Brynn writes:
Perennial Vintners’ 2011 Lemberger: This is winemaker Mike Lempriere’s first red wine under his Perennial Vintners label, and what a great way to bring his winery over to the “dark side”.
Lempriere has traditionally made white wines from grapes grown on Bainbridge Island, but the last couple of years of bad weather forced him to branch east of the mountains to get grapes from vineyards that weathered the poor conditions better than his estate vines.
While he’s still making his island-grown whites and raspberry dessert wine, Lempriere has expanded his selection, adding a lemberger.
Sourced from Kiona Vineyards on Red Mountain, Lempriere’s lemberger is made in the old world style. Instead of letting this wine spend time on oak, Lempriere turned it around quickly, producing a fruit-forward young wine that packs a lot of flavor for its light body.
With only 12 percent alcohol the fruitiness of the wine is able to shine, making it a great choice for summer barbecue season.
*This is part of a series of reviews of Bainbridge Island wines recently tried at the Bainbridge Uncorked event, which featured the island’s winemakers.
