Nouveau Weekend Kicks Off at Local Wineries

Beginning Nov. 19 and 20, the eight wineries along the will be celebrating Nouveau Weekend, an event that allows guests to sample the first vintages of the new harvest.

Wineries in Bangor, Nazareth and Andreas will all be participating in Nouveau Weekend, but Upper Macungie wine lovers can find celebrations a little closer to home at and , located only minutes apart in Breinigsville.

Both wineries will release their nouveau wines today, and offer wine pairings and samplings throughout the weekend. For nouveau novices, nouveau wines are red wines that are light, fruity and semi-dry to dry.

Clover Hill will introduce its new Boysenberry wine, a red wine that combines grapes and boysenberries to deliver a sweet, crisp taste. In addition, Sorrelli Jewelry of Kutztown will be onsite at the winery on Saturday and Sunday for a trunk show, and will be offering 10 percent off jewelry during the event.

Vynecrest Winery will unveil their Nouveau Beaujolais 2011 wine, made from the Gamay Beaujolais grape. The new wine will be paired with the Hereford Country Store Provencal basil dip and Rip Rap artisan whole grain crackers. On Saturday, the winery will also host Andy Warren and Dan Harakal in Vyneskeller from 1-4:30 p.m. for live entertainment.

This weekend, all eight wineries will also begin selling passports for the wine trail’s annual . Every weekend in March, all nine wineries offer exclusive food and wine pairings to passport holders, and participants are entered into a drawing for dozens of prizes and will receive a complimentary gift just for signing up for the program.

“The passport program is a biggie,” said Jan Landis, co-owner of Vynecrest. “We do sell them in a limited quantity, and we only get 200. They go very quickly.”