Fly High Vineyard Honored with Two Silver Medals

Online, August 9, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Fly High Vineyard is proud to announce that its 2009 Barnstormer's Red Tempranillo and its 2009 Windsock White Viognier won silver medals at the 2011 Oregon Wine Awards which was held recently at the Ranier Club in Seattle, Washington. This is only the second year that Fly High Vineyard has been released; therefore, it was very pleased to win two medals.

Fly High Vineyard merged with LongSword Vineyard in 2008. Winemaker and co-owner, Matt Sorensen, sources grapes from both vineyards to create the more than nine wine varietals on Fly High Vineyard/LongSword Vineyard's wine list.

Fly High Vineyard's award-winning Barnstormer's Red Tempranillo has aromas of cherry, plum, berries and vanilla. Sorensen ages this red wine in French Oak for six months, which preserves the natural fruit flavors of the Tempranillo grape. Their wine name is indicative of airplane lingo; Barnstormer meaning a pilot who travels around the country giving exhibits of stunt flying and parachuting.

Fly High Vineyard's Windsock White Viognier crush of 2009 has yielded some of the best tasting Viognier this valley has ever seen. Sorensen finds that the whole cluster pressed and fermented cool in stainless steel rather than oak helps craft a more balanced, fruit-forward wine. The wine label on Fly High Vineyard's Viognier shows the runway and vineyard with a red windsock flapping in the wind. All of Fly High Vineyard's wine labels feature images of flying as co-owner Sandra King and late husband, David
King, an avid pilot, saw a private landing strip on this long, narrow 100 acre farm when they bought it in late 1993. First, David built a large barn for the airplane he was building, as well as the ones he flew on a regular basis. Vineyards in the Applegate Valley were rapidly expanding, so when they discussed what to do with the rest of the farm they decided to plant wine grapes. They planted two acres of Syrah and one acre of Viognier. www[dot]fhlv[dot]net