GRAPE: Thick-skinned, with small-to-medium berries and large clusters
CROSS OF: Vitis vinifera and Vitis aestivalis
WINE STYLES: Dry red table wine, port, rosé and sparkling rosé
AROMAS/FLAVORS: Blackberry, blueberry, dried fig, baking spices
FOOD PAIRING: As a dry table wine—smoky meats, mushroom dishes and barbecue. As a port-style—chocolate-based desserts, cheesecake and blue cheeses
LENOIR
Dark, hardy and mysterious—this fleshy red is the U.S. Southeast’s perfect armchair wine.
Lenoir is a grape of many names: Black Spanish, Black El Paso, Black July, Blue French, Cigar Box, Favorite, Jacquez, Sherry of the South—and the list goes on, hinging on growing region as well as reflecting subtle genetic differences. A blue-black, thick-skinned red-fleshed grape, Lenoir yields abundantly, grows vigorously and has a superpower: It doesn’t succumb to Pierce’s disease, phylloxera or powdery…
