BOLTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Up a narrow rural road in rustic Bolton at an early Americana compound a few miles outside Worchester, NASHOBA VALLEY WINERY opened for business in 2004. Besides its estate-type vineyards and olden wood edifices, the winery also brews its own beers in one of its on-site dwellings. Visited post-Thanksgiving 2011, this multi-acre site also features several apple and peach trees plus an exquisite food menu paired with Nashoba Valley’s homemade wine and beer.
Past the weather-shaken gray farmhouse (with back deck) and open-air pavilion right down the beaten dirt path lies a manmade lake and the flag-smitten green ranch that houses the winery and restaurant. Samples of beer and wine were available at the back desk and bottles-to-go were available. I bought five different 22-ounce bottles of each available Nashoba Valley brew (reviewed in Beer Index). For those seeking a provocatively cloistered New England manor with debonair elegance and Old World charm, this vintage hilltop farm is king.
Nashoba Valley’s beers ran the gamut from styptic German-styled Bolt 117 (where citric juniper bittering overruns raw-grained herbal spicing); wavering alcohol-burnt Heron Ale (an OK ESB with singed mineral grains and wood-dried herbal tea respite); tart lemon-soured banana-clove hefeweizen Wattaquadock Wheat; oaken maple syrupy autumnal seasonal Oaktoberfest; vibrant pine-needled grapefruit rind-embittered IPA and viscous mocha-bound hop-charred Imperial Stout. Full reviews of these beers are found at Beer Index.