Unveiling the Best Local Missouri Wineries: A Blind Tasting of Norton Wines

One of our first posts was about blinding tasting a certain type of wine. We came back to this concept again when our red wine “expert” Amanda came over to visit. This time we were tasting Norton, also known as Cynthiana. Michael and I got three bottles from three different Missouri wineries: Baltimore Bend, Mallinson, and Van Till.

First some quick facts:

• Norton is the official Missouri state grape

  • In Missouri about 300.5 acres are devoted to the grape, which is about 17.7%

• It is an American grape found in 1835 near Richmond, Virginia

• It is known for its hardiness and disease resistance

Baltimore Bend Vineyard is located in Wavery, Missouri (part of the Kansas City Wine Trail). This winery is named after the bend in the Missouri River where legend suggests a boat called Baltimore sank. Michael and I came here for an event after visiting a different winery the day before. Michael told the performer at the other winery that he’d like to hear John Mellencamp, but the guy said, "I’d need to brush up on it, but, if you come to Baltimore Bend, I’ll play you some." (Editor's note: He did not play any Mellencamp and I'm still bitter.) We did a tasting there and got the 2016 Norton (Yeah, we’ve been hanging onto this guy for awhile since their 2017 was released in Dec 2022).

Mallinson Vineyard & Hall is located in Sugar Creek, Missouri. We had done a blind tasting with them comparing their Norton to Belvoir’s Norton, and thought it was pretty good. This vineyard was once a one room school house alongside the historic Santa Fe, Oregon, and California trails.

Van Till Family Farm Winery is located in Rayville, Missouri (part of Northwest Missouri Wine Trail). This winery is known for their wonderful pizza made via wood fire oven. Their Norton is sometimes forgotten among their other excellent wines such as Chai Spice.

So, knowing a little bit about the wineries we shall begin our tasting with Wine Number One. We described this wine as big with tart red fruit notes. Then we tried Wine Number Two and were like "whoa this is vastly different." It was described as flat, dry tannic, and smooth. Wine Number Three was maybe sweeter than the others and the nose wasn’t as harsh, but there was a touch of tobacco notes.

First thoughts on the tastings as a whole was that though these were Norton, they were surprisingly dissimilar. We also had a harder time describing and picking out the notes and aromas, which may have been from lack of recent experience. In any regard we were able to at least rank them in order of preference.

Amanda – One, Two, Three

Vicky – One, Three, Two

Michael – Two, One, Three

We then decided for fun to see if we could guess which wine was which. We felt Wine Number Two matched our traditional idea of what a Norton tastes like. Since Mallinson brags that this is the best Norton in the state, we figured that it would align with that idea closely. Wine Number Three was the most unusual in our opinion so we didn't think it fit Van Till which we perceive is fairly traditional in style with a little flair. So we decided Baltimore Bend must be Wine Number Three and Wine Number One must be Van Till as the "in-between" option. With our guesses in, we got it correct.

Ranking in order of overall favorite

One – Van Till

Two – Mallinson

Three – Baltimore Bend

Note: Michael really liked 2 so got an extra pour.

We found the Norton blind tasting so different than the Chambourcin and really want to try others. We have plans for a Riesling and a sparkling wine.

References for Facts:

Missouri Wines: https://missouriwine.org/education/learn-the-basics/varietals/norton

Wine Traveler: https://www.winetraveler.com/grape/norton/