Winery Launches Brilliant Ad Campaign, “Our Wines Make More Sense Than Rhythmic Gymnastics”

Curious to see what the current releases held, we stopped in at Glen Manor Vineyards. A few short weeks later, some friends were visiting from out of town. They wanted to finally get the chance to check out Glen Manor, so we took them for a visit. As a result, this post is a mix of two separate visits in which we tasted mostly the same wines.

Glen Manor is one of the wineries where they figured out who we were early on, so we chatted with Jeff and Kelly and got down to a tasting. First up was the 2011 Sauvignon Blanc ($23). This one had tons of green and boxwood notes on the nose and the palate, followed closely by lemon and bright fruit. The boxwood was a little more assertive than I’ve liked in the past, but there was enough layering and nuance happening that I still quite liked it. From there, we moved to the 2011 Petit Manseng ($20), a fruit basket full of tropical fruit with a residual sugar of 1.6%.

Next up was the 2011 Rose ($18), made primarily from Petit Verdot with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon blended in too. This had a beautiful mouthfeel and great berry and herbal notes. It was simultaneously a light crisp rose and a big wine. It made my brain hurt but in a good way – like brain freeze from a giant Slurpee on a 100 degree day.

While I no longer engage in serious debauchery, I do love me some coffee and booze. Therefore I was digging the 2010 Cabernet Franc ($28) and its rich dark red fruit that finished with coffee and vanilla notes. Mmmm. The 2010 Vin Rouge ($24)  was sold out by our second visit, but I’ll talk about it just to make you sad you missed it. It was smooth, with gobs of soft fruit and tannins that are well structured .

The final wine was the 2010 Rapheus ($25 for a 375 mL), a late harvest Petit Manseng with 5.3% residual sugar. When your notes say “****ing awesome!” you know you enjoyed a wine. There was apricot and ambrosial sweetness with an acid backbone that kept it from being too sweet.

As usual we really enjoyed our visit(s) to Glen Manor. What’s even cooler is we think we made some new converts!

 

 

Mad Vintner Crosses Prawns, Kelp, and Sauv Blanc for Ultimate Taste Sensation, Willy Wonka Promises Suit

We recently participated in a Wines of Chile sauv blanc/chard tasting.  We’d fully intended to make some of the recipes they sent for dinner on the night of the tasting – work got in the way.  We then figured that we’d cook the food the night after the tasting when we revisited the wines – yup fail #2.  Fast forward, and we finally found time to cook.  We opted to make their shrimp ceviche and coconut rice and pair them with a bottle of ’09 Glen Manor Vineyards sauv blanc we had on hand.

I wasn’t sure how well an ’09 sauv blanc would have held up, but it was still drinking well.  I noted a very green, grassy nose with a hint of boxwood and a touch of citrus.  The green notes were dominant on the palate, but I also noted some lime and tropical fruit flavors.  Given my notes from when we bought this wine, it seems like it’s now a bit less fruity than it used to be, but that doesn’t bother me at all.  It was still crisp and refreshing – exactly what I was looking for with this meal.

As far as the food, the Wines of Chile recipes were, once again, a hit.  I have no idea why it never occurred to me to replace half the water used to cook rice with coconut milk, but I really liked the results.  As for the ceviche, it wasn’t really ceviche, but it made a nice shrimp and avocado salad, and it played really well with the sauv blanc.  Both of these recipes are getting added to the rotation at Chez Snark.

 

No Funny Title, Just Congrats to Glen Manor Vineyards!

We couldn’t be there for the fun of the announcement and the tasting of the candidates, but congratulations to Jeff White and Glen Manor Vineyards for winning the 2012 Governor’s Cup with the 2009 Hodder Hill!  This wine is a blend of 63% cab sauv, 25% merlot, 6% each cab franc, and 6% petit verdot.

