Long-Dead Postmaster General Possesses Winemaker to Deliver the Goods

As we made our new to us winery tour through parts of NoVa, one of our planned stops was Capitol Vineyards.  I’d heard some internet buzz when they first opened in the late spring as the owners are quite young (twenty somethings, if I remember correctly) and have no winery experience.  I’d also heard about the small, historic, former general store that was serving as the tasting room.  I didn’t remember anything particular about their wines, although I was pretty sure that Michael Shaps was serving as their consultant/winemaker.

The lack of buzz about the wines didn’t excite me, but I know enough to taste the wines and arrive at my own conclusions, so we ambled in to the small, tightly packed tasting room and hoped for the best.  Everyone else in the tasting room seemed to have a Groupon coupon with them which entitled them to a special food and wine pairing tasting (at $20 a person, we weren’t biting).  The one woman working could not keep up, and it definitely didn’t make me want to come back any time soon.  Plus, had I paid $20 for this pairing, I would have been unhappy as it seemed like a Costco sample platter.  I noted some spinach dip, a mini quiche, a brownie bite, etc.

This pic was taken at the end of our tasting when most of the Grouponers had cleared out

Once some clean glasses were located and our pourer had time to make it to our side of the room, we began the tasting with the ’09 traminette ($21).  It offered some spice on the nose along with some citrus and a ton of citrus on the palate.  This wasn’t a wonderful example, but some floral and spice notes both came out as I warmed the too cold wine with hands around my glass.

We then moved on to the reds with the ’09 cab sauv ($23).  Honestly, I worry when a cab sauv is the first red I’m served.  This was a fairly light wine (for a cab), and the oak was more noticeable than I’d like, but there were some nice plum notes.  It wasn’t a bad wine, but it wasn’t great.  We then moved on to the ’09 cab franc ($23), a wine I liked better than the cab sauv.  This is what you’d expect from a cab franc: cherry, black pepper, and some smokey tobacco notes on the finish.  Again, not a rockstar, but fine.

The ’09 merlot ($23) was next.  It had a lot of cherry/berry flavors with some oak and acid on the finish that made me want to put this wine with food – maybe a light beef dish.  The final wine was the ’09 Meritage ($25), a blend of roughly even parts of cab sauv, cab frac, and merlot.  I think this was their strongest offering.  I noted earthy, red fruit (mostly cherry) flavors with a nice acid/oak balance.  I still wasn’t feeling this wine at this price, but it’s definitely the one I’d want to revisit.

The wines here are all fine, but they’re generic.  I don’t really want generic, and if I do, I can get that cheaper at other VA wineries.  This is one of the downsides of custom crush and winemakers who consult for many different people – the wines stop being distinct.  I also don’t think the daily deal site coupons are the friend of a business this new and this small.  They don’t have the staff or space to handle this volume of people, they probably can’t handle the lost revenue of the discount (say the deal was for 50% off, and many sites then take 50% of what people pay), and corners end up being cut (the options for the food pairing and the interaction with customers).  Plus, few people who buy these deals seem to convert into regular/repeat customers.

I always pull for new wineries to make it, but they’ve got to get the service dialed in if they want it to work.  They also need to find ways to make their wines show well and as distinct…unfortunately, this is a problem a number of wineries are starting to run into.

 

Maggie’s Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard

We were out and about on the wine trail, sampling the Bacchanalian delights of the Old Dominion. Okay, maybe we were trying wines that weren’t thrilling us. Whatever the case, I said “Dagburnit, we’re headin’ for something good.” When I’m frustrated, I talk like a grizzled prospector. So we pointed the Winery Assault Vehicle at Delaplane Cellars, knowing that on this day they were doing the “Maggie’s Back in Town” Viognier tasting ($3 a person).

Holy crap they were busy! For the first time ever, we saw cars parked all the way down the hill and people making the climb to the tasting room. Screw that. Zippy the Wonder Buggy isn’t THAT big, and I managed to finagle into a spot near the door. We walked in and owner Jim Dolphin and a few others were as busy as the proverbial one legged man at a butt-kicking competition. We waved and waited for a spot to clear at the bar. In the meantime, we grooved to arguably one of the best musicians we’ve heard at a winery. His name is Gary Smallwood, and if you see he’s going to be at a winery you should check him out.

The first wine we sampled was the 2009 LoCo Vino ($18). I got an orangey citrus nose and creamy oak on the palate. Both the style and the price make this a very approachable, everyday Viognier. It’s not as complex and nuanced as the other two, but it’s still quite nice. Next up was the 2008 Maggie’s Viognier ($22). Everything was well integrated – the oak, the fruit – and there was a pleasant floral character as well. The special tasting finished with the 2010 Maggie’s Viognier ($24). Ok, so imagine your friend Doug has a precocious 5 year old who is cute and can play amazing Eddie Van Halen riffs on the guitar while reciting the first 400 digits of Pi, but he is also one of those bug-eyed alien looking kids and has some bad behavior. That was this wine at the Twitter tasting we did back in July. Now imagine that magically, the next time you come over the kid has magically grown up and turned into Sean Connery as James Bond. Yeah. It’s like that. The oak and alcohol are balanced and integrated, and while the sweetness is a little more pronounced it all just works. It’s almost all growed up.

As we were glancing at the tasting list we noticed a red wine that we hadn’t tried yet, the 2009 Williams Gap ($30). This is a blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 27% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 11% Petit Verdot. This was a soft, deep red wine that is drinkable now and will lay down as well.

Since we were now in a good mood, we bought a platter of cheeses, chutney, and summer sausage and hung out on the patio with a bottle of the LoCo viggy. With that, a rough day was saved and I spent an enjoyable hour with an amazing woman. Not too shabby!

(And if you couldn’t guess by the title, I wrote this post while watching VH1’s “Top 100 Songs of the ’00s”. Here’s some nostalgia for you.)

 

 

Breaking News: There is No Plane at Of the Plane Cellars

Since our happy accident of pulling up their driveway on their first weekend open, we’ve enjoyed the wines on offer at Delaplane Cellars. You may recall the recent Twitter tasting, after which I developed a thing for the Maggie’s Viognier. I’d sing some Rod Stewart to that viggy. Ah, Maggie. “And in the morning, you kicked me in the head”. Not that I over-imbibed or anything. Anyhow. After some chatting on Twitter, we set a time to meet owner Jim Dolphin and take a tour and tasting at the winery.

We introduced ourselves to Jim, exchanged pleasantries, and headed to a clear section of the bar to taste. The first wine was the 2009 Honah Lee Viognier ($23). I got a nose of tropical and citrus, with fruit and vanilla, creme brulee notes on the palate. This wine is 100% Viognier from Honah Lee Vineyards in Orange, VA. The 2008 Maggie’s Viognier ($22) was next. This is another vineyard designate wine, and it saw more oak than the Honah Lee. Time has been good to it, and the oak has integrated nicely. Honeysuckle is a spot on descriptor for this wine.

The 2010 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay ($26) was next, 0.6% residual sugar with partial malolactic fermentation and mostly neutral oak. This wine had apple and creamy vanilla going on, with the hint of sweetness balancing nicely. We were surprised to learn that this clocked in at a whopping 15.1% alcohol (such was 2010), but served chilled, as it was, it didn’t come across as harsh.

We tasted a couple of wines that were not on the tasting sheet, as they’re running low. We actually tasted them at the end, but I’m going to slide them in here where they make sense. The 2010 Melange was a blend of 62% Chardonnay, 27% Honah Lee Viognier, and 11% Petit Manseng from Delaplane’s own vines. It was crisp and bright and showed nice fruit character and a little minerality. Rockstar? Hard telling. It was a little too cold to get a lot of complexity from it so I can’t say if it’s that complex, but it’s certainly drinkable.

We also tasted the 2010 Rose, a blend of 25% Syrah, 26% Cabernet Franc, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 34% Merlot with 0.9% residual sugar. This wine had a load of berry up front and did end with some alcohol, which belied the 14% ABV. It wasn’t off-putting, but it was present and made me think that this could be a dangerous wine if you opted to have it as a grown-up picnic or outdoor dining wine. Hide the lawn darts or little Billy will never be able to keep a hat on straight, is all I’m saying.

The reds kicked off with the 2009 Benevino Cabernet Franc ($28), 100% varietal cab franc aged in neutral and re-cooped French and American oak (per the tasting notes). This wine had a huge nose, with the cherry notes I would expect from a cab franc but also some surprising graphite and forest floor. It was smooth on the palate and the tannins, while present, were already softened. The reds concluded with the 2009 Springlot ($32), a blend of 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Cabernet Franc, 11% Merlot, and 7% Petit Verdot. It’s a big red that could use time to soften and come together, but even now it’s drinking well – crazy deep color, lots of fruit, and a pleasant oak influence.

But wait, there’s more! Jim pulled out a sample of the 2010 Bordeaux blend made from all estate fruit. This sneak peek is 50% Merlot, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 17% Cabernet Franc. Obviously it’s not ready for primetime yet, but it’s already shaping up to be a very intriguing wine.

Jim Dolphin, owner & winemaker

After our tasting, Jim took us on a tour of the building and we talked about his journey to wine. The production part of the facility is well planned and well equipped; sadly I still have yet to encounter Oompah-Loompahs at any Virginia wineries. Someone is using the little buggers, I guarantee it, but not Jim Dolphin. We headed back upstairs and then went up to the loft area. This will eventually be reserved for case club members, and it’s very stylishly appointed. The light-colored carpet terrifies me a little, but then I could ruin chinos in a clean room. Maybe I’ll just stay downstairs.

They’re making some nice wines here. In talking to Jim we learned that he had a long and abiding love of wine well before deciding to open a winery, he honed his craft by working with The Jim Law (of Linden Vineyards, duh), and he’s actively working to make better and better wines. No Oompah-Loompahs and no planes here, but definitely wines worth checking out.

 

 

 

 

Who Knew They Were New(ish)

Miracle Valley Vineyard is right off of 66.  We’ve driven by signs for it many times on our way to and from other wineries (or non-wine related activities – sometimes we’re not sampling VA wine).  Given that we’d heard next to nothing about them, we assumed that they’d been around for a while and were just a bit overshadowed by some of the bigger players in the neighborhood.  The cherub logo that has a bit of an 80s feel to it didn’t really help matters either.  Turns out we were wrong, however.  They’re a small family operation that’s only been open for a few years.  Once we’d been filled in on a bit of the history, we were ready to taste their current offerings.

We began with the ’08 steel aged chardonnay ($17).  it had a nice crisp grapefruit nose, but the bright crisp citrus notes didn’t carry through cleanly to the palate.  The flavors were a bit muted and muddy.  The ’08 reserve chard ($21) was up next.  This was aged in oak for 9 months and had a light oak nose.  Both apple and oak came through on the palate.  It’s not for me, but I did appreciate that it wasn’t a crazy butter bomb.  We then moved to reds with the ’07 merlot ($22).  This was probably my favorite of their wines.  It had a hint of coffee on the nose and coffee and smokey plum flavors on the palate.  I wasn’t feeling the price the day we were there, but it was a nice wine.  The ’08 cab sauv ($28) had a great raspberry nose with cherry on the palate.  The problem for me here was that there was also a ton of wood on the palate that just killed any possible enjoyment I might have had.  Th ’08 cab franc ($24) was a fairly traditional VA cab franc with lots of black pepper with a few hints of berry coming through.  It’s fine if you like that black pepper element, but it was pricier than I like to see for a wine of this type.

We then moved on to two sweeter offerings to round out the tasting.  The Sweet Michelle ($19) is an Rkatsiteli wine with 2% residual sugar.  I’ve never had a sweet Rkats, so I was definitely intrigued.  the nose was primarily tropical with a hint of floral coming through as well.  On the palate, those flipped, so I primarily got a sweet floral flavor with a bit of tropical coming in on the finish.  I’d put this wine firmly in the campfire bottle category, but this costs more than I’m usually willing to spend for that.  The tasting ended with the Symphony ($18 for 375ml).  This is a blend of merlot, chard, concord, niagra, and vidal with 7% residual sugar.  It smelled like Welch’s and tasted like grape juice with a mild kick.  It didn’t really seem like a dessert wine, and that 375 ml bottle would likely be gone in no time if that’s your thing.

The patio seating did offer some nice vineyard views and could be a nice place to spend an afternoon, but I could see the interior space getting a bit tight if a few groups are tasting at the same time.  Have you been to Miracle Valley?  What was your take on their wines and their space?

[mappress]

 

Tasting Standing Cheek to Cheek to Muzzle

Well lookie here- this is our third post about Fauquier County’s own Barrel Oak Winery! We also talked about it here and here, and after we opened a bottle of their viognier we were urged to make a return visit. Always curious to see how our palates’ evolution and a given winery’s offerings get along, we set off for another round at the tasting bar.

Holy hive of activity, Batman! We snagged a spot at the top of the hill right when it opened up, but cars were parked all the way down the driveway. The winery grounds were a sea of people and umbrellas. BOW late on a weekend day is not for the painfully introverted. Luckily most of the activity was outside, so we managed to grab a spot at the bar with relative ease.

Our tasting began with an Australian sparkling, the Silverwing Brut ($24). Beginning with a sparkling is something of a tradition at Barrel Oak, so we weren’t surprised. Lovers of local wines that we are, it would be nice to see a local sparkling used (or to see BOW- with a stated goal of 10,000 cases per year- add one of their own), but we enjoyed this offering. It had the yeasty nose we love in a sparkling, but on the palate was a lot of fruit and notes of toasty bread. I could handle getting to know this wine a bit better!

The BOW wines started with the 2009 BOWHaus White ($24), a blend of vidal blanc, chardonnay, and viognier. What was interesting was that at 1.5% residual sugar, this wine did not taste nearly as sweet as its nose would lead you to believe. This wine could make for a pretty versatile table wine that could please a wide range of palates. Next up was the 2009 Seyval Blanc ($24). I think serving it after the BOWHaus was a misstep as this was a much drier wine, with loads of citrus and bright acid on the palate. I think I liked it, but my palate was a little thrown off by the previous sweet offering.

We did the full tasting, so here’s where we split off from our neighbors who were doing a basic tasting. (BOW offers tastings four ways: $6 buys you a BOW tasting (left side of the sheet), WOW tasting (right side), just reds, or just whites; $10 gets you a full tasting). We were poured the 2009 Traminette ($25), which- traminette is generally floral and spicy. This was a TON of floral, to the point where it was all I got on the nose and palate. It wasn’t for me. When we tasted the next one, the 2009 Rosé ($24) (a blend of cab franc, merlot, cab sauv, and petit verdot), I wasn’t totally sure if the floral notes I got were from the rosé or residual from the traminette. It was a smooth, basic warm weather pink wine.

Peanut’s Petite Cuvee ($24) was next, a 50-50 blend of merlot and vidal blanc. The kind of floral-sweet vidal nose was here, with a big fruity character on the palate. They recommend serving it chilled, and depending on how you look at it this is a red wine for white wine drinkers or a campfire wine. Peanut is the dog the owners adopted from Lost Dog Rescue, and 10% of the $24 price of the bottle goes to that charity.

We moved on to the 2008 BOWHaus Red ($25). This wine is primarily merlot, blended with chambourcin, syrah, and malbec. I got dark fruit, a little earthiness, and a great finish. The name says “basic table red” but there was much more going on than I would have expected. The 2008 Merlot ($26) was lots of cooked fruit and soft palate. It was ok, but the mouthfeel felt over-manipulated, Too much playing with oak for me, maybe?

Next up was the 2008 Cabernet Franc ($32). This one had an uber-peppery nose and lots of cherry happening. In other words, it was a Virginia cab franc. With the 2009 Norton ($27), props to the tasting room associate for prepping us for an unusual grape. We had a bad experience at another winery where an oddball grape roughed us up and threw us in a ditch, and my contention was that when you have something that unusual- well, just read the comments on that post. Anyhow, the BOW norton: I didn’t love it. It was a little muddy and a little foxy, with something akin to wet dog going on- not what we look for in a norton. While BOW typically sources their grapes from within a 90 mile radius, these norton grapes were bought from Missouri (we were told).

The tasting finishes with the sweet wines. First up was the Late Harvest Vidal Blanc ($28). This is their first 100% estate grown wine. At 7% residual sugar this wine has a floral nose, with tropical fruit and honey on the palate. Nice! We finished with the Chocolate Lab ($31), a wine with which we have historically struggled. It’s a chambourcin that spent six weeks on cocoa nibs, and is fortified in a Port style to 16.5% alcohol. For a fortified wine it’s actually quite smooth, the flavor is good, but I don’t really get much chocolate flavor.

If you’ve read our blog before, you may have noticed that this is the first time we’ve listed the price of each wine as it’s mentioned in the post. It’s not something we’re planning to do with every post moving forward, but we felt it was worth talking about with some of the wines here. First, the price listed is the price of  a bottle if you plan on drinking it there. If you’re buying a bottle to take home, deduct two bucks. So, we’ve talked before about the “northern Virginia surcharge” on wine; BOW definitely qualifies. VA Wine Diva and I have been talking about the BOWHaus Red, for example. At a $23 take-home price for an interesting red blend, I’m on the fence and she’s resolute that she wouldn’t pass $20 on it. However, we can both agree that if we were to meet up with friends at BOW, we’d pay the $25 winery price and enjoy the wine.

And that’s where BOW shines: as a place to get together with friends and meet new ones. Again, there were cars parked clear down the driveway, and yet we never felt crammed in. The tasting room is a great space, the loft screams “spend time with me!”, and the patio and terraced picnic tables accommodate a ton of people. Barrel Oak also does a lot of work with local charities and does a great job of working with them on events. If you’re looking high and low for a winery that’s pushing the envelope and creating amazing wine, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for a fun place to spend a day with friends over a bottle (or two) of enjoyable wine, Barrel Oak is totally worth checking out.

[mappress]

 

Get that butter out of my viognier!

I like that wine can be made in so many different ways.  That means I can always find a wine to fit my meal or my mood.  Some styles, however, just seem like a bad idea all around.  I often struggle with oak in my white wines.  I have come to recognize that a well balanced oaked chardonnay can be a nice addition to certain meals even if I don’t like to sip it on its own very often.  I wish people would just keep their viognier away from oak, however.

I’m not a wine expert – I’ve never claimed to be.  I’m just a person who drinks a fair bit of wine, most of it from Virginia.  I do know that some French viogniers are oaked, but I don’t get the appeal.  I just prefer the flavor profile with stainless steel fermentation/ageing.  From time to time, however, we are intrigued by a bottle of oaked viognier.  Usually these are the more subtly oaked offerings.  That was sure not the case with the ’08 reserve viognier from Barrel Oak Winery we opened recently.

Looking back at our review from our last visit to the winery, we both liked this wine.  I now have no idea why.  The nose was mostly vanilla (thanks to all the oak) with a tiny hint of tropical fruit coming through.  All I could taste was oak, however – vanilla with a hint of sawdust was my initial tasting note.  As it warmed up, the vanilla gave way to butter – this was not an improvement.  This is one of the few bottles of wine we’ve bought after a tasting and not finished.  I’m not sure what we were thinking, but this was sure not the wine for us.

VA Wine Diva wants it explicitly known that this photo is courtesy of Grape Envy Guy. Because she hates fun.

 

Well that didn’t work….

When we were at Aspen Dale, we were intrigued by the pairing of their sauvignon blanc with white chocolate.  It worked surprising well (in a mind-blowing, confusing kind of way), so we picked up a bottle so that we could try this with our friends and a nice white chocolate dessert.  This past weekend gave us the perfect opportunity.

Some friends were staying with us, and we decided to open a number of VA sauv blancs so they could try some new wines (neither are big white drinkers despite being big local wine advocates) while we experimented on them with some new recipes.  It made for a really fun evening of food, wine, and white chocolate.  Everything didn’t work quite as well as we’d hoped – but that’s food and wine for you….

We began the evening with a bottle of the ’08 Avenius Sauvignon Blanc from Linden Vineyards while snacking on some grapes and local goat cheese with a dusting of Herb de Provence from Caromont Farm.  Goat cheese and sauv blanc is about as classic a food pairing as you can get, and this worked beautifully.  The wine was crisp and refreshing (something very welcome on a 90+ degree day).  The nose was pear and citrus while some apple notes also came in on the palate along with a hint of grassyness.  There was less minerality than I look for in a sauv blanc, however.

Dinner consisted of a butterflied, brined, and grilled chicken with some chili garlic oil so people could season it to taste along with grill roasted sweet potatoes with ancho chili butter (amazingly creamy and easy to cook if you’ve already got a charcoal grill going) and an Israeli couscous salad with some local veggies, herbs, and goat cheese.  We kept the chili relatively tame (for us anyway) and decided to pair the main course with the ’07 Sauvignon Blanc from Glen Manor Vineyards thinking the fruity minerality could stand up to the flavors on the table.  Sauvignon blanc may be the best default food wine ever since it can play so well with so many foods, so we were hopeful.  (If you’ve got a dinner at someone’s house where you’re not exactly sure of the menu or what wines the guests drink – a bottle of sauv blanc may be your safest bet.)  On it’s own, this was definitely a fruity wine (their ’08 is a more traditional sauv blanc) with plenty of tropical and citrus fruit flavors and aromas.  There was also a hint of wet river rocks on the finish that I found really enjoyable. The wine also played well with the food, but it was the creamy, buttery, slightly spicy roasted sweet potatoes that became the star pairing.

Our final wine of the evening was the ’08 Hildersham (100% sauvignon blanc) from Aspen Dale Winery along with a white chocolate mousse.  While I think there’s probably a better recipe out there for white chocolate mousse than the one I used, the mousse was pretty good.  The pairing, however, was not.  While this wine with white chocolate chips was interesting and weird, it just didn’t work with the mousse.  I can’t think of a dessert that’s a purer expression of white chocolate, so I don’t know how useful this food paring was.  (FYI, it didn’t work with the other 2 sauv blancs either – we saved some for a comparison).  This wine was, overall, a disappointment as well.  Even when we bought it, we didn’t think it was a great example of sauv blanc, but we thought it was a fun wine.  I didn’t expect this one to rival the Glen Manor (and quite some time passed between drinking that wine with dinner and this wine with dessert), but we still expected it to stand on its own reasonably well.  Blind, I would have pegged this wine as a lower quality stainless chard (flabby rather than crisp) or a vidal because of the floral elements coming through (or a blend of the two).  It just didn’t work for me, and I likely won’t buy it again.  We’re glad we tried the white chocolate experiment, however.

Overall, wine, food, and friends made for a fun night, and they’re now much more interested in the white wines VA has to offer.  I was also loving Glen Manor’s sauv blanc and need to get back there to get more of their wines ASAP!

 

A Mind-Blowing Pairing & Slim Jims for the Rich

Speaking of wineries we knew nothing about, we decided to stop in at Aspen Dale Winery at the Barn. It’s aptly named, as the tasting room is in a centuries-old historic barn. Coincidence? I think not.

Anyhow, this is a winery that likes to provide a food pairing with each of the five wines they have available to taste. We started with Mary Madeleine’s, a rose made from 95% vidal blanc and 5% cab sauv. At 2% residual sugar it’s lightly sweet, with strawberry on the nose and palate. They paired it with a cheddar cheese, which made for a pleasant if unremarkable pairing.

We moved on to the ’08 Sarah’s Chapeau, a white blend of 60% vidal blanc and 40% sauvignon blanc. The nose was both floral and citrus, with a light sweetness (2.5% residual sugar) that was mitigated by the wine’s bright acidity. They surprised us by choosing to pair the wine with Brie, which worked out beautifully.

The ’08 Hildersham is a 100% sauvignon blanc. It was a little citrus, a little green and grassy, and a fairly smooth wine. They paired this with two different foods. The first was a sage darby cheese, which was nice. The second pairing though- holy wow. They had us pair a white chocolate chip with sauv blanc. Really? Now, I am not a big fan of white chocolate, but this worked SO well that we bought a bottle and I’m going to research white chocolate desserts to find a great pairing (with which we will blow our friends’ minds).

Numero four was the ’08 Parris Country Blend, a blend of 80% merlot and 20% cab franc. On the nose, I got rich smokiness and a cab franc’s pepperiness. On the palate was more of the same in a very drinkable wine. They paired this one with a pheasant sausage, which… tasted like a Slim Jim. How weird is that? Rarified ingredients, assembled by what I’m sure is a team of culinary professionals, and it tasted like a snack I can pick up at 7-11 for $1.25. Life is so interesting. Anyhow, I don’t think it was a magical pairing- not that I was looking for a wine to go with Slim Jims- but the wine was fine.

We finished the tasting with the awesomely named ’08 Rockawalkin’, a blend of 90% cab sauv and 10% malbec and petit verdot. There was a strong tannin structure to this wine. It wasn’t too strong to be drinkable now, but I bet it would lay down well for a few years. This wine was more of an earthy wine, with a hint of spice. This also got two pairings: first up was a bison sausage, whose smokiness worked well with the wine. The second pairing was what rocked our world: a piece of dark chocolate, on which we were told to stack a gob of goat cheese, and THEN drink the wine. Amazing! Both the chocolate and the goat cheese really popped, without diminishing the wine.

The wines were all pretty decent, and the food pairings made for an interesting addition to the experience. Our tasting room associate was nice enough, if a little on the quiet side. The barn itself was a neat space, although the grounds could use a little work. Ok, that’s holding back. Have you ever watched any of those “Life After Humans” post-apocalyptic crap shows on cable, where the woods have reclaimed whole neighborhoods? Yeah, that’s what the front of the winery looks like. Grab your pith helmet and head in, though, because Aspen Dale is worth checking out.

[mappress]

 

I love it when I’m right!

Now, don’t get me wrong…I can and do admit when I’m wrong, but Grape Envy Guy keeps telling me that one of my most annoying qualities is that I’m usually right about things.   When it comes to wine, however, that’s not always true.  I sometimes look at tasting notes from a winery visit when we then open a bottle at home and wonder what the heck I was thinking.  Other times, we’ve returned to a vineyard/winery that we had really liked on a prior visit and been less impressed with their offerings.  We recently returned to Delaplane Cellars for their official grand opening and, thankfully, I discovered that I still really liked their wines and thought they had a lot to offer.

The last time we were at Delaplane was when we stumbled into their first open weekend by accident.  The space was still unfinished, but the wines were not, and we left quite impressed and with a bottle of viognier.  Given the crazy winter weather VA had this year, we never quite made it back, so when I received the email about their official grand opening, I made sure it was on our calendar.

This event involved the standard tasting of 6 wines along with a special reserve tasting of 3 wines that are not typically available for tasting prior to purchase.  The reserve wines were offered with food parings created by Local 647.  There were also cheeses available for tasting and purchase from Everona Dairy and live music.  All in all, It was a good time, and I’m really glad we were able to stop by to see the tasting room now that the counter top has been sealed, the moldings are up, and more people are visiting.  Now on to the wine….

Of the 6 wines in the standard tasting, we’d tried 5 of them on our last visit.  The ’08 chard was lightly oaked with some subtle fruit flavors and a bit of creaminess.  It’s not my favorite VA chard, but it’s still quite a nice wine.  The ’08 Honah Lee viognier continues to impressed me.  The orange blossom notes just make me think spring, so it’s perfect for this time of year.  I’m still not sure what to make of the ’08 Maggie’s Vineyard viognier.  This one is oakier with less fruit and made me think chardonnay more than viognier.  They recommend paring with with spicier foods like Thai, so maybe we’ll try that and then see what I think.  The ’07 cab franc (with a bit of cab sauv and syrah blended in) had great leathery and cherry notes.  There were also elements of black peeper and , strangely, some salty/earthy notes that made me think of Kalamata olives.  I really enjoyed this wine and look forward to spending more time reflecting on the complex layers with a glass in hand in a the near future.  The ’07 left bank Bordeaux blend had really softened a lot in the months since we last tasted it.  It’s definitely an old world wine with some dark cherry/berry flavors paired with some nice earthiness.  I want to pair this with a great venison and wild mushroom  stroganoff recipe we have.  The standard tasting ended with a new to us wine: the ’07 Pink Rose (a syrah/viognier blend).  Apparently Jim Dolphin intended this to be a dry rose, but fermentation got stuck while there was still 3% residual sugar in the wine.  Regular readers know that I’m not a rosé fan, but I really liked the light fruity flavors in this one and think it would be great for a picnic.  I wish my mistakes turned out so tasty. 🙂

The reserve tasting involved 3 wines, 2 of which were new to us, that are not usually open for tasting.  We began with the ’07 Emerald Lake viognier (same vineyard as the ’08 Maggie’s) paired with a  seafood and veggie slaw basket (no idea what Local 647 called it, so this is the best I can do).  This wine had those more typical viognier floral, peach, and tropical notes.  This food pairing was fine, but it didn’t rock my world.  The ’07 Shirland syrah was up next, and I liked it every bit as much this time as I had during our first visit when it was still part f the regular tasting.  It hard great earthy and deep berry flavors with a  hint of toasted oak.  It paired really well with the mushroom pate that was made to go with it – thank god I’ve learned to love mushrooms!  FYI, there’s 7% viognier in here to soften the wine a bit; I never would have guessed it, but Jim’s sure doing something right!  Our final wine was the ’07 Springlot reserve (cab franc, cab sauv, merlot, petit verdot).  This is definitely still a young wine with some impressive tannins, but there is a nice marrying of subtle berry/cherry/plum flavors along with some earthiness (chocolate and coffee, I think).  The wine was great as was the bacon wrapped apricot paired with it!

Just writing this post is making me thirsty for these wines.  I know we’ll make it back soon since we had to dash off to a family event and couldn’t take a case of wine home with us.  If you haven’t been in yet, make sure you plan to stop by soon.  Delaplane is definitely worth a visit.

[mappress]

 

An Evening with Honah Lee

Some family was in town recently, and we wanted to show off some of the really good wines available in Virginia.  Grape Envy Guy’s brother and sister-in-law are primarily white wine drinkers who favor chardonnay.  I’m not an ABC drinker (anything but chardonnay), just look at our previous blog posts, but I do think it’s important to occasionally step away from the card and try something new.  Given this, we decided to open a bottle of the ’08 Honah Lee viognier from Delaplane Cellars since viognier is a grape that does so well in VA and we were really impressed with Jim Dolphin’s ability  to do good things with this grape when we visited the winery.

Typically viognier is referred to as having notes of honeysuckle and tropical fruits.  I get the tropical fruits, but I don’t typically get honeysuckle specifically (just a generic floral) – of course, this is likely because I can’t identify honeysuckle.  My partner plans to remedy that fact this year, but I can tell you that honeysuckle was not present in this viognier.  I can say that because I could identify the floral note in this particular wine – it was orange blossom.  Having lived in Phoenix for years, this is a scent I’m very familiar with given the myriad citrus trees planted there.  The floral element was definitely the first thing I noticed about this wine.

As I savored it a bit more, I began to notice some mellow tropical fruit elements hitting me from mid-palate trough the finish (and this wine had a nice long finish for a white wine).  I also got a little hint of smooth oakyness.  I typically prefer stainless viogniers, but when aged in neutral oak, I also tend to like the results.  This was aged in neutral oak which lends just a hint of that oaky, creamy, smoothness.  As a final note, the wine, while dry, almost tastes slightly sweet because of the floral notes.  While it took me by surprise at first, It was a nice touch of fun.

All in all, I’m really glad that we chose to take this wine home with us so we could share it with outhers, and I look forward to going back soon to get more of their wines, but, what did our visitors think?  It was a new grape to them, so it took them a bit of mental adjustment, but I think they were pleasantly surprised by this grape they’d never heard of before.  I think we may have some viognier converts…and VA wine converts who now want to plan a wine tasting vacation here.

Not a bad start to our century club challenge: 1 down, 99 to go