When we visited the Eastern Shore in the fall with Frank (from Drink What You Like) and his wife Acada & Paul and Warren(from Virginia Wine Time), one of the topics we spent some time talking about was VA Sparkling wines.  We all thought Virginia had some nice sparkling options, but we all also expressed some frustration with how difficult it was to try them since many are never poured in tasting rooms.  That evening, the seeds of a blind Virginia sparkling wine tasting were sown.  It took a while to find a workable date, set the parameters of the tasting, secure the wines (thanks for help with this Frank), find a venue, and organize a tasting panel.  Everything came together for Saturday, however, and I think it’s fair to say that a good time was had by all.

So, let’s start with a huge thank you to Keswick Vineyards for serving as our hosts.  They were generous to offer up their carriage house as a tasting space.  In addition to providing the venue, Kat Schornberg Barnard rounded up flutes for us to use (a much harder feat than you might expect) and generally served as a go to resource person in the days proceeding the tasting as well as on the day of the tasting.  I also want to thank everyone who attended/tasted.  In addition to Frank (and Acada – who wasn’t drinking but was an invaluable help in blinding all the wines), Paul, Warren, Grape Envy Guy and myself, we had a wide array of other VA bloggers/writers in the room.  We were joined by Stephen Barnard (Keswick’s winemaker and a recent addition to the blogging scene), John Witherspoon (owner of The Wine Cellar and a blogger at Anything Wine), Richard Leahy (from Richard Leahy’s Wine Report), John Hagarty (from Hagarty on Wine) and his wife Jean, Joel Timmins (from the Virginia Wine Examiner), and Rick Collier and Nancy Bauer (from Virginia Wine In My Pocket – although only Rick was part of the formal tasting).  It was amazing to be part of such a crowd, and it was wonderful to spend the afternoon with so many outspoken advocates for Virginia Wine as we shared this unique experience.

Are you curious about the wines yet… Here’s how we decided what made the tasting.  First, I did my best to identify every winery in VA making a sparkling wine – if I missed any, I’m sure you’ll let us know.  We found that the sparklers seemed to fall into 3 categories: traditional white wines, rosé wines, and sparkling viogniers.  We decided that the two sparkling viogniers (Horton [$25] and Paradise Springs [$43]) we knew of in the state wouldn’t fit in well in a chardonnay heavy tasting, so they were left out.  We also decided to leave out the pink wines this time around.  The 4 we know of are all very diverse, so we weren’t sure how fair it would be to put them all in a line up together: Kluge [approximately $20], Veritas [$30], Potomac Point [price unknown], and Thibaut-Jannison [approx. $35].  This left us with 12 wines we could identify as meeting our criteria; 10 of these were included in the final tasting.  The two wines we didn’t include were the Old House Vineyards Petillante ($35) because it’s sold out and the Athena Vineyards Brut ($30) because none of us could get to the Northern Neck to pick up a bottle from the winery.  The remaining 10 VA sparklings were joined by a California and a French bottle that Frank had received as samples.  I’ll detail each below.

As a final preliminary detail, we kept the scoring really simple.  For the wine experts in the room who wanted to use a formal scoring system, they were welcome to, but all we asked was that people rank order the wines at the end.  This was harder than it sounds, however, since we tasted the wines in 3 flights of 4 (that pesky lack of glasses issue), but everyone managed the difficulty in a good natured way.  I’ll take you through the wines in the way we unblinded them – from our least favorite to our most favorite.  At the end of the day, however, the winner was Virginia Wine.

The 12th place wine was the Chateau Gaillard Cuvee Charlotte Voyant from Touraine, France[sample provided to Frank – retails for around $20], a blend of 70% chenin blanc and 30% chardonnay.  This one was also my least favorite wine.  I had a hard time getting past my dislike of this wine to focus on specific elements of the wine.  My notes included impression of negative floral notes and burned fruit along with notes I wasn’t willing to spend the time needed to label.

The 11th place wine was the Ingleside Vineyards Virginia Brut [$35, but sold to Frank at the wholesale rate plus shipping].  Again, my ranking matched that of the group.  The nose on this wine was really off putting to me.  There was a hint of floral on the nose that I wasn’t loving, but it was the somewhat cooked apple flavors in the wine (think apple sauce) that I really couldn’t deal with.

In 10th place was the Potomac Point Winery ’06 Brut [$40, but provided to Frank as a sample].  I found it far easier to rank my most and least favorites, while the mid-pack ones all ran together.  This one ended up in 7th place on my list.  It offered pear and bright apple flavors with a hint of yeasty bread on the finish, but it was a bit too fruity for me, and all this fruit led to me perceiving it as sweeter – something I don’t care for in my bubbly.  It wasn’t exactly a bad wine, but once the wine (and therefore price) were revealed, it was clear I’d never pay that much for this wine.

