(WASHINGTON, Ill.) — Every year, the owners of Tres Rojas Winery close down shop in the month of January for a little time off and relaxation.
But February 1st, it’s back to the races. And the Washington-based winery is approaching 2024 with a lot of new options!
For starters, the Heart of Illinois Wine Trail is doing a wine and chocolate promotion the weekend of February 3rd-4th. Tres Rojas is offering wine by the glass with truffles made by The Chocolatier, a chocolate shop in Bloomington, Illinois.
Two Glasses/Two Truffles for $21
Milk Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Truffle with Marquette or Resurrection Red
Dark Raspberry Truffle with Marquette Rosé or Traminette
Owner Lisa Barry gave me a sneak peek at the new wine selection for 2024. See below!
For your reference, RS means residual sugar, so you can know how sweet a wine is.
0-0.5 is dry, 1-2%is semi-dry, 3-5% is semi-sweet, and 6%+ is sweet.
“We released our Marquette Rosé – Dry, crisp, very traditional feeling rose. My new favorite, hands down! 0%RS,” Barry says.
This spring Tres Rojas will be bottling the following:
Peach – with 6%RS this will be a sweet wine. “This is the wine we used to make our La X Peach that we brought out in December again,” Barry adds.
Black Dog White “I’m excited about this blend since we’ve run out of Chardonnay – Dry white blend of Seyval Blanc, LaCrosse, and Edelweiss. Evaluated as a lightly oaked wine.” Plus, Lisa and Bob Barry’s dog, Onyx, is pictured on the label. Under 1%RS
Landot Rose (limited release) “Made with our first harvest of the Landot Noir grape – this is a light rose that will be made available to Wine Club members first, then the public. 0.5%RS”
Chancellor “This will also be a dry red. Developed as a hybrid in France, it is almost exclusively grown in the US. It takes to oak nicely, and has blueberry, cedar and plum flavors.”
Dos Vides “This is a dry red blend of our Chancellor and Chelois grapes. Chelois is the grape that gives our 1st Harvest Red its jammy red raspberry flavor, so add that to the fruity Chancellor, this blend is definitely going to be popular.”
New Batches of previous released/popular wines
Vignoles – We got this one back on the shelf in December. It is very close to its previous vintage – same honey finish, medium bodied, green apple and citrus and 1.5%RS
Resurrection Red – We only have 2 cases out on the shelf, so we are bottling another run before we open Feb 1st. 6%RS
1st Harvest Red – This wine went FAST!!! So I’m super excited to get this one 2.5%RS
Leon’s Rose – I love the aroma of our current vintage, but this one – if it can be better – is! 0%RS
Glacial White – Last time Glacial White was on the shelves, Moscato drinkers drank us out of stock on this one. Cayuga grapes have apple, peach, soft pineapple, spiced pear, and citrus aromas/flavors. This will be 6%RS, so a Sweet wine. We don’t grow it in our vineyard, but a grower had extra, so we jumped on it!
Bulldog – We will probably run out of our current vintage before the 2023 is bottled, but it will be coming! 0%RS
Leon Millot – We are decently stocked on Leon, so we should be consistent. 0%RS
Lisa Barry | Co-Owner of Tres Rojas Winery
Tres Rojas is located at 1774 E Cruger Rd, Washington, IL 61571. The Washington winery was my first-ever wine tour article! So it made sense to start off my 2024 wine writings back with the Barrys at Tres Rojas.
Matt Sheehan Official 