Rhones Not From The Rhone: WBW #71

When this month’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday was announced by Wine Cast, the host for this edition, I knew that we’d be drinking local.  It’s true that VA wine is what we do, but WBW also offers us a chance to push out of our comfort zone as was true with last month’s theme of wine’s from Spain.  That said, if we can get some bloggers outside of VA excited about the wines of our state, especially with the Wine Bloggers Conference being hosted in Charlottesville this summer, we’re all for it.

One of the grapes that’s become very associated with Virginia is viognier.  While all VA viogniers are not created equal, you can find a lot of nice bottles here.  Given this, we knew a viognier was going to make it into this post.  We typically have a number of options for this grape, but we also typically don’t keep whites on our shelves as long as we do reds since time is not as kind to white wines.  Since 2010 whites are starting to be released, we’re also starting to get low on our ’09s.  In the end, we decided to go with the ’09 viognier from Veritas Vineyards.

When I first sniffed this wine, I noted that there was a ton of fruit to be found in this bottle.  Peach and apricot were the fruits most apparent on the nose with just the barest hint of something floral hidden behind all that fruit.  On the palate, the fruit was tempered a bit.  Stone fruits were still prominent, but they were joined by some pineapple.  I also noted a sweet floral element that made me think of wildflower honey (although I’m pretty sure the sweetness is just a perceptual illusion given all the fruit flavors).  The one downside to this wine is that there was a hint of alcohol on the finish.  This wasn’t a hot wine, however, and this note would likely have been far less noticeable if we’d been drinking this wine with some food rather than on it’s own.

We wanted to do more than just talk about a grape that (some) people already associate with Virginia, so after having a viognier (and some sleep) we started checking our shelves to see if we had any other options to include.  Syrah is another Rhone grape.  While you don’t see a ton of it in VA (as compared to chardonnay, cab franc, merlot, etc.), there are some to be found.  After all, if one grape from a region grows well here, it would stand to reason that others might as well.  I know Delaplane Cellars had an amazing one last spring (Jordan Harris, winemaker at Tarara Winery, called it the best red wine ever made in VA – scroll down to the comments) and Tarara, Keswick Vineyards, and Blenheim Vineyards all make syrahs (although I haven’t had any of them).  In perusing our shelves,we did find a bottle of ’05 syrah we picked up on a visit to Ingleside Vineyards last year.

The nose hinted at an earthy rather than fruity wine as I noted earthy leather with a hint of dark fruit in the background.  As I started to sip, I definitely found the earthy wine I was looking for.  There was an earthy, leathery funkiness that was really working for me.  At some moments, I was reminded of horses and tack while at other times I was thinking more about decomposing leaves from a forest floor.  There was some dark fruit as well, but it was definitely a background note.  I do enjoy a fruit-forward wine, but there are nights when that’s not what I want.  I like some earthy funk and have a harder time finding that with our local wines.  I’m hopefully I’ll find a bit more of it with some other local syrahs which we clearly need to start seeking out.

Because we like to be overachievers (i.e., drink more wine), we decided to round out our WBW exploration of Rhones from VA with a dessert wine offering.  It just so happens, that we had a bottle of ’08 Mille Fleurs from Pollak Vineyards nestled amidst our non-dessert bottles.  This bottle is a first for us: a fortified viognier (although we have had both white and red fortified wines in the past, and we’ve also had late harvest viognier).  My prior experiences with fortified white wines have not generally been positive.  While I’m not much bothered by the higher alcohol content of fortified reds, the whites just always seem hotter and more distracting.  This one, however, wore its 17.5% abv well.  It also wore it’s two years of oak aging well.

On the nose, I noted a hint of the brandy used to fortify the wine.  This was quickly followed by a complex blend of nuttiness, sweet floral elements, and some apricot.  On the palate, I noted a wine that was sweet, but remarkably lightly so.  A rich floral nuttiness was what I most noticed, but there were also some stone fruit flavors and some complex flavors I can best describe as honey-like.  I’ve often spoken of viognier as my favorite winter white since it can be a rich, full-bodied wine.  This one definitely fits the bill in that respect.  That said, I don’t think this is a wine I’d reach for often as it’s outside of what I typically look for in a dessert wine – I typically like them sweeter to satisfy a sweet craving I may experience at the end of the day.  If you’re a fortified wine fan, however, this is one to check out.

