Former Senator Joe McCarthy Not a Summer Wine Fan, Lambasts Drinkers of Pinko Gris

As I mentioned recently, spring is all about rose for me.  Of course, I like variety far too much to drink only pink.  That means spring is also about drinking some of our older white wines, the ones that won’t particularly benefit from bottle age, to free up some shelf space for the newly released whites that become available at some many wineries at this time of year.

One such bottle that was already in the fridge just waiting for me to pop the cork was a bottle of ’09 pinot gris from Pollak Vineyards.  For whatever reason, this bottle kept getting lost in the shuffle on our racks.  I then moved it to the fridge so that we’d open it, and the same thing happened.  I finally decided that waiting for the perfect meal or the perfect evening wasn’t going to happen, so I just grabbed it on a night that seemed to call for some local fermented grape juice.

This wine had a very fruity nose – pineapple, mango, and peach were the scents I particularly noted.  On the palate, I was first struck by floral notes followed by the fruit.  This wasn’t a wine that made me find religion, or even a wine I’d find myself reaching for all the time, but it was an enjoyable accompaniment to the evening.  The one thing that was not working for me, however, was the finish.  I noted something that I can best describe as alcohol on the finish.  Don’t get me wrong, the wine wasn’t hot, but that one note struck me as unpleasant.

On the upside, There’s now more room on the wine racks, and it’s time for me to restock the fridge!

 

Willy Wonka Distills Wines and Charcuterie into Viggy Figgy Piggy Swiggy Gum

Last week, my partner filled you in on our most recent visit to Pollak Vineyards.  We were with friends and decided to hang out sipping some wine and nibbling on some bread and cheese as we caught up with some great friends whom we see far too little of.  Pollak has a friendly staff and a bright and open tasting room.  They also had a nice fire going and enough wines we all enjoyed that it seemed like a great place to spend the afternoon.

After some group negotiations, we decided to buy a bottle of the ’09 merlot and order a cheese plate (baguette, block of cheese, and some jam).  There were 4 cheese options available, and we decided to go with one that was new to all of us – a block of der alpen kase, which was described as being like aged gruyere.  That sounded good to us…it wasn’t.  Oh well, when one food is compared to another food, disappointment often results.  Our plate also came with a few spoonfuls of pippin jam from Jams According to Daniel.  His jams are amazing, and we knew that we’d want more to go with all the bread, so we perused the list of available options and decided on a jar of the fig jam as I thought it would go well with the wine.

With our choices made, we turned to the wine.  Like the ’08 GEG and I recently opened at home, the ’09 had rich, earthy berry flavors with some spice on the finish.  The cheese was a nice snack, but while it didn’t fight with the wine, neither did anything for the other.  The fig jam, on the other hand – YUM!  The earthy flavors of the figs were a great match with the wine.  It tones done some of the berry notes, brought the earthy ones to the forefront, and even brought out a few fig notes.

Given that we had the ’08 and ’09 Pollak merlots in a short span of time, it’s clear to me that there’s some vintage consistency.  That’s a great thing – especially if, like me in this case, you like the flavor profile of that wine.

 

Cocky Fighter Pilot Awkwardly Serenades Coquettish Winery

Ah, Pollak Vineyards. We fell in love with them on our first trip to visit Charlottesville area wineries and continued to feel the love for months. A few experiences caused us to wonder- had we lost that loving feeling?

We headed to Pollak to find out for sure. It was a gray winter day, so we were only sharing the tasting bar with one other group, which was nice. Eight wines were available to taste for the paltry sum of five dollars, so we began.

Wine number one was the 2010 Chardonnay ($19), which was different from most chards. This one had lots of fruit of the more tropical variety, along with citrus and creamy oak. I’d call this a very clean white wine, and it was pleasant if unusual. Next up was the 2010 Viognier ($20). There was a ton of rich apricot and peach on the nose, but I swear that in the time it took me to bring the glass to my lips, this fruit vaulted over the rim, rolled off the tasting bar, and scampered out the door. It was very light on the palate without a lot of distinct flavor and sort of meh.

