Tune into Twitter this evening at 7:30 to participate in the LIVE tasting of the new release of the 2008 Wooloomooloo from Mountfair Vineyards. Several wine bloggers and industry people will all be tasting the wine at the same time and Tweeting about it LIVE! Join in the fun! Ask questions! Find out what we all think of the wine! Click over on the right side to follow us on Twitter! You can also follow the #mountfair hashtag to read all the Tweets about the wine.
Over the weekend we went to Breaux Vineyards to pick up my cellar club selections. As you may or may not remember the wines in the Cellar Club at Breaux are created just for the club members. That’s what makes this wine club special. While at Breaux to pick up the wines, we decided to do a regular tasting with one of our favorite tasting associates, Sylvia. Many of the 2009 whites were recently released.
The Cellar Club selections included the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Water Bent Barrels. We noted smoke, citrus, and nice acids. The water bent barrels make this a really nice wine. The Cellar Club selections also included the 2007 Merlot. Here we noted extracted fruit, integrated tannins, and smoke. You can drink this one now or save it for years to come.
Here’s a rundown of the 2009 whites from the regular tasting and what we noted about each one. After tasting them all we decided we liked them all and couldn’t decide on specific gold stars.
2009 Jolie Blonde-lemon, grapefruit, crisp, and dry
2009 Viognier-honeysuckle, peach, tart, citrus
2009 Madeleine’s Chardonnay-pear, tropical fruit, pineapple, crisp
2009 Jennifer’s Jambalaya-1% residual sugar, crisp, nice acids, lime
2009 Nebbiolo Ice-peach, creamy, nice texture
During our tasting with Sylvia, Bruce came in with fresh barber juice. In the winery they were in the process pushing down the fruit and Bruce secured a taste of the fresh juice for us. It was very sweet and fibrous.
On another note we have to mention the Equation. Every time we taste the Equation we note something different. This wine is definitely changing with time. We appreciate the changes each time we taste it. It just keeps getting better. We even left with a bottle this time! Plan a visit to Breaux Vineyards soon and check out all the new white wines and re-discover some of the reds again and of course, tell them Virginia Wine Time sent you!
On Saturday we went to the Wine Festival at The Plains. Great Meadow is a beautiful location for a wine festival and the weather made it even more perfect. The event is always held under huge tents so even if there was a threat of rain, it wouldn’t stop anyone from tasting some wonderful Virginia wines. Besides all the Virginia wineries that attended the event, there were several food venders as well as booths full of items for shopping. And you can’t forget the Polo!
Of course we attended the festival for the wine. We stopped at many of the winery booths and tasted lots of Virginia wine. Here are some wines we made note of from the festival:
Cooper Vineyards-Chardonnay and the Petit Verdot
Loudoun Valley Vineyards-Pinot Grigio and the Vinifera Red
White Fences-Meteor Glow and the Meteor Bright Red
Bright Meadows-Rebellion Red
Fabbioli Cellars-Tre Sorelle, Rosa Luna, and the Cab Franc
Gadino Cellars-Barrel Select Chardonnay (NICE!), the Cab Franc and an extra star for the Dolce Sofia
Delaplane Cellars-Emerald Lake Viognier
Miracle Valley-Chardonnay and the Cab Franc
Aspen Dale-Mary-Madeleine’s Rose and the Rockawalkin’ Cabernet Sauvignon
Kluge Estate-the Viognier and the Blanc de Blanc sparkling
delFosse-Rose, Merlot, and the Cuvee Laurant
We always have a fun time at the festival and enjoy catching up with many of our wine friends. We encourage our readers to check out all these wines. And we hope you’ll plan to attend the next Wine Festival at The Plains. Here are a few photos from the day.
Today’s roundup features recent tasting at Tarara Winery and Pearmund Cellars. These were done within the past two weeks, but back to work schedules created a bit of a backlog. So here we go:
Tarara Winery: This time around we participated in the regular tasting as opposed to the premier tasting, and six wines for sampling. Of the white wines, we awarded our gold stars to the Charval 2009; in fact, we were shocked at ourselves, because Charval was never a favorite of ours in the past. However, this version was a crisper yet fruity pour that includes a blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and Pinot Gris. Citrus notes abound with a nice acidity that makes it a pleasant sipper or a perfect mealtime companion if shellfish is on the menu. I also enjoyed the Rose 2008 with its notes of strawberries and crushed herbs. Salmon pink in color and quite dry, this is a Rose that should prove to be quite versatile with both summer and fall menus. The reds all seemed a bit tight, and of the three reds to sample, the Cabernet Franc seemed to spend the least amount of time on oak—15 months. All were aged in American oak, so the descriptors, “spicy” and “pepper” were scribbled frequently on our tasting sheet. These are all food wines, and our favorite was the Long Bomb Edition 1. A dense core suggested a bolder wine with aromas of violet and dark fruit. Tannins were “chewy.” Long Bomb Edition 1 is a blend of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon, but purists may be disheartened to know that the fruit used in this blend is not from Virginia; however, Long Bomb Edition 2 does indeed include fruit grown exclusively in Virginia.