The Barboursville Vineyards Brut [$18] ended up in 9th place overall and 6th on my sheet.  The wine is a blend of 90% pinot noir and 10% chard.  This wine didn’t offer the most refined bubble structure of those sampled, but it had a nice blend of floral and pear notes on the nose and pear and yeast on the palate.  I didn’t love this wine, but I found it solid.  At $18 it’s a fairly good buy (but wait until you see the winner…)

In 8th place was the King Family Vineyards Blanc de Blanc Brut [$30] – 10th on my list.  This was one of the wines where I noticed a slightly coarser bubble structure (something I typically only take note of if the bubbles are either large or inactive).  Personally, I didn’t care for the perfumey floral notes in this wine, and I was really turned off by the vanilla I was noting on the palate.  This was the first time I’ve been able to sample this wine, and I think it’s just not the one for me.

The surprise of the day was probably the 7th place wine: the Thibaut-Jannison blanc de chardonnay [$27-$32].  I ranked it as my second favorite because of the bready/yeasty notes I so enjoy in a sparkling wine, but many in the room were surprised by how low it ranked overall.  In addition to the yeasty notes, there were some nice floral notes on the nose.  There were also the expected notes of apple and pear, but I would have loved just a bit more acid.

The Barefoot Bubbly Brut Cuvee Champagne (from CA) ranked in 6th place overall and 3rd on my tasting sheet [a sample provided to frank – retails for around $10].  This wine immediately stood out as being different, and I assumed it was not chardonnay, but some web research during the Superbowl (I am so not a football fan) indicates that I was wrong about that.  This is not a traditional champagne-style sparkling, but it was a lot of fun, and I could see myself picking up the occasional bottle when I’m looking for something different given the price point – I noted honeysuckle, pear and mango.  I was correct that it was the Barefoot and the novelty factor of the distinct flavor profile may have led me to give this a higher ranking.

We had a perfect tie for 4th/5th place.  The first of these wines was the ’07 Kluge SP Blanc de Blanc Brut [approx. $24].  I wasn’t a huge fan of this one, and when I ranked my mid-pack wines, this one ended up in 8th place.  I got a very fruity nose and some floral and apple on the palate.  Given my love of yeast, I’m unsurprised that this wine wasn’t working for me.  It also offered a shorter finish, and I just found myself wanting more.

The other 4th/5th place wine was the Veritas Vineyards Scintilla [$30], a 50/50 blend of chard and cab franc with no skin contact.  I was right in line with the group on this one as I also ranked it 4th.  The bubbles in this wine were a bit coarser than in some others sampled.  It did offer the yeasty and pear flavors I enjoy, but this one also offered some toasted nuttiness/caramel notes.  Those were not my favorite aspect of this wine, but it was enjoyable overall.

The Afton Mountain Vineyards ’06 Tete De Cuvee (a blend of pinot noir and chard) was the 3rd place wine [$30], although it ranked 9th on my list.  As with the Scintilla, the bubbles in this wine were a bit coarser, but there was a hint of something on the nose that wasn’t working for me.  Some tasters more knowledgeable than I suggested that this wine might be showing some signs of oxidation.  I was getting very floral notes and a lot of fruit on the palate, but it wasn’t as crisp or yeasty as I like.  I’ve had this wine in the past and enjoyed it far more, so we may have had a bottle that was showing some signs of oxidation.  It’s also an ’06 vintage wine, so it might also just be at a drink now stage…it’s hard to say.

In 2nd place was the Prince Michel sparkling wine [$30].  This wine was 5th in my tasting, and may well have ranked higher had I spent a bit more time with it before the bubbles started to dissipate as the lack of carbonation was one of the factors that caused me to rate this wine lower overall, since it had the yeasty apple/pear flavor profile I so enjoy.  I did correctly identify this as a Claude Thibaut wine, however (but more on this in a minute).

Finally, the winner of the day was the Virginia Fizz (all chard) from Thibaut-Jannison Winery [$21-$25]; this was also my hand down favorite wine.  I’ve told people in the past that I prefer the T-J flagship brut, but I need to make sure I don’t overlook the value of this wine in the future.  It didn’t just show well, it really impressed.  I plan to pick up some of this wine to keep on hand as soon a I can.  This wine offered a wonderful balance of fruit, floral, and yeast notes along with a nice hit of acid.  I noted that this was exactly what I look for in a sparkler in my tasting notes.

At the end of the day it’s clear that VA sparkling wines have a lot to offer.  As with all wines, however, not all bottles will be the same.  Acid is a very important component of sparkling wine, and when the weather is too hot, the grapes get very ripe (something not ideal for bubbly) and the acid balance can suffer, and a number of tasters were commenting on the desire for more acid in a few of the sampled wines.  I don’t think it would be hard for local wine lovers to find a bottle of VA bubbly to pop when celebrating a special occasion (or making an occasion special).

As a final note, I think it’s really important to mention the role Claude Thibaut is playing in the VA sparkling wine effort.  He made/consulted on 6 of the 10 VA sparklers in this tasting (T-J blanc de chardonnay, Fizz, Veritas, King Family, Afton, and Prince Michel).  We’ve been fortunate enough to meet him at a few tastings and talk with him about his passion for sparkling wine (and sparkling wine in Virginia), and he’s clearly doing a great job of showing us what’s possible in the state!