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.