White Hall Vineyard - Review

Along the Monticello Wine Trail, one of the vineyards we visited was White Hall Vineyard. The winery is on the Northern Monticello Trail and a bit of a drive (OK, maybe 15 minutes) to get there but we were rewarded with some very drinkable wines and a generally good time at a very nice facility.

White Hall Vineyard Tasting Room

The whites are very nice, I especially enjoyed the German-style wines like Gewürztraminer, Petit Manseng, and Chardonnay. They also had a nice Bordeaux blend, Cuvee de Champs, which was very enjoyable. I found the remainder of their extensive red wine offerings to be somewhat light and thin. I found the 2010 Pinot Gris and the 2010 Viognier to be good, but not exceptional as compared to other wineries in the region.

The facility is really enjoyable and on the Saturday we visited there was live music to accompany the tasting the wines.

The wine tasting area in in the middle of a large, nicely sized, modern building which serves create an enjoyable atmosphere for wine tasting. The server was knowledgeable of the wines and the grapes form which they were made or blended.

The overall experience was pleasant and I recommend this winery as a stop on a Monticello Wine Trail tasting day.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Charlottesville Vineyards - An Overview

I reviewed the activities of this past weekend and noted that I visited seven vineyards and Monticello between 7:30AM Saturday morning and 1PM Sunday afternoon.

I had no ideas that we had fulfilled such an aggressive schedule.

Grapes Ripening at Prince Michel Vineyards

The wineries were:

Prince Michel
King Family
White Hall
Stinson
Keswick
Barboursville
Jefferson

Drinkable wines were found at each of the vineyards and were I especially impressed by my first ever visit to White Hall Vineyard. Stinson Vineyard was another winery I visited for the first time as well.

Wine is a great hobby. And it is a hobby that is easily enjoyed with friends and family. It can be contagious and there is something for everyone.

I still have this irrational idea that I want to write a guide to the vineyards of the Monticello wine making region. I seem to visit a lot of the wineries and enjoy meeting the owners and wine makers and discussing the grapes and the wines.

Do I have my favorites? Certainly. But my favorites can vary significantly from someone else. I prefer nice, complex red wines--but many of the vineyards are producing exceptional white wines, which I also appreciate.

The 30 wineries and vineyards which comprise the Monticello Appellation of Virginia are divided into trails. Prince Michel is considered to be one of the Northern Gateway vineyards. King Family, White Hall, and Stinson are part of the Northern Trail along with a few other wineries. Keswick and Barboursville are part of the Eastern Trail while Jefferson is part of the Southern Trail. In my mind, it is possible to comfortable visit all of the wineries on one trail in a day.

I never seem to do anything the easy way however. I like to jump around during the limited time that I have to ensure that I visit my favorites--which of course are not all on the same trail.

It it just fun to get out and see the "wine on the vine" and realize that the vineyards are not just growing grapes--they are in the business of producing wines. And tasting the end result of the growing and the wine making is often like experiencing a piece of art.

Each winemaker places their own personal stamp on the wines and that is the great fun of visiting multiple wineries--to find winemakers who produce wines that I enjoy.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Arcadian 2005 Syrah Westerly Vineyard

I haven't written much about individual wines lately. I have been recording my likes and dislikes and recommendations in CellarTracker, an application which allows me to manage my wine and do research. But, I have found a wine which is one of those very special wines that plays well above its weight.

The wine is Arcadian 2005 Syrah Westerly Vineyard form the Santa Ynez Valley in California.

I was introduced to this wine through an email offering form a respected wine agency and bought two bottles, sight unseen or tasted. I read the description an believed that if the wine was half as good as the write up it would be worth the price.

Turns out, it is far better than that. It is a great wine that one person I served it to remarked that it was equal to $100 bottle wines he had been served. Now I don't know who can afford $100 per bottle wines, but it is nice to know that I have one that is in good company with them.

One reviewer wrote: "Darn nice wine made even more impressive by the price. Rich but lively so it's not heavy at all with smoke, blackberry, earth and black pepper. There seems to be just a hint of brett (I could be wrong but myself and winemaker friend thought there was a bit) which added to the complexity without overwhelming. Good acidity and a nice medium length finish. Wish I bought more of this."

Another reviewer wrote: "Bright medium red. Red and dark berries, smoked meat and Christmas spices on the nose. Midweight raspberry and bitter cherry flavors are complicated by beef jerky and floral pastille qualities. This strikes me as a blend of pinot noir and syrah, with the former variety's finesse and sweetness and the latter's game and earth character. Finishes crisp and long, leaving a peppery note behind."

Recommendation: This is a great wine and I highly recommend it. At $26 per bottle it is a bit more expensive than many of wines I buy--but worth the extra cost.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Consensus Blending -- 2012

It was hard to believe that over a year had passed since Chris and I had the great experience of being part of the team that blended the award winning 2009 Consensus wine for Keswick Vineyards in Virginia.

But it had been. We were part of that team during early December 2010 and last weekend we headed back to the winery to defend our title, so to speak.


Truly, defending was a long shot. We were unable to attend on the same weekend as the rest of our team mates from last year, and history says that the winners of the previous year usually come in last. In fact, we had heard that the other members of last year's team had done just that on the day they attended.

The day though is not about winning, although I will tell you that winning is nice, but it is about time at the winery with the winemaker, Stephen, and the owners, and other members of the wine club devoted to blending a good wine.

