Published: March 31, 2008 01:44 pm      

Wine Time

Area tourists sample 3 wineries

Three wineries were flooded Thursday with tourgoers courtesy of the Spencer Chamber of Commerce.

Gene Clifton and Bill Lehmen of the Canadian River Vineyards and Winery were the first to receive the group of 45 from Midwest City, Oklahoma City, Spencer and Harrah.

Located east of I-35 and just south of Norman in Slaughterville, the winery offered a variety of wines that included merlot, muscat cannelli, chardonnay and riesling

While serving samples of wine to a portion of the group, Clifton commented on the strawberry zinfadel.

“This is our brand new one. We made it at Christmas,” he said.

Lehmen led the tour group around the facilities. The pressure destemmer and horizontal bladder press were two of the important machines involved in the process. The destemmer separates the grapes from their stems and the bladder press separates the skins from the juice.

Lehmen said that the bladder press was so slow that they would need four to keep up with the destemmer.

“It’s the slowest piece of equipment in the process,” he said.

The Canadian River facility only has one bladder press as their cost range is $25,000 to $30,000, Lehmen said.

Grapes are full of sugar and have wild yeast on their skin. Traditionally, the skin is punctured so that the yeast and sugar will mix, Lehmen said. These days, however, most including the Canadian River facility use commercial yeasts. The same grapes can be used with a variety of commercial yeasts to create different wines, Lehmen said.

Oak barrels are used to smooth out the acid and tannins of reds created because the skins are left on while fermenting. The Canadian River facility uses mostly $150 American Oak barrels from Missouri. They have a few French Oak barrels, which cost $975 new, Lehmen said.

Currently the barrels are holding merlot from the 2007 harvest. Lehman said 2007 did not produce the best grapes.

“It’s a roll of the dice every time,” he said.

The winemaker said times are bad for Oklahoma’s wine producers. After getting a law passed by voters to allow the wineries to bypass distributors, the distributors sued and won. Lehmen said the distributors basically have a protected monopoly and that the wineries have lost 60 percent of their sales.

“The sad part is we have to use them [but] they don’t have to carry our product,” Lehmen said.

Midwest City resident Rose Henry said she enjoyed the Canadian River Vineyards and Winery.

“It was very educational. The man was very knowledgeable of his craft,” Henry said. “I’m glad it’s a growing industry in Oklahoma.”

The Valley Vineyards and Winery was the next stop on the tour. A newer winery, Valley had five wines available — a dry red, a sweet red, a rose table wine, a chardonnay and a sweet white. It has been open for about a year and a half.

Tour organizer Mary Hammon noted before the arrival that Hummingbird, the sweet white, was her favorite.

Owner Chauncey Klingensmith said that Lehmen and Clifton were mentors of his and were helping him in his first years.

“I’m just what you’d call an intern to this,” he said.

Klingensmith also commented on why he didn’t have a wine named after the state bird.

“Somebody already used scissortail. I really wanted it,” he said.

The winemaker handled the crowd of 45 like a pro, according to Stan Carter.

“I like that he said, ‘take your cup and step back,’” Carter said.

Carter also liked the hummingbird best.

“I prefer a white wine,” he said.

Tourgoers got a break from winetasting as the bus stopped at the Chickasaw Nation-owned Bedre Fine Chocolate facility in Pauls Valley and then for lunch at Punkins Bar-B-Que and Catfish.

The last winery on the tour was another young one, Legends Vineyard and Winery of Lindsay.

According to winemaker Bob Sirpless, they had to work hard to get ready for the group.

“To be honest we had to label like crazy today to get ready for y’all,” he told them.

With a microphone and a “The Sipwinos” T-shirt, Sirpless gave the most entertaining presentation of a winery Thursday.

Sirpless was likely accustomed to entertaining as the winery hosts regular murder mystery dinners on certain Friday and Saturday evenings of the month.

The winery’s wines all have a minimum alcohol content of 12 percent, Sirpless said. The reason is to avoid the use of too many preservatives.

“At 12 percent, alcohol becomes toxic to bacteria,” Sirpless said.

Wines less than 12 percent often have a higher quantity of potassium sorbate and sulfates, both required additives by law. This set Sirpless off on an explanation of the classifications of wines. Table wines are 7 to 14 percent alcohol. Portwines are 14 to 18 percent alcohol. Port stouts are 18 to 21 percent alcohol. Finally, tawny ports are from 21 to 24 percent alcohol. Above that 24 percent alcohol or 48 proof, it can no longer be called a wine, Sirpless said.

Spencer resident Art Wangler said he enjoyed the goosberry wine and the Boomer Red. He was not as impressed with the muscadine wine as the winemaker (who bragged on it) but did think it was a good wine.

Wangler also liked the Cappuccetto Rosso, a sweet red blend of oak-aged 25 percent merlot and 75 percent cabernet suvignon.

The bus left the Spencer United Methodist Church at 8:30 a.m. and arrived back at around 5:30 p.m.