We also want to congratulate the other wineries who have wines included in the new Governor’s Case:

• Glen Manor Vineyards 2009 Hodder Hill
• Bluestone Vineyard 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon
• Delfosse Vineyards 2007 Meritage
• Jefferson Vineyards 2010 Cabernet Franc
• Keswick Vineyards 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
• Keswick Vineyards 2010 Merlot
• King Family Vineyards 2008 Meritage
• Potomac Point Winery 2009 Heritage Reserve
• Tarara Winery 2010 Honah Lee White
• Trump Winery 2008 Kluge SP Blanc de Blanc Sparkling Wine
•  Veritas Vineyards 2010 Vintner’s Reserve Meritage
•  White Hall Vineyards 2010 Gewurztraminer

For more information on the cup as well as the Governor’s Case, check out Drink What You Like and Dave McIntyre. Way to go, everyone!

 

Naive Child Hears Wine Descriptors and Sets Pencils in Kool-Aid

Glen Manor Vineyards is, hands down, one of my favorite wineries in the state (or the world, really).  I’ve yet to taste one of Jeff White’s wines that I haven’t wanted to take home with me.  Many of the Glen Manor wines we’ve bought to date are ones we’re trying to age, but every time we decide to open one of these wines, I feel immediately better because I know we’re getting a great wine.

The last two months have been really insane for both Grape Envy Guy and me, so an evening with a nice bottle of wine is a wonderful small thing we can do to make a week feel a little bit better.  The Glen Manor 2008 Vin Rouge, a blend of 53% cab sauv, 33% petit verdot, 7% cab franc, and 7% merlot, definitely fit the bill.

I noted a rich, dark fruit nose, plum and black cherry particularly, with a hint of graphite.  Black cherry and some wild berry notes  were what I noted on the palate along with a hint of black pepper and graphite on the finish.  As the wine opened up, it became fruitier with more black raspberry flavors coming out – along with some nice acidity (have you figured out yet that I’m a bit of an acid freak when it comes to my wine?).  After the wine had been open for a while, some licorice flavors also started to come out.

This was an incredibly smooth wine with a lot of great flavors that kept changing as the wine opened up.  I loved that each glass was different than the one before.  Score another win for Glen Manor!

 

…these are a few of my favorite things

For the most part, I’m a red wine drinker.  It’s not that I don’t like white wines, I do.  Maybe this started because reds don’t have to be chilled, so I didn’t have to plan ahead as much.  Maybe it was because it took me longer to find flavorful whites that appealed to me than was the case with reds.  Regardless, the bulk of the wines we buy and drink are red.  That said, one of my favorite wines – the “if you had to be stuck on a desert island with only 1 type f white wine and 1 type of red wine to drink, what would it be” type – is sauvignon blanc.  The crisp, refreshing acidity of a good sauv blanc just makes me happy.

Another thing that makes me incredibly happy are scallops.  Given the expense associated with high quality scallops, they’re not something we buy a whole lot of, but Grape Envy Guy knows how much I love them, so he gets them into our menu plan ever now and then.  Scallops invariably make me want a crisp refreshing white wine to have with dinner, and often, the wine that gets tapped for a pairing is a sauv blanc.

To be perfectly honest, much as I love sauv blanc and VA wine, this isn’t a grape that shines in many parts of VA.  That said, we have been fortunate enough to have some great local sauv blancs from vineyards that clearly have the right micro-climates to get the most from this grape.  My favorites typically come from Jeff White, owner/winemaker at Glen Manor Vineyards, and we recently decided to pair a bottle of his ’07 sauv blanc with some grilled scallops, grilled smashed potatoes, and grilled asparagus all topped with a basil vinaigrette.

So, the wine… The nose was mostly tropical fruit, but there was also a hint of green grassyness in there as well.  On the palate, I note lime, tropical fruit, a hint of grass, some light minerality, and some bracing acidity.  The wine worked really well with the meal – including the asparagus, which is typically seen as a vegetable that doesn’t always pair well with wine.  When tasted with dinner, the fruit flavors were tamed a bit and the minerality became more dominant.