As we sipped and savored, we received tweets about the $10 tasting fee and whether or not we thought it too steep. To be honest, it is one of the highest fees for a regular tasting that we’ve encountered; however, the tasting pours were quite generous, the wines were all well-crafted, and the tasting associate was very knowledgeable. We’ve also noticed overall improvements in the quality of Tarara’s wines thanks to talented winemaker Jordan Harris. Given those factors, I did not regret paying the tasting fee. In fact, we ended up staying a bit longer to enjoy a glass of the Charval 2009!
Pearmund Cellars: Lots to taste here, so we split a classic and a reserve tasting and were not bashful about spitting or dumping. Of the whites, I was most intrigued with the 2009 Petit Manseng, a brand new offering on the Pearmund lineup. Done in stainless steel, it presented aromas and flavors of apricot and pineapple. Pay attention to this variety as it is appearing more frequently in Virginia’s tasting rooms. Paul’s favorite was the 2009 Riesling. We enjoyed a sample of this one at the Iron Bridge Wine Co. in Warrenton, and the tasting here confirmed Paul’s favorable opinion. Pear notes dominate while soft lime flavors refresh the palate. Nice with spicy foods and do try this one with stronger cheeses, too. Of the red wines, we both converged on the 2008 Ameritage which is a Bordeaux blend. Lush flavors of blackberry, cherry, plum and anise prevail with this one, and it should prove to be a perfect match with steaks.
With summer fading away, plan fall trips to Tarara Winery and Pearmund Cellar. Be sure to mention that Virginia Wine Time sent you!
This Saturday and Sunday, September 11-12, Great Meadow will be the site of Virginia’s most exciting new & improved wine festival of the season. This is no regular wine festival. The Wine Festival at The Plains is the See-And-Be-Seen event of the year. Championship Virginia wines and championship international polo, all in one double-header weekend at Virginia’s most pristine spot for sipping some vino – Great Meadow Event Center in The Plains, Virginia.
The Award winning wineries featured at this event include several that never go to other wine festivals.
•The wine crowned Best Cab Sauv on the East Coast will be there
•The Reserve Norton that won Best of the East Coast will be there
•The Viognier that always wins the “Virginia versus the world” smackdown will be there
•Find Gold medal winners galore, including Cuvee Laurent, a red blend, 2 gold Petit Verdots, Left Bank, Chardonnays, Malbec, Cab Sauvs, Cab Francs etc., etc., etc.
•Taste some funky favorites – chocolate wine, strawberry wine, persimmon wine, honey mead, sangrias and that wine bottle with a pear growing in it will be there.
But wait, the polo is just as exciting! No, not the Salahi kind of gate crashing exciting. Just like the White House – The Salahi’s have not been invited to this event!
The highlight of the season at Great Meadow will be the USPA Hall of Fame Challenge Cup held on Sunday. This is a professional 8 goal match where the best polo players in the country will be vying to have their name placed on the USPA Hall Of Fame Cup. The stakes are high. The Challenge Cup may be a player’s only chance to have their name in Polo’s Hall of Fame.
Know nothing about polo? Basically, it’s guys (and rarely – girls), all on big horses, chasing a little ball and swinging big hammers as hooves thunder across 300 yards of perfectly manicured grass in the fall sunshine … nothing short of perfectly exhilarating fun! To make things even more interesting, this year’s Hall of Fame Cup match will feature all the best pro polo guys … and a girl … Issy Wolf. She is the most watched rising star in polo world – a young world class polo contender out of UVA. This summer she has been featured in Washingtonian Magazine and Virginia Living Magazine as the name to watch in the polo world. Come cheer her on and watch her go up against the best players in the U.S.
Save $10 off the Gate Price online until Friday with Coupon Code WWP906 at www.winefestivalattheplains.com
Information provided by Virginia Wine Events.com
On Saturday we helped harvest at Gray Ghost Vineyards. We harvest there every year and always have a great time. This year we harvested the vidal blanc and the gewurztraminer. The weather was perfect and it went so fast! Here are some pictures from the harvest.
While staying in Warrenton to harvest grapes at Gray Ghost, we had dinner at the Iron Bridge Wine Co.
