This package celebrates Presque Isle's 50 years of great winemaking and leadership in the Pennsylvania Wine Industry with some fascinating special edition wines that showcase the best of our region's varietals and vineyards.  These wines exemplify how far we have come in our first 50 years and where we can go in the next 50.  A perfect gift for any discerning wine lover who knows already or could stand to discover that great wines worth getting to know are being made in Pennsylvania. 

4 Bottle Package:  Includes 1 bottle of Saudade, 1 bottle of Teroldego, 1 bottle of Ancestrale, and 1 bottle of Dornfelder.

Saudade
Saudade (So-dah-jay) is a lovely Brazilian word that means a fond and nostalgic longing for people and things that are absent or gone. For our 50th anniversary year, we created an exquisite and masterful Bordeaux style blend of our best varietals – Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot – selected from three of our best local vineyards. We’ve named this exceptional wine Saudade in honor and fond remembrance of our founder, Doug Moorhead, father of the Pennsylvania wine industry, and of the heady days 50 years ago when it all began for us. Saudade shows just how far we and our grower partners have come.

This old world Bordeaux style wine is the synthesis of 5 decades of tending vines and making wines in the Lake Erie AVA. It is round and exceptionally well-balanced with firm tannins and a multi-layered flavor profile including notes of blackberry, black currant, anise/fennel, tobacco leaf, olive, and subtle vanilla, with medium-full body and a velvety mouth feel with a luscious oak-fruit balance. The color is a lovely deep garnet.  Enjoy with grilled and roasted beef and lamb with garlic and rosemary, veal and venison, steak pies and hearty stews. Also pairs nicely with mushrooms, haricot verts, bacon and eggs, and hard aged cheeses.

Teroldego (91 Points)
Teroldego originates in the cool-climate, mountainous Trentino region of northern Italy. Cultivated in Italy for hundreds of years, it is an exciting new varietal for us that shows real promise in our region's vineyards. Our vintage expresses lovely deep color and robust fruit characteristic of the variety buttressed by a delightful light tannin structure from 11 months aging in new French oak barrels. This exquisite vintage has earned 91 Points and Gold medal at the Eastern International Wine Competition in Santa Rosa, CA and has been selected as Best Pennsylvania Red Wine at Pennsylvania's Top 10 Wines Competition.

Ancestrale Pét-Nat (91 Points and Gold Medal at International Women's Wine Competition  Sonoma, CA)
Ancestrale is the third wine in our 50th Anniversary Series. Traminette, a child of Gewürztraminer, is one of the most successful French Hybrid varieties grown in the Lake Erie Region and has a spicy, fruity character that is perfect for a Pét-Nat style sparkling wine. Honoring the deep roots that both Traminette and Presque Isle Wine Cellars have in the region, this wine is made in the centuries-old Méthode Ancestrale fashion that uses natural yeast and produces a rustic sparkling wine with each bottle having its own personality.  Ancestrale is a delicious and bold expression of Traminette’s clean and bright varietal character..  Serve very well-chilled for your own celebration of the goodness of life with family and friends.

Dornfelder
We’ve added our Dornfelder to the package as a plus-one bonus because Dornfelder is a wonderful wine that we think will play prominently in the next 50 years for our region and it is having its 40th Anniversary this year as a cultivated variety. This vintage was selected one of Pennsylvania's Top 10 Wines.  Our recent Dornfelders have also won many prestigious honors including Top 10 PA Wines in 2020, Double Gold at the 2019 San Francisco Chronicle Competition, and Pennsylvania’s Best Red and a 90 Rating from James Suckling in 2018. This relatively new German variety, not often found on American wine store shelves, grows wonderfully in our region and is a real must-try for all wine adventurers. Our Dornfelder was aged in both French and American oak barrels, boasting hints of rich berries and aromatic spices.  Ending in a pleasant dried-cherry and light tannin finish, this vintage can be enjoyed nicely on its own or paired with game and red meat cuts.