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The WINE WRITER: George Medovoy
MAUI WINES YIELD A PLEASANT HOLIDAY SURPRISE!
By George Medovoy
MAUI - Maui Splash.
Sounds like the perfect name for a dream vacation, right? Well, yes, but with a surprise.
Maui Splash is a fun-and-zingy
pineapple-and-passion fruit drink produced
by Tedeschi Vineyards right here in less-traveled Upcountry Maui, a blissful
region of green pastureland high above the island's fabled beaches…a place
where Maui's legendary "paniolo" cowboys herd cattle in a setting
reminiscent
of Sonoma County.
A visit to Tedeschi
Vineyards was on our agenda for wine
tasting, mixed in with scenic Upcountry Maui's breathtaking vistas and a picnic
under the winery's 150-year-old Norfolk Pines.
On our drive to the winery, which lies about an
hour away from Maui's
beaches, my wife and I followed a two-lane road that climbs up the side of
mighty Haleakala, which is the largest dormant volcano in the world.
On our way, we were pleasantly surprised to see
the cattle- and
horse-crossing signs, the picturesque, tiny towns, and the occasional
roadside curiosities -- like a storybook stop on the side of the road called
Grandma's Coffee House.
As we got closer to the winery, dark, ominous
clouds began to fill the
mid-morning sky, and we began to worry that it might rain on our visit.
Well, it did rain, but it was only one of those
short-lived, light Maui
showers that we quickly got used to. In a short time, the rain had spent
itself, and the sun began to radiate through the last vestige of clouds,
glistening on the grassy hills bordering the road.
Soon we approached a sign above an old oak barrel
near the road: Tedeschi
Vineyards, and we knew that we had arrived at our destination.
What a wonderful Maui day it turned out to be -
sunny and warm, just
right for touring and picnicking.
It was a day seemingly made especially for us by
the Polynesian god Maui,
who, legend has it, used his superhuman strength to lasso the sun and slow
its progress across the sky, so that humans could enjoy more sunshine.
From our 2,000-foot elevation, we took in
memorable vistas of neighboring
Molokini crater, where boats anchor for snorkeling, and Kahoolawe, which for
many years was called Hawaii's "Target Isle," because of its previous
use as
a practice target by Allied military gunners.
Tedeschi Vineyards sits on spacious grounds
leased from the 20,000-acre
Ulupalakua Cattle Ranch, whose colorful history is worth noting.
In 1856, a retired whaling captain named James
Makee purchased an old
sugar plantation here with more than 1,000 herd of livestock. He named his
new home "Rose Ranch" after his wife Catherine's favorite (and now
official
Maui) flower, the Lokelani Rose.
Makee and his wife transformed Rose Ranch into an
island showplace famed
for its hospitality. Makee himself delighted in welcoming g offshore guests -
who required a whole day simply to get up to the high ground from the
shoreline.
One of the more colorful guests was Hawaii's
"Merrie Monarch," King Kalakaua, who came with his wife Queen
Kapi'olani. During these visits, the
king and the captain would spend lazy days in legendary poker games, drinking
champagne together in complete abandon!
In 1963, the ranch was re-named "Ulupalakua
Ranch," meaning "bread fruit
ripened on the back." The winery was established in 1974, a partnership
between a Californian, Emil Tedeschi, and C. Purdy Erdman of Ulupalakua Ranch.
When we walked into the small, stone tasting room
at the winery, Momi
DeMello of Tedeschi's office staff welcomed us: "Ah, you made it up the
mountain. Welcome to Upcountry Maui. We like it here."
That warm greeting was the prelude to a wonderful
tour of the winery.
One of the first things we learned during this tour was that the winery's
tasting room was long ago - in the 19th century - a jail for unruly cowboys.
"Where the cash register stands," said DeMello, " is the old trap
door to the
dungeon."
But on to wine…
Tedeschi Vineyards cultivates 22 acres of
Carnelian grapes on the cool,
wind-swept slopes of Haleakala, not far from the sunny resort area of Wailea.
Experts from the University of California at Davis Department of Viticulture
and Enology had a hand in developing the winery's grape type.
"UC Davis actually helped us develop a
hybrid that's called Carnelian,"
said DeMello. "We intended to do just champagne, so the grape that is grown
is very high in acid because that's what we wanted for the champagne."
While waiting for the first harvest
to mature, Tedeschi turned
inventive and playful and experimented with pineapple concentrate, developing
Maui Blanc pineapple wine -- a soft, dry wine with a subtle flavor that is
also Tedeschi's most popular product.
"Then, said DeMello, "about two or
three years later, our winemaker
became very creative. He took our pineapple wine and added some passion fruit
to it. It's wonderful."
We found this vintage - called "Maui
Splash" - to be pleasantly fruity,
though not overbearingly so. "You serve it nice and cold," DeMello
advised.
"The colder you can get it, the better."
Two other pineapple products are made here -
Pineapple Sparkling Wine, a
crisp, fruity drink with a fresh pineapple flavor, and Maui Blush, a pale
pink table wine.
The winery also produces two Carnelian wines -
Plantation Red, a very
full-bodied, dry wine aged in oak, and Ulupalakua Red, a much softer table
wine.
There is also a Rose Ranch Cuvee, a light, dry
vintage named after the
Maui rose.
The winery's first grape product, Maui Brut-Blanc
de Noirs 1980, was
served at Ronald Reagan's inauguration.
We enjoyed Maui Brut-Blanc de Noirs with a lovely
fish dish at Raffles
Restaurant in the Renaissance Wailea Resort Hotel. Made with a kind of Maui
red snapper, the dish was called Wok Fried Opakapaka and was served with Thai
Coconut Curry Sauce.
During our drive to the Tedeschi Winery, we liked
the small Upcountry
town of Kula, where Maui's famous protea flowers are grown. Then there was
Makawao, known as "the biggest little town in Upcountry," where
paniolos
still ride their horses down the rustic main street. The façade of this
street is required by law to have an old-west façade.
We actually didn't see any cowboys during our
stop in Makawao, but we did
spot them herding cattle in the fields along the road.
Wherever we went in Upcountry, the Tedeschi
Vineyards was the diamond in
the center of it all - a pleasant place full of good cheer, reflecting the
wonderful flavors of the island!
In California, all of the winery's products are
found at Calistoga Wine
Stop. The Maui Splash and Maui Blanc are also featured at Cost Plus Imports.
For other sales locations in the United States
and abroad or for tour
schedules, call the winery at 1-808-878-6058. The mailing address is:
Tedeschi Vineyards, P.O. 953, Ulupalakua, Maui, Hawaii 96790.
If you plan a picnic, you can stop at the
Ulupalakua Ranch Store for
supplies. Mornings and late afternoons tend to be cool at these elevations,
so bring a sweater.
For information about Raffles Restaurant or the
Renaissance Wailea Beach
Resort, which sits on a prime 15-acre site fronting Maui's beautiful
crescent-shaped beaches, call 1-800-HOTELS-1.
For general information about travel on Maui,
call the Maui Visitors
Bureau, at 1-808-244-3530.
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