So, at the end of this, what can I say about Rhone wines in VA?  They’re worth checking out!  I firmly believe that viognier is among the best whites to be found in the state, and there are enough different styles being produced that it’s likely you’ll find one (or many) that work for you be it fruity, floral, oaked, fortified, etc.  Syrah and other Rhone grapes haven’t made the same impact on the local wine scene yet, but it’s clear that there are some experimenting, and I’m hearing, and drinking, good things, so the other grapes of the Rhone may hold more promise for VA wine yet.

 

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.

 

Of Course There Was No Need to Be Nervous

It’s usual for me to go wine tasting with out my partner in wine, but I did just this in December when I last visited Pollak Vineyards.  As is typically with visits to Pollak, I left with wine.  Since I rarely go wine tasting without Grape Envy Guy, and since the vast majority of our wine purchases are made at VA wineries after doing a tasting, it’s also rare that I’m alone in making our wine buying decisions.  I’m perfectly comfortable picking wine to buy, but as is true with many couples, our tastes sometimes diverge, and we need to negotiate our way to a final purchase decision we can each live with.  When I taste on my own, I have to try to figure out which wine’s will satisfy both of us (even if I occasionally have to resort to his and her bottles to make this happen) without the benefit of a second set of tasting notes.  One of the wines that made it home with me from this Pollak visit was a bottle of the ’09 Durant Red (a 50/50 blend of cab franc and merlot).  I bought it because we’re trying to be better about keeping some lighter red wines around the house, but when I described it, Grape wasn’t overly enthused.  I should have remembered that it was a bottle from Pollak, however – I had nothing to worry about.

Grape Envy Guy himself was the one to select this bottle on a night that called for a light red.  This is a stainless aged red, so it should be no surprise that there was a ton of fresh red fruit to be found in this bottle.  On the nose I noted strawberry, raspberry, and cherry along with a hint of something smokey or earthy.  On the palate I found the lighter-bodied red wine I’d been looking for along with a ton of bright, soft fruit – mostly raspberry and strawberry.  This wine also held up really well into a second night,and a slight hint of earthy leather had begun to emerge. By night 3, however, the acid was a bit too prominent (but it was still quite drinkable).

I guess if I’m going to buy wines without Grape Envy Guy’s input I could do a lot worse than to do so at Pollak.

 

A Welcoming Fire and Wonderful Wines

My ultimate destination on my day of wine tasting without my partner was Pollak Vineyards, so that I could hang out with friends in front of their very inviting fireplace while sharing a bottle of wine and catching up on all the details of life that had kept us from getting together sooner.  When we were deciding on a cville area winery to use as a meeting/hanging out location, Pollak was our first choice.  The staff is incredibly welcoming, the wines are great, and they have space both inside and out where visitors can share a bottle of wine and some wonderful conversation regardless of the weather.  Our winery visits don’t end when the weather turn colder, so we really appreciate these places that offer good indoor space as well as nice outdoor spaces.

I’m sure you care more about the wines than you do the details of conversations about my fairly boring life, so…

They were sampling 8 wines with a 9th for sale. (They’re sold out of their ’08 chard, ’09 pinot gris, and ’08 petit verdot).  Our tasting began with the ’08 chardonnay reserve ($25) which was apparently fermented with native yeast.  There was so much tropical fruit in this wine that I had a hard time believing that it had been fermented in new oak (for only 6 months, however).  I don’t particularly associate tropical flavors with chard, but this one had them in spades (along with some vanilla and a bit of overt oak).  We then moved to the ’09 Durant White ($16), a blend of 60% chard, 30% viognier,and10%pinot gris.  This was a fairly basic, albeit pleasing, white that had a very chardonnay nose with more of the pinot gris on the palate.  One could definitely do a lot worse than this for a go to white wine.  The final white was the ’09 viognier ($20).  This is a stainless aged viognier with tons of bright fruit flavors – lemon struck me as particularly prominent on this day.

We then sampled the ’09 rosé ($16).  Winter is not when I’m most interested in drinking pink, but I was still really interested in the all the berry flavors in this one (mostly strawberry and raspberry).  We were told that this was a blend of the free run juice from all their reds.  This is a winner of a byproduct in my book.