The 2010 Durant White ($16) is a blend of 60% Chardonnay, 30% Viognier, and 10% Pinot Gris. I got a good bit of lime and some tropical notes. As table whites go, this is fine. We moved to the reds with Durant’s tinted sibling, the 2010 Durant Red ($16). This had more to offer, with rich berry on the nose and nice, bright acidity.

The 2009 Merlot ($20) was also quite tasty with a nice mouthfeel, loads of berry on the nose, and a finish that hung around for a bit. The 2009 Cabernet Franc ($20) had loads of rich red fruit (their notes say pomegranate, to which I say sure), a nice hit of black pepper, and a rich and velvety feel. This is one that could get me in trouble were we to buy a wine to sit and sip at the winery. It’s the Pringles Effect: once you pop you just can’t stop.

The 2009 Meritage ($25) was still well made if not as exciting. This blend of 44% Cabernet Franc, 43% Merlot, and 13% Petit Verdot had a great fruity nose and some earthy notes to it, but it felt like it wasn’t there yet. Maybe it needs more time in the bottle? Don’t know. We finished with the 2009 Petit Verdot ($28), a grape with which I’ve had an up and down relationship. My partner reacted better to this wine than I did. It wasn’t for me.

Available for purchase only was the 2009 Mille Fleurs ($30), a Port-style wine made from Viognier. We didn’t try it (obviously) but I figured I’d mention it. So what’s the final verdict? Have we lost that loving feeling? I could talk about that fact that while I didn’t lust over everything we tried there were some definite standouts, but I think that in the interests of symmetry I’ll turn, once again, to the best movie ever made in the 80s about F-14 pilots:

 

Starving Artists Guild Hires Sommelier to Pair Wine with Ramen Noodles

While merlot is not a wine either Grape Envy Guy or I would likely name as our favorite, it is a wine that we’ve learned to appreciate now that we’ve stocked drinking supermarket swill.  While we’re trying to do more pairing of wine with food, sometimes dinner doesn’t really work with wine or dinner is so rushed that we don’t even think about wine until we finally hit a point in the evening where we can take a breath and relax.  Still other evenings invovle dinner plans gone totally awry and we end up eating ramen and looking for a post-dinner consolation beverage.  On one such evening, a post-dinner perusal of our wine database led us to select a bottle of 2008 Pollak Vineyards merlot.

We’ve found Pollak to be a pretty consistent producer, and this wine didn’t change my opinion.  The wine offered a rich, dark, dried fruit nose.  I love a wine with so much going on in the aroma department that I can happily sniff for quite some time before I start to sip.  As I spent more time with the wine, I started to note plum, raspberry, and dried cherry notes.  Once I started to sip, I initially noted an earthy element, and the wine still had some grippy tannins that made me wish we were still eating dinner.  I also noted a spice on the finish that I initially described as anise.

As the wine opened up, the indistinct earthy dried fruit notes became more specifically earthy raspberry, and the spice note on the finish was more clearly cardamom.  I wish I could talk with you about how this wine continued to evolve into night 2, because I think it would have, but it didn’t make it to night 2.  Oh well, I guess if you have to eat ramen you can at least drink nice wine.

 

Buxom Teen Discovers the Danger of Looking in the Mirror and Whispering “Winemaker, Winemaker, Winemaker”

Ladies and gentlemen, Jake Busching!

On March 3rd at 3:33, the wine “3” was released.  This wine was a collaborations of Matthieu Finot  (winemaker at King Family Vineyards), Jake Busching (then the winemaker at Pollak Vineyards), and Emily Pelton (winemaker at Veritas Vineyards).  The wine was a blend of 33% merlot from King Family, 33% cab franc from Pollak, and 33% petit verdot from Veritas (all from 2009).  We were unable to make it to the release party, but we were able to buy 2 bottles of this wine.

We were told by a number of people who did try the wine at its release that the wine would definitely benefit from more time in the bottle, so we put them on the rack and did our best to forget about them for a while.  With friends and family visiting for the holidays, however, it seemed like a good time to open one of the bottles to see how the wine was drinking.

