More Winery Hopping

Barboursville Vineyards - Barboursville, Virginia

Kirstin is over for a visit on her way home to London, so we took her winery hopping today.  We have some favorites, and I had come up with an ambitious list for the day.  Unfortunately, I’m such a lightweight I knew I would be asleep by the second winery and that we would never make it to everything on the list.  We got a late start…SQ has having some human technical difficulties coming up with the addresses.  Our first attempt was Linden Vineyards, but I stupidly didn’t call ahead of time and just assumed they would be open.  Bad assumption – we drove all the way there and they were closed.  We’ve been before, they have outstanding wine so I was a bit disappointed.

The next stop on our list was Pearmund Cellars, another outstanding winery in our opinion, which sits just a bit north of Warrenton.  They offer 3 options for tastings – Classic for $5, Reserve for $7, or both for $10.  We chose the Reserve, which included 5 wines.  I won’t cover all of them in detail, but my favorites were the 2007 Viognier (something Virginia wineries do particularly well) and the 2006 Petite Verdot, with the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon coming in a close third.  The Viognier is well-rounded and very tropical, while the Petite Verdot is full of blackberry flavor and very earthy.

Barboursville Vineyards was our next target, after a brief run through McDonald’s for some french fries (a major weakness!!).  The setup here is a bit different – you pay at the front register for the tasting and pick up your glass, then move over to the tasting area.  They have everything set up so that you move from Whites to Reds to Dessert wine, and when they are busy it becomes a bit cumbersome.  Barboursville has a huge list of wines they produce, and while it’s not in my overll top 5 wineries in Virginia, they do have a couple of outstanding selections, and the grounds are incredibly beautiful.  The ruins of the old governor’s mansion are also on site, which makes for nice picnic setting in sunny weather.  Again, I won’t go through every wine they offer, but my favorites here were the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc (crisp, dry, a lot of pear flavor, and great for outdoor weather), the 2006 Barbera Reserve (hard to find in VA, medium body, earthy, and plum-y), the 2006 Cabernet Franc Reserve (my favorite wine here, with the exception of the 2004 Octagon; very classic VA wine, a lot of structure but not highly tannic), and the 2005 Nebbiolo Reserve (another Italian varietal that’s hard to find in VA; very smoky, complex, smooth, full-bodied, and will improve even more with some aging).

And last on our tour today, since it was getting later in the afternoon at this point, was Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard.  The drive here is incredibly beautiful, some of the nicest land in Virginia, and it’s also just down the road a bit from Monticello.  I was expecting a packed house here, but it was so desserted I thought they were closed when we first pulled in.  SQ and I have been to Kluge a few times before, and it’s firmly in our Top 5 in the state, but the selection in the past has been small.  I don’t find that off-putting…usually the wineries offering a huge assortment sacrifice quality.  We were surprised to find that Kluge is now offering 12 wines and sparkling wines, which they serve as a tasting flight.  There are 2 options here – Albemarle Flight for $10 or Kluge Flight for $12, and we were told it might be a good idea to share as they pour quite a bit into the glasses.  We opted to do both flights for the three of us, and overall the Albemarle Flight had better options.  The standouts from that group included a 2006 Viognier (again, very Virginia, complex and tropical), 2006 Albemarle Rose (even you non-Rose drinkers will like this; dry, with vanilla and almond finish), and the 2004 Albemarle Simply Red (Bordeaux-style, aged in French oak).  I have to also mention the Cru Aperitif, which is a very distinctive, fortified Chardonnay that is aged in Jack Daniels barrels – sounds bizarre, but it’s one of the most interesting wines I’ve ever had.  The Cru Royale was also fun to drink – they blend the Cru with the Kluge SP Blanc de Blanc, and serve with a piece of orange peel…kind of tastes like a Mimosa…really refreshing!  From the Kluge Flight, the just-mentioned 2004 SP Blanc de Blanc was an outstanding sparkling wine made in the Methode Champenoise style.  I’m not particularly fond of sparkling wine, but this was very enjoyable, and I think I could really just sit and drink this even with no food.  The 2004 Kluge SP Blanc de Noir was also a favorite, made from 100% Pinot Noir, aged in French Oak, and definitive notes of cassis.  We have a bottle of 2001 Kluge Estate New World Red (still unopened…and waiting for K and James to make it back over the pond for a visit!), but the later vintages kind of fall flat.  The 2002 and 2004 are both included in the Kluge Flight, and I would almost put them at the bottom of everything we tasted today.

We were all starving at this point, and Syd has been such a trooper today putting up with our wandering around from winery to winery, so it was time for dinner.  I had a couple of options in mind, but we ended up at one of our favorite pizza places – Mellow Mushroom, right on the campus for University of VA.  It’s a southern pizza chain, I think based in Georgia, and Charlottesville is about as far north as they go.  Very hippy atmosphere, and it was filled with college students, but we were early so no problem finding a place to sit.  Any pizza you get here will be good, but I can’t comment on anything else on the menu as pizza is all I’ve ever eaten at Mellow Mushroom.  We split a BBQ Chicken pizza (yum!) and a sausage and pineapple pizza (weird, I know…but I’m addicted to this particular combination).

There are about 140 wineries in Virginia at last count – I think everyone can find something they like in this state.  What is being produced here is very, very Virginia, and there are wine varietals that the state does incredibly well.  I didn’t drink Chardonnay before I started trying it here.  You will find some very good wine and some very bad wine here, and a lot of in-between, so go drive around and give it a try.  A  good site to start with is virginiawine.org.  And don’t tell me you don’t drink anything but California wine….