Before Bellview Winery changed their labels, I put away one of their top fruit wines to age as a study. It’s a wine that should be drunk when you get it, but  they do age and I try to learn from aging experiments.

It was served with a complex salad mixed with nuts, dried cranberries, apple and pear slices and three types of green lettuce. The dressing had no vinegar; just lemon juice and oil. The wine made the evening. It aged beautifully . At eight years old, the color was still cranberry red and smelled of cranberries and sun-dried cherries. 17 points for a salad wine? Yes. This Landisville, New Jersey winery, part of the Outer Coastal Plain,  makes European food-wines and this fruit-based wine was just an example of how high their standards are. In vino veritas.