This year was no different.

We worked through the morning trying to blend the 2011 Consensus. There was no 2010 release. The wines all had very different character. The wines this year were Norton, Merlot, Touriga, and Syrah. By noon we had gone through 12 different blends before settling on our final blend.

After lunch and a break we reconvened to judge the ten blends of the day. The judging was tense and we felt really good when we found out that our wine made the top four blends f the day--and then the top four. But, alas, our wine was judged only fourth best of the day. We of course felt that it was better--but the wine that won was a good wine too, in fact we had judged it better than ours. That winner is competing against the other three "day" winners to be crowned the 2011 Consensus wine. That decision should be announced soon.

So what is the day about at the winery?

Getting together with newly made friends to enjoy wine and learn more about what it takes to make wine. That, in the end increases our enjoyment of the final product that we select from the shelves of the stores and wineries where we buy them.

Thanks again to the great people at Keswick for allowing us to disrupt the flow life at the winery and spend some quality time with them.


-- Bob Doan, Denver, CO

Veritas Vineyards and Winery -- A Review

Located in the western portion of the Monticello Wine Trail, Veritas seems to have developed a cult following. We visited on a beautiful, sunny, early-March afternoon to find the winery full of visitors. We actually had to stand in line for 15 minutes before we were able to be accommodated for a tasting. But that was not a problem. The room is visually stimulating and worth the extra time to enjoy.


Veritas presents itself beautifully. The large tasting room has a very different feel than traditional tasting rooms.The sofas and tables around the room provide for a personalized wine tasting experience. The picture is of the larger than life sculpture on the bar.

At $5 for tasting seven wines, the cost seems average and we did get to keep our glasses at the end of the tasting.

The grounds are very nicely maintained and the large building housing the tasting room provides a larger than life introduction to the wines.

Once we finally made our way to the bar for the tasting, unfortunately we didn't manage to get into one of the sofa groupings, we began to experience the wines. I was disappointed by the wines--they are very young and need time to develop. The wines lacked depth and complexity. Although the tasting notes provide an introduction to the wines, for the most part the wines failed to live up to the excitement generated by the notes.

The best wine of the day was the 2011 Viognier. The most disappointing was the Merlot. The Merlot was more akin to a Pinot Noir or a Cabernet Franc.

The winery shows a lot of promise and as the vines mature, the depth and quality of the wines should improve.

Recommendation: Visit and enjoy the beauty of the winery, but don't expect too much from the wines. Travel note--my GPS did not plot the position of the winery correctly, so be sure to follow the signs over following GPS directions.


-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Rhode Island Wines - Newport Vineyards

It was bound to happen. I love visiting wineries. Rhode Island has vineyards and a winery in Newport.

Therefore, while we were in Rhode Island last weekend, we had to visit the winery--Newport Vineyards which was less than a mile from our hotel.

The tasting room and winery are in a small strip mall with a very nice deli (which served us well for lunch).

For some strange reason, I continue to look for nice red wines in northeastern wineries. It usually doesn't happen. And Newport Vineyard was much the same. The reds were uniformly thin, lacking both body and complexity. I sampled five different reds and afterwards I felt they should have refunded my tasting fee. At one point the pourer asked what I was looking for in a red, and after I explained my perfect red wine he remarked that I should try Napa Valley wines exclusively.

So I was left with the question in my mind--if the winemakers knows the reds are inferior, why grow the grapes and produce red wine?



But hold the presses--because the white wines, and there must be at least twelve of them, were really special. The whites had body, complexity, and varied across much of the white spectrum from light easy drinking Pinot Grigio to the darker and more complex Gewürztraminer with a couple of nicely done Rieslings added in for fun.

So, I heartily recommend stopping at the winery for a tasting, should you happen through Newport. But avoid the reds--drink the whites. And oh yes, we did buy a few wines to bring home with us, too. Don't miss the Hard Apple Cider, either.

Happy drinking!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Consensus Wine Update--Gold Medal Awarded

I wrote a while ago about the Consensus wine from Keswick Vineyards that Chris and I were able to blend last December.

Well, interestingly enough, the story does not end there.

Turns out, the vineyard entered the Consensus into the recent Finger Lakes International Wine Competition a couple weeks ago.

The wine won a Gold Medal!

I mean, I thought it was good--but I was pretty sure I thought it was good because I had a hand in coming up with the blend.

Not so--it really is good!

We received the following congratulatory note in an email from the vineyard the other day:

Congratulations Robert and Christina!
 

We really do have the best wine club members out there!  Congratulations to all of our members! Your winning Consensus blend from last December was entered into The Finger Lakes International Wine Competition and took home a gold.  We couldn't be more proud of it or of you!

If you live in a state where you are lucky enough to be able to have wine shipped to you--I can recommend this wine. Also--the Cabernet Franc, which I tasted at the winery a couple weekends ago is also fabulous--and it won a Gold Medal in the 2011 Virginia Governor's Cup.

The experience of going to the vineyard and creating the wine back in December and watching it as it went through blending, aging, bottling, release and now has become a Gold Medal winner is one that I probably will never be able to repeat--but for me, it truly has brought me to closer to understanding some of the complexities involved in wine making and has been an experience to remember.

Sadly, there were only a limited number of cases produces and I am sure the wine will soon be nothing more than a fond memory--but if I can resist the temptation to drink it all, and save some for a couple of years--this wine will only get better with a little bit of age.