The Durant Red ($16), a 50/50 blend of cab franc and merlot, was the first red we sampled.  Half of the wine is aged in oak and half in steel.  The nose was dominated by the cab franc with a green pepper nose, but the merlot came in more on the palate with some berry flavors.  This wine could get overwhelemed by heavy fare, but I could see it playing well with some grilled chicken – of course, I think it would also make a great sipper.  The ’08 merlot ($20) was up next.  Since we’d recently finished our last bottle of this, I knew I would be leaving with one.  It still had all the berry, cherry,and chocolate elements that made me love this rich wine.

We then moved on to the ’08 cab franc ($20).  This was probably my least favorite of their wines.  Don’t get me wring, it’s fine, but it’s not the best Pollak has to offer.  It ha a jammy, dark fruit nose with a bit of black pepper and lots of dark fruit and more pepper on the palate.  The ’07 meritage ($24) rounded out the tasting.  This is a blend of cab franc (44%), merlot (43%), and petit verdot (13%).  It offered a cedar and fruit nose that wasn’t too heavy.  On the palate, I got cherry, berry, spice, and more cedar.  It was on the lighter side for a meritage, so I wouldn’t pair it with a heavy steak dish, but I really enjoyed the complexity and restraint.

This led to the really hard decision of which wine to drink as we chatted the afternoon away…of course, we knew we really couldn’t go wrong.  As a final note, a 9th wine was for sale: the Mille Fleurs – port of viognier ($30).  Given my appreciation for the other Pollak offerings, I really want to know about this one.  Have you tried it, know someone who’s tried it, had a psychic taste experience? Inquiring minds want to know…

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Must Remember To Sip

Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy a rich nose on a wine? I have..oh well, it bears repeating. I love to savor the swirl and sniff experience. Scent is a huge part of taste, but for me it really is all about the nose (or at least mostly about the nose). I frequently spend so much time smelling a glass of wine that Grape Envy Guy will be well into his glass before I even have my first sip. I sometimes have to prod myself to take the first sip because I know sometime the wine in the mouth doesn’t live up to the promise of the nose.

Thankfully, this was not an issue with the ’08 Pollak Vineyards merlot we recently opened.  After a string of either bad, or at least uninspired, wines, we wanted one we knew we could count on.  Pollak is one of our go to wineries since their wines rarely disappoint us; this one was no exception.

As I savored the nose, I noted blackberries, dried fruit (probably currants), and a hint of earthiness that made me think of damp woodland dirt.  When I did finally take a sip of the wine, I found a ton of dark fruit.  Had I not known this was an ’08, I would have asusmed it was an ’07 given all the ripe fruit flavors.  Blackberry was the dominant flavor, but I also got some coco.  There was also a hefty dose of tannins in this wine, so if you’ve got a bottle, you can probably hang on to it for a while and it will only get better.

Instead of reminding myself to sip the wine because I enjoyed the nose more than the taste, this was a wine that I had to remind myself to sip because I wanted to dive in.  Umm…a wine filled pool – interesting…

 

The High Price of Virginia Wine: Part Deux

We’ve talked about the supposed high cost of VA wines in the past, and we’ll talk about our perceptions of individual wines being good values of overpriced as we recap particular winery visits.  In general, however, we understand the costs inherent in the small production wines we tend to favor.  That said, cost comes up time and again.  Given this, Andy Reagan, the winemaker at Jefferson Vineyards, decided to organize a blind, comparative tasting to see both how VA wines stacked up to similar offerings from around the globe sold at a similar price point and to see which wines were perceived as being worth the cost.

photo credit: KathEats.com

Somehow we made the cut and were invited to the table.  I’m not quite sure how this happened, but it was a wonderful experience.  In addition to us and Andy, tasters included Stephen (Keswick Vineyards winemaker) and Kat Barnard, Bruce Zoecklein, Virginia state enologist and VA Tech professor (so cool to sit at the table with him and chat with him after the tasting!), Jim Raper, wine writer for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper, Stephanie Williams from Flavor Magazine, Richard Hewitt, sommelier from Keswick Hall, Kath Younger from the Kath Eats blog, and Frank Morgan, our fellow VA wine blogger, and other avid wine tasters.  Given that wine isn’t our job – just a hobby gone mad – we can’t afford to do think kind of tasting, so it was great fun to be part of this.