Initially, I was struck by all the fruit on the nose, cherry and cranberry, along with some violet.  As I started to sip the wine, I initially found it to be cab franc dominant with lots of cherry and black pepper.  I also noted some mushroomy earthiness at the back as well as the fact there there is still a really firm tannic structure to this wine.

As the wine opened up more, and as we paired it with our roast beef tenderloin, I noted more petit verdot characteristics of violet and graphite.  The wine was a major winner when paired with the simply prepared beef (roasted with oil, salt, and pepper).  We found ourselves wishing the bottle were larger, but we really want to wait a while longer before opening our second bottle so that we can see how the wine continues to develop.

I’m not sure what Jake Bushing leaving Pollak means for a 2010 version of “3,” but we’re definitely glad that we were able to enjoy the ’09 collaboration.

 

 

International Bloggers Guild Limits Number of “Re” in Re-re-re-re-re-visit

Wow. So here we are, literally hundreds of posts in and re-re-REvisiting wineries. Craziness! One winery we’ve visited numerous times is Pollak Vineyards, so we had an idea of what to expect. We strode purposefully up to the bar and fixed the pourer with a gaze that would have done Billy the Kid proud… had he been half of  a wine-loving nerd couple in cowboy boot hybrid flip flops.

Source: cactuscreekdaily.com

First up was the 2009 Chardonnay ($15). I was taken aback with how tropical this chard was, both on the nose and palate, with great toasty and fruity notes with a light touch of oak. The 2010 Viognier ($20) had tropical and stone fruits on the nose and was much, much lighter than I had expected.

The 2010 Pinot Gris ($18), with 0.75% residual sugar, was just ok for me. There was something on the nose that I didn’t love and the fruit on the palate was okay if kind of basic. We ended the whites with the 2009 Durant White ($16), a blend of 60% Chardonnay, 30% Viognier, and 10% Pinot Gris with1% residual sugar that’s done entirely in stainless steel. This wine shows a good bit of fruit without overwhelming sweetness in a solid table wine.

Let’s go to the reds, as the French would say if they were speaking English! First up is the 2009 Durant Red ($12), a 50/50 blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot. With loads of berry and cab franc lovin’, this is a wine that is actually a nice light summer red. The 2009 Merlot ($20) had a rocking nose full of dark berry lovin’ but the palate left me feeling a little let down.

The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon ($24) had copious amounts (I need to stop saying “loads”) of fruit on the nose and palate, with some green/herbal notes that lent an enjoyable complexity to the wine. We finished with the 2008 Meritage ($25), a blend of 44% Cabernet Franc, 43% Merlot, and 13% Petit Verdot. This wine is aging very well. It’s silky smooth with loads of fruit, earthiness, and spice. It’s also a heck of a value for the price.

What was also exciting was that for whatever reason, this was the first time in all our trips to Pollak that we’ve taken the time to wander around the grounds. It’s pretty!

Pollak is a pretty reliable winery; solid wines in a beautiful space at a great price. Have you been? Do you have a favorite?

 

 

“You’re Not the Viognier I Thought You Were!” She Gasped

When the weather starts to warm, we typically start to drink more white wines.  Such was the case in March when we opened a bottle of ’09 Pollak viognier.  That bottle was filled with great fruit flavors and made us think of all the great things to come in spring and summer.  We had a second bottle of this wine left on our shelves, and we opened it recently.  Unfortunately, we had a different reaction this time.

This time, I got only a hint of stone fruit and floral notes on the nose along with a whiff of alcohol.  In the mouth, I again noted only light stone fruit flavors along with a hint of citrus (likely lime, but that might just be due to the influence of having read my earlier review).  There was also some alcohol harshness that struck me as really unusual for a Pollak wine.

In general, I’d sum this wine up as harsher and flatter than I remember it.  So, what’s going on here?  I’m not in a position to give a formal answer to this, but I did want to share the thoughts running through my head.