All in all, the evening made for one happy Diva: great wine, great food, and Grape Envy Guy mastered scallop grilling (thanks to a great recipe from Cooks Illustrated)!

 

A Quick Trip To The Future

When we most recently visited Glen Manor Vineyards, Jeff told us that they were starting to take reservations for the first of what they hope will become an annual barrel tasting event.  I immediately set to work convincing Grape Envy Guy that we had to be there.  March and April are bad months for both of us at work, so the challenge was really making sure we could both be free for the tasting, but we made it work, and we were able to get a sneak peak of all the good things to come at Glen Manor.

As usual, we arrived earlier than our scheduled tasting time, but this just gave us time to try the new releases at the tasting bar before heading down to the cellar.  Three new releases were available for tasting along with the Vin Rouge we’d tasted the last time we visited.  The ’09 sauv blanc ($22) was up first.  On the nose, I noted lime and boxwood.  As I started to sip, I again noted lime, some green, grassy element, and some tropical fruit flavors along with a hint of minerality.  Once again, Jeff has a winner with this wine.  The ’09 cab franc ($25)  offered a spicy fruit compote nose.  On the palate, I got a ton of berry, mostly raspberry, along with some cherry and a hint of pine (in a light way) on the finish.  The ’08 Hodder Hill ($30) was up next, a blend of 46% cab sauv, 27% merlot, 15% petit verdot, and 12% cab franc.  This one gave me tons of blackberry and tobacco on the nose as well as balckberry and spice on the palate.  This is a great wine now, but I can only imagine it will get better over the next few years.  The standard tasting ended with the ’08 vin rouge ($28).  For the more everyday red blend being offered, this is one heck of a wine.  I noted dark fruit and licorice from this one.  It may just be that I’m craving greens and fruit these days (the weather has to stay warm so all my farmer’s market favorites start coming in soon), but I really want to pair this one with a balsamic dressed field green salad (with some spicy arugula in the mix) topped with lightly macerated strawberries and candied walnuts.

After tasting through these wines with Kelly upstairs, we then moved  downstairs to taste through 5 more wines.  Jeff was greeting everyone as they arrived and floating from station to station answering people’s more technical questions.  His friends, neighbors, and family members were leading tastings at 5 stations throughout the cellar to give a preview of what was to come over the next few years.

At station 1, we tasted barrel samples of the 2010 cabernet franc.  This is going to be one heck of a wine when it grows up.  I was noting black pepper, dark fruit, and oak.  I also learned at this station that Jeff likes to rotate his wines through newer and older barrels throughout the aging process.  This sample was paired with a turkey & chicken liver mousse.  I’m not a big fan of liver (ever, in any form), but this was quite good and played well with the young wine.

We then moved on to station 2 where we got to try the 2010 Hodder Hill.  About 6 months after harvest, Jeff did some blending trials and then put the blended wine into barrels; this is what we were tasting.  The blend may well change before it gets bottled, but for the time being, the wine is a blend of 71% cab sauv, 22% merlot, and 7% petit verdot (no cab franc so far…).  Right now, the wine we tasted is in new French oak barrels, but Jeff plans to move the wine to older barrels after another year or so.  This is definitely a young wine that didn’t show as “finished” as was true of some of the other barrel samples, but since the wine is still a work in progress, that makes perfect sense.  I noted red fruits and a smack of tannins on the finish from this wine.  The porcini risotto fritter that was paired with this wine helped soften that tannin kick, however.

At station 3, we got to sample the 2010 petit verdot.  My impressions of this wine were silky, fruity, and floral (violet).  This is one heck of a wine, and that’s after only being in the barrel for 3 months!  This wine was paired with a beef and dried cherry empanada – the cherry in the empanada really made the fruit in this wine pop in a great way.

