I have started volunteering as a literacy tutor at Fayetteville Urban Ministry. After a session this morning, I had lunch at Hilltop House, a older, elegant home transformed into a restaurant. They make available a flight of three wines (3-oz. pours) as well as wines by the glass. There are some nice wines on the wine list by bottle but the ones by the glass tend to be more mass market options. With my grilled chicken sandwich Florentine (with spinach, asiago cheese, bacon, tomato and lettuce) I decided on a flight of white wine, rose' and red. Vintages were not noted on the wines by the glass section and I didn't check them out. I had the Sommerpalais Riesling, the Elizabeth Spencer rose' and the Simple Life Pinot Noir.
SOMMERPALAIS RIESLING, M-S-R, GERMANY. This is a product of Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt. It had a nice lemon aspect and was off-dry. I think I would have liked it better if it didn't have a slight sugary edge to it. On web-searcher it is referred to as a Feinherb wine and formerly probably would have been called Halb Trocken or half dry. I think I tend to like my Rieslings either dry or at true Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese, Eiswein level.
ELIZABETH SPENCER ROSE' OF PINOT NOIR, SONOMA COAST, CA. This sells from the winery at $30 and I don't think I would purchase it at that price. It does have some attractiveness however. The winery website mentions nectarine and quince--I would call it closer to watermelon and strawberry. Pretty pinkish color.
SIMPLE LIFE PINOT NOIR, CALIFORNIA. The wine list said Napa; one website says Sonoma Coast, others just say California. This was my favorite of the three wines and at less than $15 a bottle, I would purchase it if avaialble locally. It seems to be on quite a few restaurant lists. It may have 5% Barbera and 5% Tempranillo according to one CellarTracker notation. It was a deeper-colored red than many California Pinots so that may be from the other grape varieties. Cherries are prominent on the nose and palate but it also has attractive clove and cinnamon spices. I enjoyed it.
None of the wines really clashed with the chicken sandwich.
I was glad to see that Hilltop House has added a cheese course (3, 5 or all 8 cheeses) with some interesting selections including Humboldt Fog Chevre, a Danish blue, a Pecorino, Roncal from Spain, Jasper Hill Farms Cabot Clothbound from Vermont, a Kentucky Tomme, etc. Next time I have lunch there I may just go for three or five cheeses (with fig jam, onion jam, etc.)