First of all, we could have had a bad bottle.  This happens.  Were we not very familiar with this vineyard, however, that experience could really turn us off a return visit.  The other option that comes readily to mind is that we held onto this wine a bit too long.  With a few exceptions for wines we’ve been told will stand up well to some age, we typically try to drink whites by approximately the time the next vintage is released.  For this wine, that would have been some time in the spring.  I’d love to think that those few extra months shouldn’t matter, but maybe they did.  After all, we recently had a similar negative expereince with a rosé from Pollak, so maybe these wines just don’t stand the test of time well.

Have we just had some bad luck recently?  Are there other possibilities we haven’t considered?

 

They Can’t All Be Winners

We’ve been fans of Pollak Vineyards since our first visit almost 2 years ago.  While we haven’t loved every wine we’ve tried there enough to bring it home with us, we’ve enjoyed most of what we’ve tried.  When we’ve subsequently opened the wines at home, we’ve continued to be happy with our purchases.  Apparently all good things must come to an end, and we recently opened a bottle that was not doing it for us.

The wine was the ’09 rosé.  We bought it during the winter so we’d have some pink wine on hand for when things started to heat up in the spring.  Thankfully for us, the spring was fairly cool, so we didn’t turn to pink wines until recently.  When we opened this bottle, we noted a somewhat chemical nose that had slight hints of acetone.  As i sipped, these chemical notes were definitely less noticeable, but they were still there at the edges.  Most of what I was getting at this point was that fake strawberry flavor you get from some candy.  There was also some black pepper and a slight hint of something herbal that makes me think cab franc is definitely a part of the blend.

Oh well – I’ve had enough good experiences with Pollak that I’m still looking forward to future tastes of their wines.

 

Non-buyers remorse

Back when we first started blogging, we spent a long weekend visiting Charlottesville-area wineries to celebrate our anniversary.  One of the wineries we visited was Pollak Vineyards, and since it was the first one we stopped at on this trip, we tried to restrain ourselves with our wine purchases.  In the end, however, I experienced unrelenting non-buyers remorse, and we made a return trip before heading home to pick up a bottle of the ’06 meritage.

Given our wine hobby, we’re got enough wine on our shelves that we can give some additional bottle age to some, and this was one we chose to hold on to for a while.  If you’ve still got a bottle of this on your shelves, don’t feel that you need to rush to open it but know that it is drinking very well.

This wine is a blend of 44% cab franc, 43% merlot, and 13% petit verdot.  On the nose, I got a lot of dark, dried fruit along with some earthy/leathery notes that I attribute to the petit verdot.  On the palate, fresh fruit flavors dominated.  Initially I got a lot of berry, but this started to give way to some cherry.  There were some fragrant spice notes as well as a hint of anise, but there wasn’t much of the black pepper that you might expect from a VA wine with this much cab franc in it.

All in all, I’m glad we made the trip back for this wine – avoiding both buyers and non-buyers remorse is a great thing.

 

Think Spring

I’ve lived in Virginia long enough to know that I shouldn’t get too complacent about the warmer temperatures at the end of the winter/start of spring.  Given the relatively mild winter we’ve had this year, I feel like I need to be particularly careful not to jinx things.  That said, I’ve decide to embrace the warmer days when they’re here, and part of thinking spring in my book is drinking like its spring.  That means I’m starting to add more white wines into the rotation.  One of these wines we had recently was the 2009 Pollak Vineyards viognier.

When I first swirled and sniffed this wine, I noted some fairly typical viognier characteristics: white stone fruit (primarily apricot) and honeysuckle.  As I started to sip, however, I noted some interesting elements.  I noted the honeysuckle, apricot, and peach you might expect from a viognier, but I also noted some lime zest elements.  Lime is not a flavor I typically associate with viognier, but it was really working for me here.  I also noted that this wine, aged completely in stainless steel, had a nice full mouthfeel.  You typically find that slightly fuller-bodied viognier when some oak is used, but here you can find it without the oak influence (something I’m not typically a big fan of with this grape).

Pollak has become one of our favorite wineries, a place where we can count on both the reds and the whites to deliver for us on a regular basis.  This bottle just makes me really excited for a taste of their 2010 viognier.  You’ve got to love the optimism spring can bring.