When John Williams decided to plant the rare lemberger vine in his vineyard in Yakima, on the dry eastern side of Washington state, it was a brave, pioneering move. Nobody had ever planted it before in his part of the world.
Four years later in 1976, when he had picked the first crop and crushed it, other vintners in the region sniffed the new wine with suspicion. Then they ran out and bought vine clippings. Today, at least 10 wineries of the 100 in the Yakima region are making a lemberger.
One taste, and you can see why. The Kiona version is a fruity red with a lot of bounce. It is like a pleasant burgundy but with a lot more colour and body. Now on sale at shops in the Sheraton and Royal Garden ($220) this very enjoyable and novel wine is imported by Cottage Vineyards (Fax: 2111-9445).
I tasted this with the man who made it. John Williams is a burly, bearded fellow who used to be a nuclear engineer before he decided wine-making was a more pleasant way to earn a living.
'I tasted lemberger in Europe and liked the colour and aroma,' he explained.
'It's unique. So I planted some.