photo credit: KathEats.com

I hated having to score wines, however, since it’s just not something I do – ever.  It as interesting to force myself to think about whether each wine I was tasting was appropriately priced.  Andy also asked us to try to identify the wine region.  No surprise to me, I was really horrible at this.  I did best with identifying the VA and French wines, as well as a crazy hot CA cab blend, I made a lot of mistakes.  The interesting thing was that I was able to pick out the Keswick wines each time they appeared.  This is surprising because we’ve only tasted Keswick wines on 5 occasions in 4 years – 3 times at the winery, once at the Drink Local Wine conference, and once at a local wine shop – and have only had 2 (maybe 3) bottles at home.  I think there’s something that stands out to me about Stephan’s use of oak.  I don’t always love it, but I can recognize it.

On to the wines.  Andy organized the wines in 6 flights: Pinot Gris (5 wines), Viognier (8 wines), Chardonnay (4 wines), Cabernet Franc (6 wines), Merlot (8 wines), and Bordeaux-style blends (6 wines).  All wines were from a similar price point (although he occasionally threw in a distractor bottle from a higher or lower price point). We were asked to rate each of the whites on aroma, fruit, acidity, mouthfeel, finish, and overall complexity.  We were asked to score tannin for the reds as well.  I rarely think about wines in this way, so it was interesting to notice how much acid and aroma influenced my overall perception of a wine.

photo credit: Kat Barnard

Pinot Gris:

1. ’09 Eola Hills, Oregon – $14
2. ’09 Adelsheim, Willamette Valley Oregon – $22
3. ’09 Jefferson, Virginia – $19
4. ’05 Charles Schleret, Alsace France – $22
5. ’09 Pollak, Virginia – $23

I’m not a big pinot gris drinker, as I tend to find the wine a bit boring, so I won’t normally pay $20 for one.  That said, I have enjoyed the Pollak in the past, so I clearly thought it was worth the money at the time I bought it.  Of these wines, my favorite was actually the Eola Hills, and the group winner was the Jefferson.  The Pollak ranked second overall, and both VA wines were judged as being appropriately priced by the majority of the panel.

photo credit: Kat Barnard

Viognier:

1. ’07 Chateau Camplazens Vin de Pays D’Oc, France – $18
2. ’09 Jefferson, Virginia – $24
3. ’05 Terra Blanca, Yakima Valley Washington – $15
4. ’09 Keswick Estate Reserve, Virginia – $25
5. ’07 Porter Creek, Russian River Valley California – $37
6. ’06 Francois Villard De Poncins Condrieu, France – $75
7. ’09 Blenheim, Virginia – $22
8. ’09 Yalumba, South Australia – $16

For me, viognier is all about Virginia, so it’s no surprise to me that Jefferson and Keswick ranked 1 and 2 for me.  By scores, Jefferson got the edge here, but Keswick had a slight edge in my rank ordering.  Jefferson also won the overall tasting.  The Blenheim rated 4th overall.  The Condrieu rated 5th (although lower for me personally since I don’t want that much oak in my viognier).  I definitely wouldn’t pay this much, but perhaps someone can explain the allure for me.  FYI, only the top 3 wines and the Condrieu were rated as appropriately priced (and the Condrieu was a clear ringer at $75, so that rating is worthless).

photo credit: Kar Barnard

Chardonnay:

1. ’09 Hamilton Russell, Hemel-en-Aarde Valley South Africa – $28
2. ’09 Maison Champy Pouilly-Fuisse, France – $29
3. ’09 Catena, Mendoza Argentina – $18
4. ’09 Jefferson Reserve, Virginia – $22

I’m so over chardonnay! Given this, I was really glad that there were only 4 wines in this flight.  My favorite was the Hamilton Russel, and the overall winner was the Jefferson, but I just don’t care.

photo credit: Kat Barnard

Cabernet Franc:

