Boyd's Cardinal Hollow Winery

Boyd's Cardinal Hollow Winery  West Point, PA

After having spent Sunday with friends wandering around Lambertville, NJ, going to dinner, and staying overnight, it was time to wend our way back home.  At our hotel, the Lambertville Station Inn, we picked up a winery brochure offering some free tastings if you presented it at one of their locations.  Cardinal Hollow has its main winery in West Point, PA, and five satellite tasting rooms in eastern Pennsylvania, with their newest in Jim Thorpe.

We looked at their website: Cardinal Hollow Winery and saw quite a selection of wines, including a Jalapeño Wine and a Jalapeño Wine with Strawberry. (More on these later.)  Since our only planned stop was just inside west Philadelphia, we opted for the main winery and party room on West Point Pike.

We entered the building and were greeted by Renee, who welcomed us and walked us down to the party room/tasting room floor.  We handed her the flyer and began our tastings.  She has incredible people skills, loves a good laugh, kept the tasting lively, and we bantered for most of our visit. Except for a few minutes, we were the only ones in the building.  It was a great afternoon!

Cardinal Hollow does their tastings a bit differently than we had seen before.  They give you the options of as many shot glass measured tastes as you like for $1.00 each, with the exception of two premium selections.

The first premium is a 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve and you get a shot for $5.00.  While that sounds a bit steep, we were blown away by how fantastic the wine was.  At nearly $50.00 per bottle and $15.00 a glass, the wine had a wonderful taste, mild tannins, and a great finish.  Robb mentioned that "at this stage of my life, I don't ever expect that I would pay $50 for a bottle of wine, but, if I did, this would be worth every penny!"

The second premium wine is a Chambourcin Reserve, aged in whiskey barrels, for $2.00 for the shot.  We dutifully tried the regular Chambourcin first, good fruit forward flavors, and it was tasty.  The Reserve kicked it up a notch, with the barrels adding a slight flavor of the whiskey they once held. It's a grape that we really enjoy and the unique taste made it a good buy at $30.00.

The other reds we tried were the Merlot and the Meritage.  The Merlot was not bitter and overbearing like some Merlots, but had a smooth finish. Robb thought the Meritage was a good blend and liked the dry notes.  It had a bit more Sangiovese than I liked, but I still thought it was pretty good. 

Renee also recommended we try the Sauvignon Blanc, a nice crisp citrus flavor, easy on the palate, and a good finish.  We got a bottle of that as well.

One offering you don't often see in a winery is mead, which is a fermented honey drink.  Cardinal Hollow has two:  one is a Whiskey Mead, fermented in whiskey barrels; the other, a Raspberry Mead.  We both tried the Whiskey Mead, and thought it a great flavorful combination.  Where many times, mead can be overly sweet, this one was toned down by the whiskey notes and left a great finish.

Earlier I mentioned the Jalapeño Wine.  She told us there were no grapes, only the peppers, and it was a hit in California.  I actually expected Robb to give it a shot, because he likes spicy stuff, but he passed.  I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it with digestive issues, so I didn't bother to try.  Renee did say it was a popular item for cooking, and I'll have to take her word for it.

All in all, the visit was a great one.  Both of us enjoyed it greatly, and we would go back!