The Norton Grape
Our retirement club went wine tasting in Virginia this week. The featured wine was made from the Norton grape, one I had never heard of. It is a native U.S. grape that is not foxy. Have you heard of it?
--Bob Youker, Bethesda, Md.
Norton is one of the most highly regarded of uniquely American grapes. Dr. Daniel Norton developed it in the 1820s on his farm in Richmond, Va. Norton is a full-flavored red wine (sometimes called Cynthiana) that goes well with roasted meats and rich vegetable dishes. Quite a few wineries make Norton, from Horton Vineyards in Virginia to Stone Hill Winery in Missouri (in fact, Norton is the state grape of Missouri). If you see one, it's definitely worth a try. And if you'd like to know a lot more about Norton, check out the research on the Web site of Chateau Z Vineyard ( http://chateau-z.com/ ). For readers who are unfamiliar with the term "foxy," it's often used to describe the way many native American grapes smell and taste, a sort of fruity muskiness. It's hard to describe what "foxy" really means, but if you think about the way Concord grapes smell and taste, that's foxy.