Station 4 then allowed us to sample the still unreleased, but bottled, ’09 petit verdot.  Jeff expects to release this wine in about a year.  This wine is 15% alcohol by volume, but the balance is amazing, and you truly don’t notice it.  Coming from a cooler year, this wine offered a bit less fruit and more earthy/leathery elements along with some notes of coffee and chocolate.  Honestly, much as I appreciate the heft of the ’10 wines, I think I like this ’09 better (although I was one of the few to express this view).  This one was paired with a bitter chocolate, orange peel infused truffle – the pairing worked, but more than that, the truffle was just amazing!

At the final station, we got to taste an experiment, the ’10 late harvest petit manseng.  This wine is being aged in steel barrels (although Jeff mentioned that some of it has been in oak), and this “late harvest” was harvested on 9-3 when it was already 31 brix and starting to raisin (2010 was definitely an interesting year…).  I noted grassy flavors along with a ton of grapefruit and a bit of tropical fruit on the nose.  On the palate, I was confronted with a tropical fruit salad with a hint of grassyness with a bit of grapefruit on the finish.  The wine only has 5% residual sugar, so it’s not too sweet, but it has a ton of great fruit flavors to offer.  This wine was paired with fig preserve and mascarpone on a walnut shortbread.  The bite was yummy, but I don’t think either it or the wine benefited from the pairing.

I love the mood lighting

All I can say is that this was one heck of a sneak peak.  These are really young wines that have some significant cellar aging still to do before they make it up to the tasting bar.  That said, many wineries around the sate would be releasing them now (most of these wines will be released in the spring of 2012 or 2013).  Yes, that’s partially due to financial pressure that prevent wineries from extended cellar aging , especially post bottling,  but it’s also because these wines are already that good.  Jeff grows great fruit and then makes great wine with it by doing as little as he can in the winery.  I know that I’ll be back to see how these wines taste when they’re actually in the bottle.  While Jeff’s not making a ton of wine, I don’t really see how you can go wrong with what he does offer.  If you haven’t made a visit yet, what are you waiting for….

 

Wines From the Anti-Grinch

The Grinch lived on a mountain, high above Whoville. Before his heart grew two sizes in one day, he snuck down to Whoville and stole their Christmas.

Not Jeff White

Contrast this with Jeff White, winemaker and owner of Glen Manor Vineyards. He makes great wine up on his mountain, and us Whos sneak up from Whoville to take his wine. Okay, we actually buy it, but not every metaphor is perfect.

So, Jeff White is onto us. We strolled up to the tasting bar and it wasn’t long before he said “Hey, are you…? Yeah, you totally are!” Dangit. That’s ok though, we were still willing to run him through the wringer. With sharp adamantium teeth on the rollers.

First up was the ’07 Sauvignon Blanc ($22). We’ve reviewed this one before, but what was really cool was seeing how this wine has changed. Their was still crisp acidity, grapefruit, and wet rock minerality, but there’s an additional roundness and richness. It’s softer than the last time we had it, but in a really good way! That was followed by the ’08 Sauvignon Blanc ($12 for a 375 mL, sold out of full bottles). I got much brighter acidity on this one, along with the sauv blanc boxwood nose. Can we call it cat pee? That’s what people mean when they say boxwood. It’s like saying “New York Yankees” when you really mean “Evil Empire.” I hate euphemisms. I’d be a horrible politician. Anyhow, the tasting notes used words like “zingy” and “lime” and I totally agree. Good stuff!

Next on the tasting sheet was the ’08 Cabernet Franc. Sadly they were out. Que lastima (that’s Spanish for “sad trombone.”)

We concluded the tasting with the ’08 Vin Rouge ($28), a blend of 53% cab sauv, 33% petit verdot, with the rest being cab franc and merlot. Jeff considers this to be the second fiddle red to his sold-out Hodder Hill, which… I’m ok with second fiddle if it’s this good. The nose was amazing, so rich that I looked at VA Wine Diva and said “ok, I know you’re going to spend the next fifteen minutes just enjoying the nose, so I’m getting comfortable.” It didn’t disappoint on the palate, with loads of dark red fruit, subtle vanilla/oak, and tannins that were definitely there (but in a good way).

