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Living Local In Vermont – It’s All About Resilience

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Vermont Grapes

Well, it has not felt like Vermont lately, but then neither has the Pacific Northwest felt like the Northwest. Comparatively, we are lucky, and as I write, it is pouring and the temperature inside has dropped from a steamy 86 degrees to a blissful 78 degrees. We don’t tend to get long periods of unbearable heat and humidity here, but we know that it will be back. Mercifully, there is wine– especially sparkling, white and rosé.

Thoughts on Spring from Windham Wines

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Crabapple May 2021

As the leaves unfurl and the grass greens to color our hills and mountains the hue that gives Vermont its name, we have much for which to be grateful. Summer 2021 promises to bring physical reunions with family and friends. That is cause for celebration– and we have some celebratory wines to enhance your festive mood. As always, we have been tasting and have more recommendations below, including rosés. We also have our final two virtual tastings of the winter-spring tasting season before we take our summer break.

Rose and Sparkling Wine Picks from Windham Wines

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Celebrate being social again — now we can open sparkling wines because we can share a bottle with friends!

Cerro la Barca, Ancestral, Extramadura, 2018: $17, organic — We’ve recommended this before and we still find it consistently delicious. Made from a blend of red (Cabernet Sauvignon) and white (Xarel-lo, Macabeu) grapes, hand-harvested, fermented with wild yeasts, a single fermentation that finishes in the bottle (Methode Ancestrale aka Petillant Naturale

Wine Recommendations for Mud Season

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Here are a few more wine recommendations to get you through Vermont mud season. Check out our recent 25 for under $25 article for even more selections (see link below).

Town Meeting Day + Sugaring + Mud Season = Spring is en route to Vermont

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Postal Service Truck Mud Season

The snow has mostly melted, the sap is flowing and our roads are erupting or imploding. Spring is imminent. Just to underscore that eventuality, a quintet of red-winged black birds came by the feeders earlier this week. Welcome back harbingers of spring! But all of you humans who migrated somewhere south, you know better than to return during mud season.

Wines to Celebrate Black History Month

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McBride Sisters

February is Black History Month. We’ve included two wines among our recommendations that are made by black winemakers. The McBride Sisters genesis includes a wild story about two half-sisters, one raised in California, the other in New Zealand, who did not know the other existed. Finally at ages 16 and 25, they met. It’s worth a listen. Mouton Noir is a winery started by André Mack, who began his career at Citicorp Investment Services, then followed his wine passion to become a sommelier, including at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry before being tapped to be head sommelier at Per Se.