Galer Estate’s winning 2018 Albariño wine
EAST MARLBOROUGH — Galer Estate Vineyard & Winery of Kennett Square was recently awarded a coveted Gold Medal at the 2020 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the largest competition of North American wines in the world. Over sixty-five judges, representing various North American wine regions, evaluated nearly 6,700 wines from over 1,000 wineries this year and Galer Estate’s 2018 Albariño was awarded a Gold Medal. In addition, Galer Estate’s 2017 Cabernet Franc and 2018 Red Lion Chardonnay were judged as Silver Medal winners. The vast majority of medal winners were from California, with only a rare few from the East Coast.
Galer Estate’s winning 2018 Albariño wine was 100% grown at its Home Vineyard in Pocopson Township and produced in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks at Galer Estate’s winery in Kennett Square. Galer Estate’s winemaker Virginia Mitchell remarks, “the Galer winemaking team tries to focus on making wines that are varietally correct, interesting and expressive of the grape. The Albariño exhibits bold stone fruit flavors like peaches and nectarines and fruit floral notes like orange blossoms. In order to pull out more of the floral characters of this unique white wine, we carefully choose a specific fermentation yeast and carefully ferment the wine juice under tightly controlled temperature.”
Jan Grimes, viticulturist and manager of Galer Estate vineyards, planted the Albariño vines in 2010; the vinifera varietal Albariño classically has been grown in northwest Spain and Portugal and only recently in the past decade has begun to be planted in the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as California, Oregon and Washington state. Jan Grimes notes “2018 was a difficult year for wine grape growing in Chester County so to counter the rain, cloud cover and humidity, my team paid meticulous attention to the vines in order to allow maximum air flow and sunlight that ensured healthy and ripe fruit.”
In addition, prestigious Silver Medals were awarded to Galer Estate’s 2017 Cabernet Franc and 2018 Red Lion Chardonnay. Grapes from both of these wines are 100% from Galer Estate’s vineyards, the Cabernet Franc, from the Home Vineyard, and the Chardonnay from the Red Lion Vineyard at the winery and tasting room site.
Owners Brad and Lele Galer stated, “Winning 3 prestigious medals once again in the most competitive US wine competition reflects the consistent hard work and dedication our entire Galer Estate team puts forth every year to produce world-class wines from Chester County. Being able to produce the highest quality wines every single year on the east coast with its ever changing weather is a reflection of our expert staff, with the intense and skilled hand-work in the vineyards from Jan Grimes and her crew and the adept and sophisticated winemaking from Virginia Mitchell and Miles Basilia. Once again, cheers to them and we look forward to sharing our prized wines with everyone!”
These wines, the 2018 Albariño, 2018 Red Lion Chardonnay, and 2017 Cabernet Franc, are available now at the winery at 700 Folly Hill Road, Kennett Square. Galer Estate Vineyard and Winery is open every weekend for wine tasting and wine sales, as well as live music, art shows and a popular wine club. All wine is produced on site, in small lots, with the vast majority of grapes for Galer Estate’s wines being grown from one of the two Galer vineyards in Chester County. Nolan Wilks, Galer Estate Tasting Room Manager “is looking forward to serving both those who have a refined palette and can appreciate the depth and uniqueness of our wines, as well as those who have never had a wine tasting and want to learn as much as possible about our wines.”
These latest medals bring the overall medal count to well over 150 awards and medals since the winery’s opening in 2011. Located at 700 Folly Hill Road in Kennett Square, just behind Longwood Gardens, Galer Estate is open every weekend and offers wine tastings, bottles purchases, cheese pairings, live music, and art shows every week. For more information go to www.galerestate.com.
