EPISODE # 9 HORTON CELLARS SHARON & SHANNON HORTON

Fine Wine Confidential Podcast

If it were not for Dennis & Sharon Horton Virginia may have never come to know and enjoy it's native grape Norton once again. Let me quote a passage from Todd Kilman book The Wild Vine to set the stage for this Episode.
Dennis Horton rang up Jon Held at Stone Hill Winery in the fall of 1988 and requested a shipment of vines, (Norton), laying the foundation for his new vineyard in Orange, Virginia. He buried the borrowed roots in the soil that spring, eight acres' worth of Norton--the first planting of the grape in Virginia since Repeal.
Folks that says it all. The rest is history. It wasn't long after that it became known as "Horton Norton" in the marketplace. I have recently had bottles of Norton produced by Horton from as far back as 2002 and more recently 2010 that reminded me of the BV Private Reserve from Rutherford from the mid '70s. it is a grape/wine that needs to be decanted when young but, when given proper bottle aging, which was the practice early in my career that we did for all of the Classified Growth Bordeaux, the wine evolves into an amazing and subtle array of aromas, and deep flavors, again reminiscent of fine Bordeaux style wines from the '70s.
Listen to Sharon and Shannon recant the history of Norton in their family or read the transcript. You will enjoy this Episode, I guarantee you.

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