We followed the tracks made by other cars through the grass, driving between the vineyard rows, the usual path to events at this rolling property just outside Covington.
This time, though, the post at the end of each row was topped by an action figure or collectible toy character, tiny little totems that fit the playful mood of the changes here lately.
The vineyards changed to parked rows of mostly SUVs and then we could hear the band playing down by the tasting room.
This was Jazz’n the Vines, a long-running music series that’s back for another season at a vineyard in the early stages of a new and very different chapter.
Wild Bush Farm + Vineyard is the new name for a property that had been known as Pontchartrain Vineyards. In 2022, Monica Bourgeois and Neil Gernon bought the vineyard from founder John Seago, who made the property a destination for Jazz’n the Vines and other events through the course of many years.
For this edition, the Creole String Beans were on the small bandstand, playing swamp pop and R&B tunes driven by a deep baritone sax and lyrics from a Louisiana canon that many know by heart.
One of those was “Morgus the Magnificent,” always in heavy rotation in Louisiana each October. I was getting some Morgus vibes when Gernon and Bourgeois showed us around their “lab,” the workshop of aging tanks and barrels behind the Wild Bush tasting room.
“We’re trying to push the envelope with wines that haven’t existed before, which is like trying to make new music when the Beatles and the Stones have done it all before,” Gernon said. “I don’t always know what’s going to happen next here. But it’s going to be fun.”
A year ago, Wild Bush was in what the winemakers considered Phase 1: getting started, getting new vines in the ground. Phase 3 will be when those vines start making viable fruit for wine. Right now, it’s phase 2.
We’d sample what that means at the tasting room. But first, there was getting here and as usual when I plot a trip beyond the gates and moats of my home in New Orleans, there would be more stops along the way than were technically necessary.
Getting there, half the meal
This trip was a Saturday in mid-September when there was an aspirational aspect of autumn in the air.
The first stop was Madisonville to watch boats and the swing bridge in play along the Tchefuncte River from the split personality complex that is 罢肠丑别蹿耻苍肠迟别’蝉 and the Anchor.
Downstairs, the Anchor is an open-air, all-ages tavern with dockside daiquiris and kids clamoring on playground gear.
Upstairs, 罢肠丑别蹿耻苍肠迟别’蝉 is an opulent, high-end restaurant honeycombed with private dining rooms angling for the view, and nestled with deep, cove-like booths. There’s also a curvaceous bar that makes a good stop for a drop-in visit like this, for some effervescent pink Spanish Txakolina wine by the Tchefuncte.
Just up the road, the next stop was chef Pat Gallagher’s flagship Gallagher’s Grill, already bustling shortly after its 5 p.m. opening.
The glimmer of fall weather had me craving one specialty here in particular, Gallagher’s mixed grill, pairing lamb chops and quail and carrying a campfire edge to the char over the tender meats.
The tasting room, the lab
At the vineyard, with the Creole String Beans playing, all seemed like the old days for this long-running event. Kids toss footballs around, and people tote along camp chairs, and maybe small folding tables. Food trucks provide supper; the tasting room and a garden bar sell bottles and glasses of Wild Bush wine.
Those wines, though, are much different from the old days, and there’s more to come.
Wild Bush is now growing newly released hybrid grapes, developed by the viticulture program at University of California, Davis, specifically to be more disease resistant and better suited to our humid conditions.
These are said to have characteristics of familiar grapes like cabernet and petite sirah, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. Will they yield European-style wines in St. Tammany Parish? It’s still too soon to know, but the new plantings are expected to produce fruit for winemaking next year.
But for now, in their Phase 2, Gernon and Bourgeois are making a mix of flagship wines under the Wild Bush label and a whole slate of experiments. Cue the Morgus music.
‘Special wines’
Most of the Wild Bush wines now in the market are made with grapes from Napa and Oregon’s Willamette Valley, which is trucked to Wild Bush, where it’s finished and bottled. They’re immediately identifiable by their fanciful names and colorful labels.
There’s a cute cartoon Pegasus on the label for “On the Back of a Winged Horse,” a red nero d'avola that’s great with a chill and perfect for pizza.
The Deceptacon is a riesling aged in oak for more body (as if crossed with a chardonnay), and the Baby Why Don’t Wee is a rose that’s dry, but still tastes like strawberries and makes a great appetizer wine, one to go with the cheese plate. A cabernet called Missing You Just the Same is aged in port barrels for a rich, round complexity.
These are all small batch wines, but the experiments here are much smaller, sometimes just a case or two. For one sparkling wine, called Absolutely Cuckoo, honey produced from an apiary by the vineyards provides the sugar to make the bubbles (the secondary fermentation), and the label includes a scratch-and-sniff sticker to give a teaser whiff of its honeyed aroma. A blueberry wine from fruit grown on the property will become a wine later this year.
“I want to make fun wine that’s special,” Gernon said, while inspecting some aging barrels.
“If it’s 100,000 cases of wine, it isn’t special, but what is special is the 27 cases of this pet nat I made,” he said, referring to the type of natural sparkling wine that’s the darling of many younger wine drinkers now.
“It’s letting wine make your feel artistic,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Wild Bush Farm & Vineyard
81250 La. 1082, Bush, (985) 892-9742
Tours and tastings: Thu., Fri. 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., Sun. noon to 4 p.m.
Reservations recommended, group bookings available outside listed tasting room hours.
Upcoming Jazz’n the Vines editions feature the Iguanas on Oct. 5, the Walrus, a Beatles tribute band, on Nov. 2, the Pine Leaf Boys on Nov. 16 and the Krickets on Nov. 23. All shows are 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., with gates open at 5 p.m. Get tickets in advance at wildbushfarmandvineyard.com/jazznthevines.