If it’s not apparent, we like the wines here quite a lot. It’s a gorgeous site, a nicely appointed tasting room, and there’s really nothing to take away from that. So there you go. As promised, we still put Glen Manor Vineyards through the wringer.

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Get to Know Your Winemaker: Jeff White of Glen Manor Vineyards

Ever been to a winery that looks like a scene from the Sound of Music? It just so happens that winemaker Jeff White owns one  – Glen Manor Vineyards. Luckily there are no annoying Von Trapp moppets skipping around and singing about female deer and drops of golden sun. G2KYW continues with the ever-awesome Jeff White, who even included a photo of him and his assistant pruning the vines:

Where did you grow up?
I was raised in the town of Oakton in Fairfax County, Virginia.

How long have you lived in Virginia?
Except for attending college in West Virginia for four years, I have lived in Virginia all my life.

What brought you to wine?
I was first brought to farming and later in life to wine and wine farming.  My family has owned and farmed this land where my vineyards and winery are established, since 1901.   Since birth I was brought to our farm to play and explore, visit with my grandparents, celebrate holidays and spend summer vacations helping out with farm chores.  Later in life I worked the land with my father, growing Christmas trees and raising cattle.  In 1990 I got interested in the possibilities of growing grapes here and began the long journey to learn as much as I could, first by reading grape growing documents produced by Virginia Tech and found at my local county extension office, then working a summer for Dr Tony Wolf, the State Viticulturalist, at Virginia Tech’s Fruit Research Station near Winchester, Virginia and finally by working for Jim Law of Linden Vineyards for 13 years.  Within two years of my employment with Linden, I planted my first vineyard in 1995 and left Linden just after the 2005 harvest to establish my own farm winery, Glen Manor Vineyards.

Where else (besides your current winery) have you made wine?
I first made a little homemade wine with fruit, Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, from the Fruit Research Station in 1993.  During my tenure at Linden I assisted with winemaking there and in 2001, I made a little Late Harvest Chardonnay dessert wine with fruit from my own vineyard.

What characteristics do you enjoy in wine?
There are so many but mostly I enjoy when a wine speaks purely to me of it’s place of origin, whether it’s the brashness of fruit and power of California, the subtle complexities of fruits, savories and earth of Bordeaux, the lemon drop steeliness of Chablis,  or the dusty leather and raisin like fruit of Amarone.  I enjoy a wine that keeps my interest and keeps me wanting for more.

If you could have a private tour of any winery in the world, which would you choose?
I guess it would be any and all of Bordeaux’s first growth chateaus.

What is your favorite food and wine pairing?
For white, it would be New England coastal waters raw oysters with Sauvignon Blanc or Champagne.  For red, it would be an old left bank Bordeaux with braised young venison shoulder.

What are your favorite wine varietals?
There are many but to start it would be Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc,  Riesling, etc., etc., etc.

A lot of wine folks are excited for the 2010 wines.  Which of your wines are you most excited about?
2010 was an extraordinary year, especially for the reds so I am very excited about all of my red wines and specifically our Cabernet Sauvignon based blend, labeled Hodder Hill.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?
It’s more was than is but I’d say Bugs Bunny for his abundant confidence and self-actualization and especially for his ability to walk around with his head and ears held high while wearing only gloves.

What is one thing we haven’t asked that you want Virginia wine lovers to know about you or your winery?
What is Glen Manor Vineyards all about?  We’re all about making 100% estate grown wines that reflect the soils in our mountainside vineyards and the vintage during which the grapes ripened and were harvested.  In a word we are purist. We enjoy working long hard hours in our vineyards all throughout the growing season, so during harvest and crush our labors are easy, straightforward and above all pure.   We want our wines to speak of their origin and to compete on the world wine stage.

