Offerings from MauiWine as good as they are local

One of the banners being waved in our local food and wine industry is to buy local, and rightfully so. A friend brought up the question of how we could increase our purchase of local food products by 10 percent. Here’s why this question is important: Such an increase could translate to hundreds of millions of dollars that stay in our state economy. And if we do it well, it could help move us toward self-sustainability. It could also help farmers be successful financially. All good things.

This brought to mind a recent Chaine des Rottiseurs (an international food and wine society) dinner at Vino. The group requested that the food be paired with wines from MauiWine (formerly Tedeschi Vineyards). It was an opportunity to support local.

I was astounded to find that this Maui-based winery has been around for 42 years! And, despite the challenges of seemingly endless obstacles, it has almost stubbornly persevered. Consider, for example, that its estate-grown vines do not typically have a dormancy period (sleep time, in vine language) — that would be like staying up 24 hours a day. We need sleep and rest, and so do the vines. That has been just one of countless challenges MauiWine and its leader, Paula Hegele, have worked through for more than four decades.

The winery currently has six grape varieties planted: syrah, malbec and grenache grapes for red wine and viognier, chenin blanc and gewurztraminer for white.

The Chaine des Rottiseurs dinner featured syrah, malbec, grenache, viognier and chenin blanc wines, and I watched as these connoisseurs oohed and aahed with the taste of each.

A couple of weeks later, while on Maui visiting Maui Nui Farms in Kula, I also stopped by MauiWine. Their 23-acre vineyard of various parcels is at a roughly 1,800-foot elevation with rich volcanic soils and an absolutely breathtaking view of Maui’s southwest shore.

On this visit the wine that caught the eye of my party was the pretty, delicious, uplifting pink sparkling wine labeled Lokelani ($28). The grapes come from California, but the wine is aged on the lees (a process the French use to make Champagne) and then bottled on their Ulupalakua site. We were all mesmerized looking through the green bottles at its floating lees, which slowly mature and increase the wine’s complexity. (Lees are sediment: small pieces of leftover yeast and other particles.)

Check out the offerings at MauiWine. If you find something you like, it’s one way to support local.

Chuck Furuya is a master sommelier and a partner in the DK Restaurants group. Follow his blog at chuckfuruya.com.