1. ’09 Blenheim, Virginia – $18
2. ’05 Frederic Mabileau Saint Nicolas de Bourgueil Eclipse, France – $35
3. ’08 Jefferson Reserve, Virginia – $30
4. ’08 Lang & Reed, North Coast Napa California – $26
5. ’08 RAATS, Stellenbosch South Africa – $32
6. ’09 Keswick, Virginia – $24

The RAATS was my top wine in this flight by score, but the Jefferson came out on top in my personal rankings (and second by score).  Among the tasters overall, the RAATS was the top wine followed by the Keswick and the Jefferson.  The Blenheim came in 5th.  While the panel as a whole rated all but the Lang & Reed as appropriately priced, I think most of these wines were trending high.  The Blenheim and Keswick are in the price range (under $25) where I can find many local cab francs I like, so I’d be unlikely to buy most of these.

photo credit: Kat Barnard

Merlot:

1. ’04 Te Awa, Hawks Bay New Zealand – $21
2. ’07 Jefferson Reserve, Virginia – $35
3. ’06 Mauvais Garcon, Bordeaux France – $25
4. ’09 Keswick, Virginia – $25
5. ’09 Blenheim, Virginia – $18
6. ’06 Thelema, Stellenbosch South Africa – $30
7. ’06 Di Lenardo ‘Just Me’, Italy – $30
8. ’07 Sbragia, Dry Creek Home Ranch, Sonoma California – $27

I’ve come back to merlot in the last few years.  It turns out that it’s not that I don’t like merlot – I just don’t like bad merlot.  This is the one flight where VA wines weren’t doing it for me.  My winners were the Di Lenardo and the Mauvais Garcon (tied numerically) with the Di Lenardo getting my top raking.  The VA wines came 3rd (Keswick), 5th (Blenheim), and 6th (Jefferson).  The Di Lenardo also carried the panel with the Keswick coming in second.  Most tasters judged the Keswick and Jefferson to be priced competitively within the flight but not the Blenheim (which was the least expensive wine, FYI).  Given my dislike of the oaked nature of the Jefferson reserve merlot, however, I thought it was overpriced (although all the oak probably also explains some of the price difference).

photo credit: Kat Barnard

Bordeaux-style Blends:

1. ’08 Chappellet Mountain Cuvee, Napa Valley California – $33
2. ’07 Jefferson Meritage, Virginia – $30
3. ’07 Keswick Heritage, Virginia – $34
4. ’06 Mulderbosch Faithful Hound, South Africa – $24
5. ’05 Chateau Cambon La Pelouse Haut-Medoc, Bordeaux France – $31
6. ’06 Don Tiburcio, Mendoza Argentina – $13

Bordeaux blends are my favorite wines.  They’re what I reach for most often, and they’re definitely what you find the most of on our racks.  VA came out at the top of my score sheet with the Jefferson edging out the Keswick, but the Haut-Medoc placed ahead of the Keswick in my rankings.  Overall the Keswick carried the panel followed by the Chappellet and the Jefferson.  I was amused, because that Napa blend stood out to me from the first sniff – and not in a good way.  It ranked at the bottom of my list.  FYI, the South African, French, and Argentinian wines were all judged to be priced incorrectly.  The Argentinian was a value ringer, however, and many were astounded by the value it offered when the wine and the price were revealed.  I couldn’t get past the methol nose that just made me think of vicks vapor rub – definitely not for me.

After the tasting, Andy treated us all to a late lunch and eventually brought out a magnum of the ’07 meritage for us to try.  Apparently the wine bottled in the magnums was aged in larger barrels for longer.  It was incredibly smooth.  I enjoyed both the small and large format bottlings when tasted side by side, but there was something really special about that big bottle. (I so want one now!)

photo credit: KathEats.com

To sum up – VA wines showed very well.  It would have been nice to have a wider array of VA wines, but clearly those organizing had a stake in having their wines be part of the tasting.  I definitely learned a lot and was reassured that VA wines are priced competitively if people just look beyond the “they make wine in VA?” factor.  Finally, I want to thank Andy and Jefferson Vineyards once again for hosting this really educational event.  Hopefully we’ll be able to make the cut for future such tastings so we can keep learning about VA wine as well as wines from around the world.

(A special thanks goes out to Kath Younger and Kat Barnard for letting me use some of their photos from the tasting when my camera decided to throw a hissy fit and eat my pics from the day leaving me with only the few pics from my phone.) 🙂

 

A Vintage Celebration

When we sat down to watch Vintage on Tuesday night, we wanted to be drinking VA wine.  Given that nearly all the wine in our house is from VA, that was easy to accomplish.  We also thought it would be appropriate to drink a Monticello AVA wine since that was the focus of this documentary.  Also easy to accomplish; that’s one of our favorite wine regions in the state (good wines at good prices).  The hard part was making a specific choice.  It would have been perfect to drink a 2008 from one of the featured wineries, but I couldn’t remember the year featured in the movie, and I really didn’t want to limit myself that much anyway.  After staring at our shelves, we decided to go with a bottle of the 2007 Pollak Vineyards cabernet sauvignon.   We don’t drink a lot of VA cab sauvs (in blends sure, but on their own, they typically aren’t my favorites), but this one had really made an impression on me in the tasting room, so I was excited to open the bottle.

I spent a long time savoring the nose on this wine.  I do this a lot, but there’s something about the wines from Pollak that really encourages this behavior in me.  I’ve been known to slow down a tasting at the tasting bar because of it, and I definitely savor even more slowly at home because I spent so much time sniffing before I ever get to sipping.  There were a lot of layers to this that I couldn’t really identify/tease apart, but I was definitely getting raspberry and blackberry along with a slight hint of alcohol (the alcohol wasn’t overly strong, but it was there).  I did a better job of identifying what I was finding on the palate (although everyone is likely to find something a little different).  Red fruit were definitely front and center in this wine.  Raspberry flavors were the first thing I notices, but they transitioned to strawberry as I swirled the wine in my mouth.  An earthy element was also present that I can best describe as begin slightly leathery.  There was also a bit of spice on the finish.  This wine is still a bit you and tannic and softened a bit after being open/aerated (we didn’t decant – more dishes were not needed – but I did swirl vigorously and let it sit for a while before drinking).

I did find myself wishing that I’d waited just a bit longer to open this wine, but waiting has never been my strong suit.  The wine was incredibly enjoyable though, so i can’t really regret our decision to open it.  Wine is meant to be enjoyed, and any time you do that is the right time as far as I’m concerned.  On a final note, I really do think this fish is steadily climbing the ladder – we’d better make sure we’ve got room in the treehouse (of Virginia wine awesomeness).

 

A Fish That Climbs Ladders

We were in the Charlottesville area with some friends and we decided to take them by Pollak Vineyards, a winery fast becoming a favorite of ours. Yes, we did just review these guys, but we got to try two new wines. First was the ’08 cab franc. This is a really dark, rich, sexy wine, with cherry and pepper all over it. I could see it aging well, but I would also drink the heck out of it right now.

We also got to check out the ’08 petit verdot. This was a big, fruit-forward wine with a little earthiness as well and a long finish. Of course we tasted the rest of the offerings, but you’ve already heard from us on that.

The important point of this post is that yes, this fish can climb a ladder- one more awesome tasting experience here and Pollak may just make it into the Treehouse of Virginia Wine Awesomeness!

 

Boring? Au contraire mon frere!

I’m not a big pinot gris/grigio fan.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll drink a glass if it’s offered, and you can often get an inoffensive, basic wine cheap enough that it can be fine to cook with, but it generally does nothing for me.  I totally agreed with Matthieu Finot, winemaker at King Family Vineyards, when he said the pinot gris is boring at the Drink Local Wine conference when asked why none of the panelists had talked about the relative success of this grape in VA.  The Pollak Vineyards pinot gris, however is definitely not boring.

We brought a bottle of the ’09 pinot gris home with us from our most recent visit to Pollak, and then discovered we must have liked the previous year’s offering as well since we still had a bottle of the ’08 on our shelf.  I took this as a sign and popped it in the fridge.  I was in the mood for a light, fun wine the other night, so this wine seemed like a good option.

The nose was surprisingly grassy at first.  As it warmed up the grassy notes lightened a bit to be joined by some tropical fruit aromas.  When I first tasted the wine, the first thing I took note of was the bit of residual sugar in this wine.  I’m not used to this in pinot gris, and I’m not usually a bit fan of sweeter wines, but the off-dry nature of this wine really worked for me.  There was definitely a lot of fruit flavor going on wit this wine.  I got hints of citrus, mostly orange, along with some peach and general tropical fruit flavors.  There was also a hint of minerality that helped cut through the sugar.

