Aaronap Cellars – Westford, MA

I first met Noel  (Aaronap Cellars Winemaker) at Mill No. 5 during their Sunday Farmer’s Market. While I have always enjoyed a glass of wine here and there, this winery intrigued me because it was local and the wine was very good. My actual first taste of the wine was at a Yoga event at Humanity in downtown Lowell, someone had brought the Revolution Red which was a limited run and the flavors really came together for me.

This is the first wine where I have tried to decipher the flavors  while drinking it and the aromatics for each wine I have had are simply amazing.

Noel agreed to let me come by and see his processes and ask him a few questions on how he came to be in this business, how much the business has grown and what he hopes to accomplish in the future.  (Lucky ME) 🙂

He has been a wine enthusiast for many years, and what started as a hobby bloomed into a full blown wine making business with trips across the country and overseas. Having gone to school in Minnesota and then moving on to California,he really became intrigued when he visited the vineyards and had some pretty great wine over there. As he started collecting more and more wine it came to the point where he had to make a decision. Either start making his own wine or stop this hobby that had somewhat blown out of proportion 🙂

So in roughly 2011 Noel started Aaronap Cellars to create his wines and to share with everyone else his love for wine. With a background as a chemist; coming up with different blends, and going through the processes of fermentation and aging came somewhat easily to him. Though he admits his first wine was not that great, we all obviously now know that stumbling block is a thing of the past.

Producing nine different wines in his micro winery in the basement of his house is no small task, and when tasting each wine you sense that care and time were put carefully into the makings of each one. Right now I am going on five wines that I really like from Aaronap, especially after trying the Rosé today.

What is Rosé? What makes it different than a Red wine? Or even a white? Well Noel broke that down for us by explaining that for Rosé, you crush the grapes, and let the juice extract some of the color, letting it sit on the skins eight hours to three days depending on the grape, soaking on the skins to pull out the color, then press out the skins and let it ferment like you would white wine. His Rosé was beautiful, highlighted by raspberry and strawberry notes with an incredible aromatic. A definite favorite of today.

Noel also cares about being as local as possible with his product. Getting local grapes from winery’s in Rhode Island to getting maple syrup for his dessert wine in New England as well. Having a winemaker who has a locally made products a breath of fresh air especially in an area where these products are having such a boom. He has exceeded his production timeline and is doing so well he is thinking of getting a larger spot to make these wines and also have a tasting room so people can come and enjoy the wines while doing other activities in the area.

Having the opportunity to learn more about wine and the wine-making process was such a treat today. My friend Sarin and I enjoyed every second, from learning  how to make Rosé to labeling and sealing it was such a great experience. I look forward to the day where this will be larger scale and I can visit Noel and his winery to share it with more people in a wonderfull set up tasting room. I wish him all the success in all his endeavors as he continues on this great journey.

Below I have included all his business information and how to buy his wines underneath all the pictures from today. Enjoy!

20160430_130924

Noel pouring the Revolution Red for us to taste.

20160430_131149

With a glass of the Revolution Red, in front of the barrels

20160430_132842

The Amazing Rosé

20160430_134123

The barrels and aging bins

20160430_133641

Barrel free wine, fruitier flavor and good for blending

20160430_133921

Chemistry set up!! 🙂

20160430_133927

20160430_133938

Airlock, thought this was so cool.

20160430_134059

Another shot of this gorgeous Rosé

20160430_134209

The man himself! Noel with the Rosé

20160430_134708

The Labeling machine

20160430_135054

Putting us to work on labeling and sealing

20160430_135106

Hard at work, so much fun. We did  seven cases of wine

20160430_142427

Completed case

20160430_143214

The wines offered, such a great selection

20160430_143231

Details

20160430_143240

20160430_143359

Noel and I, with our favorite wines!

Website here

Facebook Page here

Instagram here

Twitter here

Exploration is equal to Happiness,

Timna

About

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *