Remember that big storm that moved through Virginia a few weeks ago?  We were very luck and only had a few branches blown off trees, but some friends of ours weren’t so lucky.  They lost their power for the better part of a week, so they came to stay with us.  This, of course, meant plenty of time catching up – that meant some bottles of wine and games to pass the time as we chatted.

One of the games we played was Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot (it’s way more fun to kill a Lumbering Bunny with a kitchen whisk than it has a right to be), and one of the bottles of wine was the ’10 Rosa Luna from Fabbioli Cellars. This dry sangiovese rosé was exactly what we needed to help us beat the heat.  When we first opened it, I noted a strawberry nose and berry and citrus on the palate.  As the wine warmed up, the flavors started to transition to watermelon with a light hint of something herbal I never could quite identify.  Light, fruity, and refreshing is what I like in a rosé, so I was a happy woman – even if my bunnies did have a tendency to die in strange and unusual ways.

During TasteCamp, we got to spend time in 4 different vineyards.  We started Saturday with Doug Fabbioli in his vineyard at Fabbioli Cellars, moved to Tarara Winery where Jordan took us to the Nevaeh Vineyard, spent Saturday afternoon with Ben Renshaw, owner/winemaker at 8 Chains North, at Tranquility Vineyard, and ended the VA wine filled weekend with Jim Law at Linden Vineyards (more on this next week).

Jim Law's Hardscrabble Vineyard

While I took my little vacation from computers, I was struggling with how to talk about this part of TasteCamp.  I totally get that the vineyard is a critical factor in making great wine.  I also recognize that I’m not a plant person and I get bored when talk turns to soils, trellising systems, etc.  Given this, I tried to make Grape Envy Guy write this post since he geeks out on all things botanical, but his life is even more hectic than mine, and it just wasn’t in the cards.  Given this, I figured I had to just bite the bullet and share some general impressions with you.

Doug Fabbioli in his vineyard

First of all, all 4 vineyard visits made clear that these winemakers/vineyard managers are passionate about what they do in the vineyard and understand that it has a direct, and centrally important, relationship to what ends up in the bottle.  If you haven’t done a vineyard walk, watch for the opportunity to do wine at a local winery.  You’re bound to learn something, and it may well change how you think about wine (local or otherwise).

Jordan Harris

Second, despite the VA wine industry maturing, there’s still a lot of experimentation going on.  For example, both Doug Fabbioli and Jim Law talked about experimenting with carmenere, Jordan Harris talked about his lack of satisfaction with his trials of grenache and mouvedre, and everyone talked about trying different clones and rootstocks.

Tarara's Nevaeh Vineyard

Third, site matters.  Grapes will grow on a lot of different sites throughout the state, but they aren’t all ideal.  Also, even within a given vineyard site (e.g., the Hardscrabble Vineyard at Linden), there are microclimate issues that need to be considered, soil variations, etc.  Winegrowers are getting more and more selective about the sites on which they plant their vineyards, the varieties they plant at each site, etc.  That said, economics play a major role in the choices people make, and many are working with less than ideal sites (Fabbioli being one such example).

Tranquility Vineyard

Fourth, there’s a real tension between the desire to make “fine wine,” which often involves incredibly low yields per acre, and the desire to actually be able to make a living from a vineyard/winery.  This also plays a role in bottle price (practices resulting in lower yields may drive a higher bottle price, etc.).  This drives choices about trellising, fruit dropping, etc., and I’m starting to understand how this changes the resulting wine (lower yields may result in more concentrated flavors while higher yields may be related to more overt fruitiness by less depth or development of complex flavors).  Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with any of these choices – it is a business, and people need to make money.  That said, it’s really interesting to learn about factors that play a role in and motivate vineyard management choices.

Doug Fabbioli is growing pears in ship bottles for his pear "port"

Finally, it was again reiterated that the VA wine world is incredibly collaborative.  People share their successes and struggles so that all can improve the quality of the wines being made in the commonwealth.

Jim Law - a teacher, mentor, and advisor to many - still sees himself as a student

Because I’m not sure where else I’ll put these things, let me cram a few more pieces of information in here…

Did you know that Doug Fabbioli grows and sells asparagus?

Doug Fabbioli is one of the founders of the Piedmont Epicurean Arts Center which was founded to help students learn about the epicurean arts from farm to table so that they can establish their own successful agribusiness and play a role in keeping parts of VA (such as Loudoun County) actively agricultural.

Ben Renshaw

Ben Renshaw was a major trooper since he hosted the Tranquility Vineyard walk the day after his wedding!

Otium Cellars

Thanks to Otium Cellars, handily across the street from Tranquility Vineyard, for hosting tasting after our vineyard walk.  GEG and I still intend to return for a more traditional winery visit and tasting in the, hopefully, not too distant future, but it was nice to get a sneak peek at the Otium releases.  My favorite of the ones we tried that day was the ’10 malbec, but I still preferred the two vintages of the Furnace Mountain Red from 8 Chains North that we tasted.

When we started this blog, we did it with a pretty traditional understanding of what a blog was.  We saw this as an online repository for our tasting notes.  A way to force ourselves to pay more attention to what we were drinking, enjoying, not enjoying etc.  We also saw it as a way to force ourselves to step up our exploration of the local wine scene we so enjoyed so that we could continue to discover local wines we loved.

In the more than 2.5 years since we first posted on this site, we’ve met those goals, but it’s become so much more.  We’ve both grown as wine tasters and wine drinkers.  We’ve become more proficient with the language of wine and can better express our likes and dislikes so that we, and others, can understand our style preferences.  Without question, however, the biggest plus has been finding ourselves as members of a vibrant community of other local wine and VA wine lovers.  At first this community was all virtual.  We’d comment on the blogs of other people, they’d comment here.  We might chat over twitter.  Over time, others have become regular commenters, and I feel like I’ve become friends with people I’ve never met in person.  We’ve also had some great opportunities to interact with people in person, and the VA community is a warm and welcoming one.

One of the people we’ve had the privilege to come to know is Allan from CellarBlog.  Allan knows a lot about wine, and seems to have a heck of a lot more interesting collection than we do, and is one of many advocates for drinking local wine.  He’s also just a great guy who’s a lot of fun to hang out with.  Unfortunately, our schedules don’t often mesh and we don’t live that close to each other, so meet ups don’t happen all that often.  Because of this, when we decided to hit the wine trail again after some time away dealing with other aspects of our lives and Allan invited us to join his wine meet up group at Fabbioli Cellars for a cabernet franc vertical tasting, we immediately said yes.

Allan made all the arrangements, and all we had to do was show up, pay our $10, and enjoy the company of some interesting people.  When they were ready for us, we moved over to the production building where Melanie, the assistant winemaker, led us through a vertical tasting of 4 vintages of their cab franc (the classic not the reserve for those of you who are familiar with Fabbioli wines).

We started with the 2008, a library wine that was only for sale that weekend ($22).  Melanie had decanted this wine as she felt it showed best after being open for some time, and it was my favorite of the day.  I noted a lot of cherry notes and the nose and plenty of bright/tart fruit notes on the palate with some great acidity (something I’m coming to appreciate more and more).  I also noted some earthiness that I described as decaying leaves and mushrooms; I think those of a more poetic bent mgiht refernece notes reminiscent of a forest floor).

We then moved on to the current vintage, the 2009 ($19).  Melanie mentioned that she didn’t think this one would be in the tasting room for much longer, however, as they were starting to run low.  This wine struck me as a bit young and tight, but it started to work for me when I tried it with some of the salami they had out for us.  I noted more oak on the nose as well as dark cherry, coffee, and light hints of black pepper on the palate.

The 2010 ($19 when it’s soon released) came next.  I noted a lot of green bell pepper notes on the nose along with a hint of spice.  I don’t mind a bit of green in my cab franc, but 2010 was such a dry, hot year that it really surprised me to find it in this vintage.  This was definitely a less fruit-dominant cab franc than the other vintages we tasted, and the wine generally didn’t seem to have as much depth, although there was some nice spice on the finish.  This might be due to its youth…so it will be interesting to try this again in the tasting room in a few more months.

The tasting ended with a barrel sample of the 2011.  This particular barrel was a neutral one, so all the fruit was very evident.  I noted a light raspberry and cherry nose and light berry flavors along with some sweet cherry.  The sweetness of this wine is what struck me the most.  It may be dry with a lot of fruit, or it may have a hint of residual sugar…regardless, all the fruit just made me think sweet.  Of course, the wine from this barrel will be blended with wine from other barrels as well as wine from other grapes (the classic cab franc is basically never a 100% cab franc wine at Fabbioli).

Fabbioli isn’t a winery I get to often, so I don’t have the best sense of what it is I gravitate towards in their wines.  After this experience, I think it may be the fruit.  I’ll have to remember that the next time I’m interested in a fruity red!

Since October is Virginia wine month, many wineries do some special things to celebrate.  Thanks to my time on twitter, I learned that Fabbioli Cellars was including two limited production wine in their tasting line up for October (and only October).  One of these wines was the ’09 Tannat, a wine I got a preview of at the wine bloggers conference.  Since I was intrigued by it then, I knew we had to get back to Fabbioli so that Grape Envy Guy could check it out as well.  The other wine they added to their tasting lineup was their first grape-based fortified wine – Royalty.

Since our last visit was in June, most of the 8 wines in the tasting were the same, but they had changed up their food pairings, so I’ll do a quick recap of all the wines this time around while focusing a bit more on the 3 new to us offerings.  FYI, you can also upgrade your tasting (from $10 to $15) to involve wine and truffle pairings rather than wine and food pairings, but we decided to stick with the basic tasting.

We began with the 2010 Rosa Luna ($16) – a sangiovese rosé – paired with a crostini with goat cheese.  The pairing worked well as the tang of the goat cheese worked well with the citrus/pink grapefruit flavors.  We then moved on the the ’09 chambourcin ($16), which apparently has a bit of cab franc and petit verdot blended in.  Over the summer, this wine was paired with a kalamata olive, and it worked really well.  This time, it was paired with a piece of smoked turkey.  The pairing was fine, but the food and wine didn’t really do much for each other.  The wine itself had a spicy, earthy nose and tasted of cherry and black pepper.

The ’09 cab franc ($19) was next, and it was paired with a mild salami.  This wine was all dark cherry and was smooth and soft.  With the salami, it got nicely smokey and really became a more interesting wine than when I tried it on its own.  We then moved on to the ’09 Tre Sorelle ($28), a blend of merlot, cab sauv, and petit verdot.  I noted red fruits, raspberries and plums, along with some earthy/smokey notes likely coming from the oak.  This was paired with a mild cheddar, and this was another pairing that didn’t do much for the wine – or me.  In general, I haven’t found cheddar to work well with any wine, but maybe that’s just me.  The final dry wine was the ’09 tannat ($45) that had brought us there today.  It’s actually a blend of 75% tannat, 17% cab sauv, and 8% petit verdot.  They had decanted this wine so that it was a bit aerated and softened.  I noted a very earthy nose and lots of raspberry and blackberry.  This wine was paired with chutney on a crostini, and the chutney really brought out the fruit in the wine.  I really enjoyed this wine, but I didn’t like it enough for that high price.  I am really glad that I got to try it, however, and I’m sure they’ll have no problem selling through the wine despite the high cost.

The final three wines were all dessert wines.  We started with the raspberry merlot ($22 for 375ml or $39 for 750ml).  The nice thing about this wine is that it’s not too sweet (only 5% residual sugar) and the tartness of the raspberry wine (30% of the blend) really keeps even that in check.  It was enjoyable on its own and with a piece of locally made chocolate.  We then tried the Royalty ($32 for 500ml), a tannat, cab franc, and chambourcin port-style wine with approximately 5% residual sugar.  I appreciated that the nose wasn’t an overwhelming hit of alcohol and that it wasn’t as sweet as many port-styles.  This is a wine I wish I had a bit more time with to explore.  We ended with the pear wine ($32 for 500ml) paired with a home made ginger cookie.  I still don’t like this wine enough to buy it, but in its current incarnation it’s growing on me.  It worked well with the ginger in the cookie, but I wish the cookie had been less sweet (as the wine isn’t that sweet either – only 3% residual sugar).

As always, we had a great time during our visit to Fabbioli chatting with fellow tasters and staff alike.  I really was excited by the tannat, but $45 is a lot for a bottle of wine, and it just wasn’t in the cards for us on this day with this bottle.  I am, however glad that we’ve got a bottle of the ’10 Rosa Luna.  It will add a nice taste of summer to a cold winter night. 🙂

Over the past 18 months or so, we’ve really jumped on the rosé bandwagon.  After all, rosés are crisp, refreshing, can offer some good fruit flavors, and are very food friendly.  As a drinker with a decided preference for red wines, however, sometimes a rosé just doesn’t do it for me.  At times like that, we typically look towards our small store of chillable reds.  The ’09 Rosa Luna from Fabbioli Cellars is technically a rosé wine, but the juice (sangiovese, if my memory serves me) saw extended skin contact, so I think it drinks more like a light-bodied chillable red.  This made it a perfect wine for one of our “it’s still hot, but I want a red wine” nights.

This wine offered a ton of fruit.  There was strawberry and watermelon on the nose.  On the palate, I note strawberries, raspberries, and a hint of watermelon.  As the wine warmed, a sweet/tart candy watermelon flavor (without the sugar) become more dominant.  All the fruit was fun, and the wine felt a bit more substantial than the typical fruit-forward rosé.

I’m going to have to make sure I find some red/rosé wines made in this style for next summer for when I get these red wine cravings but it’s way to hot to allow me to enjoy an actual full-bodied red.  What VA wines (or non-VA wines) would you put into this category?

We like to break new ground with this blog, and we’re doing it again right now: for the first time EVER, we visited Fabbioli Cellars in warm weather. Crazy! We’ve been here several times, but never with leaves on the trees.

Immediately upon entering the tasting room we noticed that they had moved around all the furniture and done some painting. It worked for me, and definitely seemed to help them accommodate the decent-sized crowd of thirsty wine seekers (Unrelated: if you’re the person who has gotten every single winery in Virginia to sell your olive oil – you, sir or madam, are clearly the most amazing salesperson ever).

The first wine we tried was the 2010 Something White ($16). This is a blend of 66% Traminette and 34% Vidal Blanc. Done badly, such a blend could result in a floral bombshell reminiscent of a smoke-free bingo parlor sandwiched between a florist’s shop and a potpourri factory. Luckily this was made well, with light floral notes, light fruit, and pleasant mouthfeel from the little bit of light oak that was used in the winemaking. Rockstar? No, but a nice simple white at a really low price, especially for Loudoun County.

Next up was the 2009 Rosa Luna ($16), a rosé made from 100% Sangiovese. It’s a good summer sipper with lightly tart fruit that gives the impression of a little sweetness on the finish. The 2010 version is out now, so on the day we were there the ’09 was dropped to thirteen bucks. We left with a bottle of each. The ’09 Chambourcin ($16) had nice fruit in a pretty light wine. They also opted to blow our minds by giving us each an olive to pair with the wine. Chambourcin… and an olive? Crazy, right? Without the olive the dominant flavors of the wine were tart red fruits, with some earthiness in the background. After the olive, the earthiness shoves the fruit aside and runs to the front of the stage like Glee’s Mercedes Jones grabbing a diva solo.

The next red was the ’09 Cabernet Franc ($19). It’s a decent Virginia cab franc, light and fruity with a little spice to it. It was paired with salami, which – I love salami, but I feel like the fattiness was maybe a hair much for this wine. Still, it’s again a fair wine for the price. The ’09 Cabernet Franc Reserve ($30) is different in that it spent twice as long in oak as the first cab franc. With loads more oak, tannin, and structure, this one did make sense with the salami. Clearly this wine wants food. You know, when I was at Subway the other day this tiny little girl ordered the following sub: salami, pepperoni, provolone, and bacon, heavy on the mayo. Get rid of the mayo and it could play well with this wine. Oh, and this little pixie is in for a shock when she gets older and her metabolism changes. Enjoy it now, sweetie!

Anyhow. The final red was the ’09 Tre Sorelle ($28), a blend of 65% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 15% Petit Verdot. It’s the biggest red here, with balanced fruit and earth, good structure, and a pleasantly integrated complexity. Good stuff.

One wine for which Fabbioli Cellars is known is the Raspberry Merlot ($22 for a 375mL). 30% raspberry and 70% Merlot with 5% residual sugar give this wine a load of berry at the front with something to think about as the wave subsides. I often complain that wineries miss the mark when they pair their wine with chocolate, but here it works. Oh boy, does it work.

We finished with the Aperitif Pear Wine ($32 for a 500mL). The last time we were here I was NOT a fan. All I got was alcohol and a little sweetness. This is a new edition, and – wow. You know those stupid movies where they give the nerdy chick a makeover and she turns out to be the most beautiful person on the planet AND she still teaches the blind to yodel after school? Totally. This blend of Bosc, Bartlett, and Asian pears showed a near perfect balance of fruit and brandy, with the pear flavor finally making an appearance. It was also served slightly chilled, which our tastrinatrix told us helped tame the alcohol bite a bit. She also mentioned that whiskey drinkers tend to prefer this drink at room temperature, which makes sense.

Once again, we enjoyed our visit to Fabbioli Cellars, and we even discovered that it’s kinda pretty in warm weather!

 

You know that “oh my gosh!” moment when people realize that Whitney Houston’s  “I Will Always Love You” was originally recorded by Dolly Parton? Folks seem to have the same reaction when they discover where else Doug Fabbioli,owner of Fabbioli Cellars, has had a hand. We got him to answer some questions for us:

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in the suburbs of Syracuse, NY, just outside the Fingerlakes growing region.

How long have you lived in VA?
We moved here in 1997, so 14 years ago

What brought you to wine?
I worked in a small vineyard outside of Syacuse.  I studied Business at Syracuse University while working at the vineyard.  I also spent 4 months in Tuscany.  These experiences all influenced me to continue the wine path.

Where else (besides your current winery) have you made wine?
I spent 10 years in Sonoma at Buena Vista Winery before returning east.  I worked at Tarara Winery and Doukenie, both in Loudoun County.  I also worked with numerous wineries as a consultant when they started up including Old House Vineyards, Hillsborough, Corcoran, Sunset Hills, Bluemont, Northgate, Notaviva, 8 chains and Hiddencroft.

What characteristics do you enjoy in wine?
I like balance, good acid structure, and fruit characters.

If you could have a private tour of any winery in the world, which would you choose?
I am not into prestige very much.  I would like to visit to return to Tuscany now that I know a little about wine.

What is your favorite food and wine pairing?
Sauvignon Blanc and Crab.

What are your favorite wine varietals?
My preference changes as I learn more.
I am a big fan of Tannat as well as Zinfandel, which I cannot grow here in VA.

A lot of wine folks are excited for the 2010 wines. Which of your wines are you the most excited about?
I guess it would be our 2010 Rose and the new 2010 Something White.  This is our first white wine.  Great acid and balance.  Lots of fruit and the customers love them both.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?
Homer Simpson, We are similar.

What is one thing we haven’t asked that you want Virginia wine lovers to know about you or your winery?
We are always learning.  Nothing is permanent, so we continue to evolve, even if it is slowly, to have great wines and a memorable experience.

Have you made a wine since you’ve been in VA that you think speaks to who you are as a winemaker? If so, what is it and why that one?
I think our Reserve Cabernet Franc shows what we can do with great fruit, a fitting climate and our best efforts in the vineyard and winery.

 

Thanks Doug!

It’s been a while since we last blogged about Fabbioli Cellars. That is a wrong that must be righted! We began with North Gate’s ’09 Chardonnay ($18). They’re not yet open to the public, so this was a chance to try their wine. It was fine, a basic Virginia chard with green apple and vanilla. The Fabbioli wines started with the ’09 Rosa Luna ($17), a sangiovese rose with loads of grapefruit and light berry. This wine is summer in a bottle!

The ’09 Chambourcin ($16) was 92.5% chambourcin, 2.5% petit verdot, and 5% cab franc. The chambourcin and the cab franc are co-fermented for a wine with loads of red berry that was a darn fine chambourcin. The ’09 Cabernet Franc ($19) is a good representation of VA cab franc, with cherry and light pepper and a hint of smokiness. We also got to try the ’08 Cabernet Franc Reserve ($30). It was a bigger, fuller cab franc than the first one.

