Virginia Wines (2) (6/10/2014)

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about some of the wineries I visited in the Tidewater of Virginia.  Wineries like Dog and Oyster claim they have a similar climate as the Bordeaux region in France and that they should therefore be able to rival them.  We'll see it that happens in my life time.

Today I want to deal with the wineries I visited in northern Virginia, and rank them as well. Rappahannock Cellars was the first of the wineries I visited in Virginia (2003).  While I already was a wine enthusiast and had tasted in Missouri, this was a fun first experience, and my very first impression with Virginia red wine, which I found very below par at that time.  Things have changed in the past few years, and I can tell you the reds made by Chester Gap Cellars just a few miles up the road are among some of the best Virginia reds I’ve tasted lately (2013 and 2014).

Here is my review of the wineries I visited in the northern area (the date in parentheses is the year I visited the wineries):

Old House Vineyards  (2013) - 4 stars - Interesting place with some interesting grape varieties (barberra).  Inexpensive to taste.  Great place for weddings.

Rappahannock Cellers - (2003) - 3 stars (this rating is probably out-dated) - My first tasting in Virginia.  It was fun, but I remember a very touristy tasting room.  I still own their tasting glass and drink wine from it every day.

Chester Gap Cellars - (2013 and 2014) - 5 stars - A great secluded winery with the produces some outstanding reds.  Try their Merlot.

Fox Meadow Winery- (2013) - 5 star - Location, location, location.  Love the place, good wine, I was impressed by their Riesling.

Aspen Dale Winery at the Barn (2013) 3 stars  A very charming place, wine was so, so.  Live music was too loud to really understand the host.  This winery was the first that served wine paired with food.

Glen Manor Vineyards (2013) 2 stars  Great location and very scenic looking towards the National Park.  Wine was mediocre

Breaux Vineyards (2014) 1 star  Rude staff, crowded and expensive.  See my review of last month.

The picture below was taking at Chester Gap late April of tis year.

Northern Neck (6/1/2014)

On Sunday morning we decided it was time to get the h… out of Dodge and to go explore something.  Sailing was not an option since it was blowing pretty stiff and it was actually cool.  So we decided to go explore the “Northern Neck” of Virginia.  On the way up we stopped in Mathews County at “Fort Nonsense”, or what we might call now “Fort WTF.”  It seems to have been a fort built by a local brigade to stop the advancement of the Union soldiers on their way to Richmond.  The problem was they never came; the Union soldiers went up the peninsula (Williamsburg etc).  So they never saw any action there.  Oh well.  I think I could have predicted that, the shortest way from Fort Monroe to Richmond does not lead through Mathews; hence the name “Fort Nonsense.”

We continued our trip to White Stone and we had lunch at Willaby’s café.  Really not bad, maybe with the exception that my poached eggs were poached a little too long and were more like hard boiled eggs.  After lunch we drove to Windmill point to walk the beach and take a look at the marina (a possible destination in our sailing adventures).

We ended our day in the Northern Neck with revisiting the Dog and Oyster Winery in Irvington for some tasting and relaxing.  In a previous blog posting I had given this winery 2 stars, and thanks to this visit I am going to revise it to at least 4 stars.  I wish I could make it 5 stars, but the wine was very expensive.  It was definitively good, in particular their Merlot, but I could not get myself to pay $45 for a bottle; which is the reason for the 4 stars instead of 5.

The photos posted here are from our visits, a shot from the restaurant, of Windmill Point and the entrance to the winery.  A fun day in just a small section of the Northern Neck.

 

 

Virginia Wines (5/23/2014)

As some of the readers of this blog know by now, I am a lover of wine, and have written about it in this blog at times.  Being a lover of wine and having visited numerous wineries in Virginia, I can only say that they have come a long way.

I think the first Virginia wine I tasted was some Governor’s White from the Williamsburg Winery in 2000, and found it mediocre.  I toured the winery in 2012 and noted a great improvement in quality of some of their wines.  I remember taking my daughter on a college tour in 2006 (or was it 2007?), and since I had a designated driver, we stopped at as many as we could cramp in.  My impression at that time was that Virginia was getting better with their white wines, but that reds were poor.  There was one noted exception, which were the reds from Fincastle that I really liked.

Fast forward to the more recent years, and Virginia now makes some dynamite reds.  It is really fun to be able to see this progression.  In the following few blogs I will try to give you a list of the wineries that I have visited over the past years.  I will be dividing it into a three arbitrary regions (lowlands, Piedmont and mountains) and publish it in three postings.  This is different than the Virginia Wine website, but so be it.  I’ll rate them from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest/best ... and sorry, but I could not get these numbers to line up); however, note the year of my visit, that should give you a good idea if my rating is still current or not.  For example, I will rate Fincastle very high for my 2006 visit.  I tried to revisit them in 2012, and waited for 10 minutes in their tasting room and there was no one to serve me, even after I called out.  I left the place without tasting and/or buying more wine; it was very disappointing, to say the least.

Well here is my list of the low country wineries that I visited:
 

Winery

Bloxom Winery                    Eastern shore       2010     3 stars       Great location, great lunch (artesian pizzas), wines are fun, enjoyed the Red Kiss (none-dated blend).

Chatham Vineyards              Eastern shore       2010     4 stars       Great romantic location, nice wines, bring lunch or a snack and sit outside with a bottle of wine.

Williamsburg Winery           Tidewater            2012     2 stars       Expensive, commercial, nice whites, average reds.

New Kent Winery                 Richmond            2013    2 stars       Young winery which shows in its wines.

Dog and Oyster Vineyards   Northern Neck     2007    2 stars        May have had a different name (White Fences) when I visited. Enjoyed their Rose. Was in its infancy.

The Hague Winery               Northern Neck     2006    5 stars

                                                                           2010    5 stars       This is a winery I really enjoy visiting because of its quality wine and unpretentious.

Ingleside Vineyards         Northern Neck          2010    5 stars       Very mature winery with great wines. It is a little commercial.

The photo below is one from the archives.  I took it when we visited the The Hague Winery in 2010.  The line up of female behinds was just too much to ignore.