An Evening of Nortons

Our friends at Virginia Wine Time hosted an evening of Norton tasting. I was (and still am) pretty ignorant when it comes to the Norton grape - going into the evening I thought Norton was the vineyard. We got a little history lesson on the grape, on how it's marketed as a grape native to North America despite evidence that it may be a hybrid of several native varieties and a Mediterranean grape.

Anyway, you don't care about any of this. Here's what we drank and what I thought of it:

Chrysalis 2003 Norton - Locksley Reserve - The winner of the evening as far as I was concerned. Dark berries on the nose and a great finish. It went well with the lamb we had for dinner. I spent most of the evening drinking from this bottle and it certainly got me good and buzzed. The $35 price tag, however, would probably prevent me from ever buying it. Whereas it was good, I've had better wines for cheaper.

Crysalis 2006 Norton - Another solid bottle. A little too much grape on the nose and kind of a fruity taste but it's a good red wine for white wine drinkers. Whereas I didn't rank it high, Robin (a traditional white wine drinker) had it at number 2.

Horton 2004 Norton - Pass. Tasted and smelled like boxed grape juice.

Cooper Vineyards 2004 Norton - I had this one at number 2, Robin had it at number 1. It was also a white wine drinker's red wine but with a slightly better finish and some dried fruits on the nose.

We also had two Zinfandel's for comparison purposes.

Courtney's Angels 2004 Zinfandel - I'm not a big Zin fan, honestly, but I admit it's mainly due to the fact that I never really sought out good Zinfandels. Having said that, I didn't like this wine at all. The bottle design was fantastic, however.

Torre Dei Gesuiti 2006 Primitivo Puglia - Now, I did like this one. The nose, at least, was phenomenal; very strong floral tones. The taste was so-so and having revisited the bottle the next day it certainly didn't seem to sit well at all.