 

20 Reasons My Wine Region’s Better Than Yours: VA Wine Diva

A while back, Jordan Harris, winemaker at Tarara challenged us, and other Virginia wine bloggers, to list our top 20 Virginia wines.  He was curious not because e wanted to see how many Tarara wines made the list, but because he was interested to see what characteristics seem to be appealing to people.  It took a bit of work to find a date that at least some of us could agree on – never mind the work to narrow the field down to 20 wines – but we’re finally ready to go.  FYI, I limited myself to 2 wines per winery for this list so that I didn’t fall into the trap of just listing a ton of wines from the wineries we’ve visited more frequently.  Please note that the wines are in alphabetical order by winery rather than rank order, so don’t read anything into their placement on the list.  With no further ado, here’s my top 20 VA wine list (of course it might be different if I wrote it tomorrow).  [Grape Envy Guy has his own list.]

1. Boxwood Winery ’09 Rosé:  We’ve been bad bloggers.  We’ve only visited the Boxwood tasting room once, and we’ve never made it out for a reservation only tour at the winery itself.  Because of that, we haven’t talked a lot about Boxwood.  That said, this rosé was one I kept thinking about after trying it at the Drink Local Wine conference last spring.
2. Breaux Vineyards ’01 Nebbiolo:  When I got to try this library wine as part of a blogger event in advance of the Drink Local Wine conference, I knew it was something special.  Grape Envy Guy had thought he hated this grape until he tried this wine as well.  This is one of the wines that’s convinced us to do a better job of aging some of the bottles we bring home.
3. Chrysalis Vineyards ’09 Albariño:  This is the only vintage of the albariño we’ve ever had, so I can’t talk about this one in comparison to other vintage years, but it was enjoyable enough that we’ve started to seek out other albariños to try (albeit from outside of VA).  Let’s hope some more people start experimenting with this grape soon.
4. Chrysalis Vineyards ’03 Norton:  Norton can be a really brash young wine, but it starts to mellow with a bit of maturity.  This is another with that’s convinced us to do a better job of cellaring a number of our wines.
5. Delaplane Cellars ’08 Honah Lee Viognier:  Again, this is the only vintage of this wine we’ve ever tried, but it’s been a big hit with both us and visiting family.  I’m really excited for another visit to Delaplane so we can see what Jim Dolphin’s been up to.  It’s been too long.
6. Glen Manor Vineyards ’07 Hodder Hill:  Jeff White and Glen Manor definitely have a place in the Treehouse of Virginia Wine Awesomeness.  Given that, it was hard to decide which wine(s) of his to include in this list.  In the end, however, I came back to 2 of the reds we tried on our first visit to his winery.  Yum!
7. Glen Manor Vineyards ’07 Petit Verdot:  Yum, part deux.
8. Gray Ghost Vineyards Adieu:  I’m not a huge dessert wine person.  That said, the Adieu is one I return to again and again as a solid winner.  I’ve never had an edition that I didn’t like, so I just list it here in the general sense.  Finally, if you’ve not yet tried this wine with pumpkin pie, you are so missing out.
9. Hiddencroft Vineyards ’07 Petit Verdot:  We like to try before we buy.  That said, sometimes we like what we taste enough to take a risk and buy a wine not available for tasting.  Such was the case with this petit verdot after really enjoying the reds we were able to try.  Clyde did not exaggerate; it was quite a wine.
10. Hume Vineyards ’09 Chambourcin:  Come on, as much as I love chambourcin, you had to know that there’s be one on my list.  Hume’s is the one I recommend most often these days.  When a winemaker enjoys a grape, it tends to show in the wines s/he makes with that grape.  Such is the case with this wine.  (Thanks for enjoying an underdog grape, Stephane.)
11. Jefferson Vineyards ’07 Meritage (preferably the one bottled as a magnum):  The first time I tried this wine was at a snowy Winemaker Wednesday tasting at the Frenchman’s Cellar in Culpeper.  Jeffrey, the store owner, and Andy, the winemaker, had both the ’06 and the ’07 open.  The ’06 was good, but the ’07 was special.  I liked it just as much when I tasted it at Jefferson months later.  When we took part in a special VA vs. the world tasting Andy organized, we then got to try the wine bottled in magnums.  This wine was aged in separate, larger barrels.  Get some – trust me.