To begin we decided on a flight of VA wines with a cheese plate. Delaplane cellars Chardonnay, Pearmund Riesling, and the Gadino Petit Verdot were on the flight. Tasting the wines with the different items on the cheese plate was fun and adventurous. We selected the Gadino Petit Verdot to receive the gold star for the flight. However the gold star pairing had to be the blue cheese with the Pearmund Cellars Riesling. It just goes to show that opposites do attract.
For dinner we had the 2007 Topiary. It’s a blend of Cabernet Franc and merlot. Paul paired it with black angus beef meatloaf and Warren had New Zealand lamb chops. We noted dark plum, dark cherry, cassis, a hint of spice, and a solid dark garnet color. The Topiary paired well with our meals.
This restaurant serves and sells many Virginia wines. They have four floors in the wine tasting experience. After dinner we spent some time at the Enomatic bar tasting VA wines as well as wines from all over the world. Just to let you know, the Virginia wines more then held their own. In fact our ultimate gold star for the evening was awarded to the Hardscrabble Chardonnay from Linden. If you purchase a bottle to go from the downstairs selections you get a 25% discount off the shelf price. Some of the wineries represented here are Gray Ghost, Pearmund, Gadino, Linden, Hume, Fabbioli Cellars, and Boxwood.
We had a wonderful dinner and the Virginia wines were superb. If you find yourself in Warrenton and hungry, consider the Iron Bridge Wine Co. on Main St. And tell them Virginia Wine Time sent you.
I’ve lost track of the latest count, but we crossed the #100 threshold earlier this year. With all of the new wineries opening these days, it really is hard to keep track of it all. However, we added to the total last weekend with a visit to another newbie, 8 Chains North.
8 Chains North is also an addition to the growing number of quality wineries in Loudon County. Tasters may remember that before the July opening of the winery, 8 Chains wines were available at Fabbiolo Cellars. Now with a tasting room open, winemaker Ben Renshaw is able to showcase a more complete lineup of wines, and these we tasted last Saturday. At the end of our tasting, we were quite impressed with what we sampled.
Three white wines were available for tasting one of which included the heralded 2007 Glen Manor Sauvignon Blanc. The Glen Manor selection was on the list because the 8 Chains North 2008 Sauvignon Blanc was almost sold out. The 2008 Sauvignon Blanc was aged sur lies in neutral French oak barrels, and it was quite crisp with a characteristic grassy nose. In search of a favorite, though, Paul and I both concurred that the refreshing LoCo Vino fit the bill. On a very hot day, it was hard to beat this blend of Traminette and Vidal Blanc. It presented a floral nose with notes of pear and citrus, and the 1% residual sugar only heightened the fruit characteristics.
On to the red wines, and we split decisions here. It’s no secret that Paul likes Merlot, and he preferred the smoky 2008 Merlot that was produced from the winery’s Furnace Mountain Vineyard. Paul noted cherry and plum flavors with oak nuances that make for a more structured wine. Aged 11 months in French and American oak barrels, this Merlot might pair well with barbeque. My own gold-star, though, was awarded to the 2008 Furnace Mountain Red. This one presented a denser core than the medium-bodied Merlot, and it is a blend of all five Bordeaux red varieties. (Can you remember what they are?) Grapes were used from the Furnace Mountain Vineyard, Tranquility Vineyard, and Hiddencroft Vineyards. I was intrigued by the complexity of this wine with its layers of berry and spicy flavors; a subtle mocha finish completed the experience. Aged in both American French oak barrels, the 2008 Furnace Mountain Red should age quite well.
Current production at 8 Chains North is 1500 cases, and the winery’s main vineyard, located near Fabbioli Cellars, produces Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. (So can you name those Bordeaux varietals now?) Traminette is also grown in this vineyard. Winemaker and vineyard manager Renshaw obviously places a premium on quality vineyard practices as is evidenced by the current lineup of wines.
So with our tasting done, we decided to share a glass of the LoCo Vino. It was a scorcher outside, and the LoCo Vino proved to be a refreshing sipper. We know that we will return to 8 Chains North this fall, but readers will want to visit sooner. Mention that Virginia Wine Time sent you.
In this edition of the Extra Pour you’ll find out about our trip to Virginia Wine country and our stay at The Inn at Meander Plantation. Click on the image to download the latest Extra Pour!
Looking for a wine festival to attend this fall? In just a few short weeks one of the most prestigious wine events will be held at Great Meadow at the Plains…The Wine Festival at The Plains. Not only will get you get to taste some amazing Virginia wines but they will also have polo both days! There will also be fine art, fancy food, and commercial exhibitors offering all kinds of amazing items. We have attended this festival twice in the past and look forward to attending again this year. Mark your calendars for September 11th and 12th and plan to attend the Wine Festival at the Plains. Go to the website for all the details.