Reds continued with the ’08 Tre Sorelle, a Bordeaux blend of merlot, cab sauv, and petit verdot. Tre Sorelle is Swahili for “16 Candles,” meaning Doug Fabbioli is a huge John Hughes fan. Don’t believe me? Go do your own tasting. This showed big jammy fruit and a nice tannin structure.

We took a turn for the unusual with the Raspberry Merlot ($22 for 375ml), a 5% residual sugar blend of, um… raspberries and merlot. No revelation there. Pardon my French but I described this as “**** me that’s nice.” For a sweet wine with fruit it’s still just amazingly clean and refreshing – and scrumdillyicious. The Rosa Nera ($32 for 500ml) was a blend of black raspberry, tannat, cab sauv, and cab franc. It’s 4.5% residual sugar and 18% alcohol by volume, but there is no harshness and nothing but big berry awesomeness and a loooong finish. It’s amazing how well the tartness of the blackberry balances the sugar.

The last offering was the Aperitif Pear Wine ($32 for 500ml). This fortified wine is made from Bosc, Bartlett, and Japanese pears. This was the only wine I really didn’t enjoy. I got alcohol and a little sweetness, but not much in the way of pear flavor. Maybe I’m a bad person but I didn’t get it.

There are a lot of good wines on offer here. Doug Fabbioli has a long history with Virginia wine, and his skills are on display here. Nice folks, too. You should go. We’ll be here when you get back.

The fact that one of the box cars on the inverted train set is a Schlitz beer car is just gravy.

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Doug Fabbioli is a name you run across a lot if you look into wine in Virginia.  He’s worked as a winemaker or consultant at a number of VA wineries, but his own operation, Fabbioli Cellars, is relatively new and modest.  The tasting room is in a basement, but they’ve had a lot of fun with a potentially utilitarian space.  Don’t forget to look up – you might miss stuff.

After all, how many people put a train set on a ceiling? 🙂

We got to try 7 of the Fabbioli wines.  He specializes in dry reds, and even his dessert wines are less sweet, so know that this is what you’ll be getting as you walk through the door.  The first was the ’08 Rosa Luna.  It was a fine but generic rosé with a fair bit of strawberry flavor in there.  The ’08 Chambourcin was also not my favorite.  While I typically like this grape, this was not an example I loved.  It’s a light wine that can be served chilled.  It was fruity with a hint of smoke. The ’08 cab franc was fruity with hints of spice and smoke but none of the black pepper so characteristic of that grape.  It was lighter than I like but quite nice. The ’08 Tre Sorelle was the last of the basic wines.  It’s a blend of merlot, cab sauv, and petit verdot.  I got earthy cherry on this one with a light tannin structure.

We then moved on to the 3 dessert wine offerings.  Up first was the raspberry merlot for which Doug Fabbioli seems to be best known.  It’s a lot less sweet than I expected (only 5% residual sugar).  I definitely got the red raspberry flavor quite clearly, and it did pair beautifully with chocolate.  The pear wine was next; it was very light with a slight aroma of brandy from the grape brandy used to fortify the wine.  It was not really for me, but I’m also not a huge pear fan.  The final offering was the Rosa Nera fortified black raspberry dessert wine.  I got clear black raspberry flavors followed by a generic red wine taste with an earthy finish.  Again, a solid only slightly sweet (3% residual sugar) offering.

As a final note, I want to mention that our tasting also involved tasting a wine from a new vineyard, 8 Chains North.  Four of their wines are available for sale at Fabbioli: a sauv blanc, a merlot, the Furnace Mountain Red (a big red blend), and the LoCo Vino (the one we tasted).  The LoCo Vino is a traminette/vidal blend.  It’s very light and almost sweet due to all the tropical fruit flavors.  I think of this as a sipper, but it could also pair well with some cheeses.

All in all, I’m looking forward to return visits so I can experience even more of Doug Fabbioli’s wine.  If you visit, just don’t forget that I told you to look up:

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