12. Linden Vineyards ’07 Avenius Chardonnay:  I’ve typically been a Hardscrabble chard fan.  I still am, but now that I’ve had the opportunity to try the more mineral-drive Avenius chard, I recognize it as more my style.  I was able to taste the ’07 and ’08 side by side at Linden, and the ’07 just stood out a bit more as far as those mineral characteristics.
13. Linden Vineyards ’04 Boisseau Red:  This was a library wine that was part of a Linden cellar tasting we participated in.  Again, age can do something special to a wine.  When we went back upstairs, I got a glass of this wine to enjoy since we couldn’t buy a bottle.  Again, this is what we’re trying to do a better job at aging some of the wines we buy.
14. Lovingston Winery Petit Manseng (both the ’08 and ’09):  I think that people need to start paying attention to VA petit manseng.  It works dry, lightly sweet, and as a dessert wine.  The Lovingston offering is one I keep coming back to.  (I’m already chomping at the bit for the April release of the ’10).  Both bottlings we’ve had have been outstanding.  If you get that chance to try this wine, do.
15. Lovingston Winery ’06 Reserve Merlot:  This is a special wine.  It stood out during both our first and second visits to the winery.  It also stood out as a special wine during our evening wine and food fest following a day of wine tasting with other bloggers on the Eastern Shore.
16. Pollak Vineyards ’08 Merlot:  I’m a Pollak fan; I don’t think this is a secret.  It did, however, make it hard to figure out which Pollak wine(s) would make this list.  In the end, this merlot that I so enjoyed a glass of at the winery and a bottle of at home (come on – it must be a good wine if I need to remind myself to actually sip it)
17. Pollak Vineyards Viognier (both the ’08 and and ’09):  This is another wine where I couldn’t pick a vintage year.  I’ve enjoyed both of these, but, if push came to shove, I’d probably give a slight edge to the ’09, but that might just be because it’s a more recent memory.
18. Rappahannock Cellars ’07 norton port-style dessert wine:  Any wine that gets described as an orgasm in a glass has to be on this list – that is all.
19. Thibaut-Jannison Winery nv Virginia Fizz:  I knew a T-J bubbly would be part of this list.  Prior to our recent VA bubbly comparative tasting, I would have put the flagship brut on this list, but given that I ranked the Fizz first there, I had to give it the nod here.  That said, I still love the T-J brut, so it gets a massive honorable mention.
20. Veritas Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc Reserve (both the ’08 and the ’09):  While the ’10 isn’t rocking my world as much as the two previous editions have, the Veritas sauv blanc, still had to make my list.  If I had to pick one year, I might give a tiny edge to the ’08 (see notes on the ’09 here), but we’re relying on my memory at this point…  In the right years, however, this reserve (the non-reserve is, literally, a different wine), is a special wine.

I want to mention a few wineries which struck me as notable ommisions from this list.  One is Tarara Winery.  Jordan had suggested that Tarara be exempt from this since he suggested the idea, but that’s not why there are none of his wines on this list.  Rather, Tarara is a winery I don’t feel I know well yet.  I hope to rectify this in the near future, but for now I don’t feel that I know enough about their wines to include them.  Likewise, Keswick Vineyards is absent from my list.  I need to spend more time drinking Keswick wines and taste through more of what they offer to get a sense of this winery.  If I were to write this list in another year, they might well be on there.  Finally, I want to mention Chester Gap Cellars.  A couple of Bernd’s wines came close to making this list, but again, I feel like I need to get to know them better to firmly cement their placement.

So, if you had to list your top 20 VA wines, which ones would make the cut?  If you’ve got a blog, link to your list in the comments.  If you don’t, just comment with at least some of your favorites.

 

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!