Things to do / Travel Guide
The wineries in this southern region are all grouped in Louisiana's panhandle, east of Baton Rouge and north of New Orleans. There are five of them, and they mostly produce Southern wine varieties, such as Muscadine. These are good wines, not mass produced, each winery preparing their wares with passion and care.
A good example of a winery offering the Southern-style wines is Feliciana Cellars Winery. The premises are in a Spanish Mission-style edifice, and the two vineyards are just a few miles down the road. The wines are mostly from the Muscadine grape, such as Dry Carlos, a dry white with aromas of apple. Other nearly-indigenous varieties used in the winery are Blanc du Bois and Norton Cynthiana.
There's one winery in southern Louisiana that does in fact work with mostly the more well-known European varieties. You know, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Zinfandel. This is Pontchartrain Vineyards, founded in the early 90s by a wine enthusiast as good as they get. He set out to prove that Louisiana, which boasts one of North America's most distinctive cuisines, can also excel in winemaking. Did he succeed? It certainly seems so; check out the Criolla Rosso Reserve 1998, a Cabernet Sauvignon, or the Rouge Militaire 2002, a Norton Cynthiana.
The wines at Pontchartrain, and to a lesser extent also at Feliciana, are specially crafted to go well with the Louisiana cuisine, both Creole and Cajun. Perfect for a meal in the French Quarter.
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