we’ve encountered there. In the end it’s all about the wines though, and they too left something to be desired. We’ve found Stonington, like any winery, varies from year to year but maybe a little more here. Anyway – here are the notes.
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