This wine is fun without being juvenile (it’s not a wine version of a sugary fruit drink), and it’s definitely not boring.  It also has a slight pinkish hue if you look at it in the right light from the limited contact it has with the grape skins (did you know pinot gris is a red skinned grape?).  The ’09 offering is every bit as good as the ’08, so stop by Pollak and check it out.

 

I Hate It When This Happens

Last summer, Pollak Vineyards was the first place we visited on our anniversary wine tasting tour through the c-ville area.  We liked the wines, but it was the first of many wineries visited in a small number of days, so we restrained ourselves from buying too much wine there.  Of course, we did make a swing back through when I was experiencing unrelenting non-buyers remorse.  When we got a chance to connect with some other VA wine bloggers in person at the Drink Local Wine conference, Paul and Warren from Virginia Wine Time mentioned that Pollak is becoming one of their favorite wineries.  We wanted to head back to some c-ville wineries, so this convinced us to move Pollak up that list.

I’m really glad that we went back, but the quality of the wines really frustrated me because I wanted to leave with too many different bottles (darn budgets!).  They were tasting 8 wines from their list the day we were there but we also lucked into a tasting of the ’08 chardonnay reserve as well since they had an open bottle at the tasting bar.  This wine is not usually available for tasting since they have limited quantities of it, but it was interesting to try since it’s a native fermentation wine (i.e., they’re letting the wild yeast ferment the wine rather than “controlling” it with additions of specific strains of cultured yeast).  You definitely smell the oak along with a creamy element, and when I tasted it I got the image of brie and apples.  I appreciate when an oaked chard has enough balance that I can still taste some fruit.  I’m not a huge chard lover, so I wasn’t chomping at the bit for this wine, but it’s definitely another nice offering.

The basic tasting actually started with the ’08 chard.  There was light oak on the nose, but again, the fruit came through with some creaminess.  It was definitely the tarter of the two chards, and less complex, but it’s a reasonable value at $14.  The ’09 viognier definitely impressed me, however.  It had a very tropical nose with lots of fruit on the palate and a long floral finish.  We’d been able to taste this at the DLW10 twitter taste off, but it got lost in the mix of too many wines and too little time; it showed really well when given the time to enjoy it, however.  The ’09 pinot gris may have been the surprise of the day for me.  I typical find wine from this grape a bit boring.  This one had a lot of nice tropical notes that added something to it; it’s also got 1.5% residual sugar which makes this seem like a fun campfire wine for us this summer.

The ’08 rosé, the juice bled off from the cab sauv, cab franc, petit verdot, and merlot after appox. 10 hours, didn’t really jump out at me.  It had a floral, peachy, berry nose and some raspberry flavors, but it wasn’t my thing.  The ’08 merlot was much more interesting to me.  It’s definitely still young and tight, so I did a whole lot of swirling, but it really opened up into a complex wine with a lot of fruit and hints of earthiness.  The ’07 cab franc had plenty of fruit (gotta love ’07 for that), but it also had some of the pepper notes I associate with cab franc on the finish.  There was also a hint of something else I had trouble putting my finger on – maybe chocolate?  I was holding up the tasting for everyone else at this point, however, so I just moved on.  The ’07 cab sauv was up next.  While I’m not a big fan of VA cab sauvs, this was a complex yet smooth wine that I really enjoyed.  There were red fruits on the nose and cherry, strawberry, leather, and spice notes on the palate.  The final wine was the ’07 Meritage.  This one is all dark fruit with currants, cherry and spice along with a bit of cedar in the mix.  The mid-palate was really full with this wine.

At the end of the tasting, we had no idea what to take home with us because so many of the wines were so good.  We each got a glass of wine along with a cheese plate to allow us time to mull over our options on the porch.  I really enjoyed my merlot as it opened up while Grape Envy Guy seemed to savor the cab franc he hadn’t appreciated as much during our visit last summer.  Paul and Warren were right – this is a great place doing some nice work with their grapes.  I doubt we’ll be waiting as long to make another return trip.

[mappress]