Show-Me Superstar

Versatile Vignoles Grabs Governor's Cup For Stone Hill

By Kathy Casteel

The dedicated vintners at Stone Hill are in love with Vignoles — so much so that it is the Hermann winery's most widely planted varietal. Their slavish devotion to the temperamental grape was rewarded last month when Stone Hill's 2009 Vignoles won the Governor's Cup at this year's Missouri Wine Competition. The winery also won Best in Class awards for three additional wines containing the Vignoles grape.
The Governor's Cup winner is a somewhat sweet white wine with a fruity, floral aroma and flavors of pineapple and apricot. A hint of citrus gives it a clean finish. With a residual sugar level that's just slightly sweeter than its semisweet cellar mates, this wine pairs well with spicy Asian or Mexican entrées. Its versatility can take Vignoles through an entire meal — as a pre-dinner cocktail and as a sipping companion to a light dessert course of fresh fruit or raspberry cheesecake.
The Vignoles (VEEN-yole) grape is a French-American hybrid, produced by J.F. Ravat in the 1920s from a cross of Seibel and Pinot de Corton. Named for a village in the Burgundy region of France, the grape made its way to American vineyards in 1949. It thrives in New York's Finger Lakes region and along the Missouri River.
More than one-fourth of Stone Hill's vineyard acreage is in Vignoles; the winery produces three styles from the grape — dry, sweet and a late-harvest dessert wine — and utilizes it in a semisweet blend as well.
"Vignoles is a sweet grape," says Thomas Held, director of sales and advertising for Stone Hill Winery. "You can adjust the sugar level by modifying the length of fermentation, or adding back some reserved juice."
For Stone Hill General Manager Jon Held, the Governor's Cup for the 2009 Vignoles was a sweet victory.
"This is a hard grape to grow," he says, "and 2009 was a challenging year."
The tight clusters of the Vignoles grape leave it susceptible to rot in rainy weather or high humidity, conditions that Mother Nature dished out to Missouri in abundance last year. Exuberant canopy growth required targeted pruning and canopy adjustments to ensure the grapes received the proper sunlight.
"A wet year separates the men from the boys," Jon Held says. "We have a lot of technical experience to deal with such conditions."
Technique in the vineyard translates to tastiness in the glass for this versatile grape that is quickly getting a reputation as "the jewel of Missouri white wines."

The balance of sugar and acid in Vignoles often invites comparison to German Riesling.