Pennsylvania - Lewisburg - Fero Vineyards and Winery

Fero Vineyards and Winery - January 2020 - We were at the PA Farm Show and since we have not returned to the winery, we decided to taste what they brought. The Riesling had a light grapefruit aroma with a slight acidic finish while the Gruner Veltliner had lemon rind and peach aromas with a smoother acidic finish. The Estate Lemberger was earthy with a mild tannic, caramel finish. The dry Sparkling Rose was light on flavor and very brut while the Pink Bubbly was not as sweet as expected. The Chocolate wine has the bitterness of the chocolate balancing the grape sweetness and the Berry wine was like eating fresh reaspberries.

January 2018 - While attending the PA Farm Show, we stopped to taste their limited available wines. The bubbly blush, their Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris blend, was a nice change of pace, and more brut than I expected.The bubbly Riesling was slightly sweet with the effervescence taming the sweetness. Their Chocolate was a nice blend of Lemberger and Pinot Noir with the right hint of dark cocoa. The late harvest Riesling was not as sweet and was well-balanced from a sweet-acid perspective. The Saperavi had dark fruit flavors and good body.

August 2016 It was a busy day while we were here. The tasting host greeted us and started us off at the overflow tasting bar; it was the employee entrance to the tasting bar, a flip down door which made an impromptu low tasting bar. She explained the tasting policies and got us glasses. After she helped customers choose and pay for their purchases, we were the only ones left in the tasting room so they were able to move to the higher bar.

I decided to try the three Rieslings, two pinot noir, two lemberger and the saperavi. I started off with the dry Riesling, a silver medal winner which was fruity on the nose, but a crisp finish. I asked to try the other two Rieslings before going to the red wines. The semi-dry Riesling had better fruit notes and a slight sweet finish. The third one, the late harvest Riesling, was sweet, but not the syrupy sweetness you sometimes find with dessert wines. The semi-dry was the best overall of the three.

After eating a few crackers, I went onto the reds wines. The 2013 pinot noir was lightly oaked, but the 2014 reserve pinot noir had more body and flavor. Lemberger is not a grape seen too much so I enjoyed the contrast between the 1812 Lemberger, named so because the farm has been in the family name since that year and Lemberger is a grape variety that grows well in the region, and the estate Lemberger; the estate was more balanced. My last was the saperavi, which reminded me of petit verdot, dark and rich in color.

My wife started with the sweet blush, similar to a white zinfandel, but not as dry, made from apples, which at first didn’t seem like it would be good, but the finish reminds you of biting into the apple and getting the right amount of skin mixed in with your fruit. The Niagara was sweet and their sweet red, a sweetened blend of their red grapes, was also palatable. The chocolate wine was a bit different than normal as the chocolate flavor flowed like a candy bar versus infusion, but it was the cherry wine that really stood out. Although a blend of Lemberger and deChaunac with cherry flavor, it was not cherry pie flavor, but cherry off the tree flavor; just right. The berry berry, a mixture of raspberry, blackberries and strawberries, was a different type of wine, the individual flavors got lost. My wife finished with the late harvest Riesling, which she enjoyed.