2014 Virginia Wine Summit

As is always the case, the growing season hits hard and fast, leaving little time for posting.

On October 23rd John and I attended the Virginia Wine Summit at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.   The Summit, as stated on the website, "is a celebration of Virginia’s wine and food culture."  We weren't sure what to expect, but we were so glad we attended.  The event brought together many of Virginia's best winemakers, restaurateurs & sommeliers from up and down the east coast, national beverage professionals and wine writers.  We met many wonderful folks in the wine and hospitality professions and look forward to working with some of them down the road.  Here is a link to the website -- Virginia Wine Summit

The morning started off with a blind tasting of Virginia Meritage blends against California and Bordeaux wines.   A Virginia wine -- the 2010 Barboursville's Octagon, was the most preferred and for good reason!  My other favorite was the 2009 Barren Ridge Meritage while John loved the 2010 Jefferson Meritage.  We also enjoyed the 2009 Michael Shapps Meritage.  The other four wines in the tasting:  2011 Stagg's Leap Merlot, 2009 Chateau La Croix de Casse, 2010 L'Ecole No. 41 Seven Hills and 2010 Glennelly Lady My Cabernet Sauvignon from South Africa.

Our distinguished Panel

The Wines Ready to Taste

 From the Grand Tasting we went into breakout sessions.   John headed for the food and wine pairings while I went to learn about the Dark Horses, varietals that are uncommon and beginning to make a statement on the wine scene:  Albarino, Petit Manseng, Petit Verdot and Tannat.  Albarino is almost like a riesling and may not be suited for our microclimate though it was delicious.  The manseng was very nice as well and more suited to our vineyard.  The verdot was okay and the Tannat was surprisingly good.  It has been showing up in a good number of our Meritage blends.  We'll definitely look at planting this one.   The wines in this session were:
2013 Crysalis Albarino, 2013 Michael Shapps Petit Manseng, DuCard Petit Verdot, and 2010 Fabbiolo Tannat.

 At a delicious lunch prepared by Chef Jeremiah Langhorne, we met two young winemakers, Lee Hartman of Bluestone Vineyard and Seth Chambers of Naked Mountain Winery.   They had served their wines at the Meet Virginia Whites session.  Can't wait to taste their wines!

We also met up again with Jane Kincheloe, Owner, and Richard Carlson, Manager, of Paradise Springs Winery.   The story of Paradise Springs is pretty amazing, from a rocky start battling the local planning board in 2008 to taking the Governor's Cup with their 2009 Chardonnay!  We're planning a trip to Clifton for a visit and tasting soon!

The lunch itself was fantastic.  I really enjoyed the salad with the Foggy Ridge Cider, Autumn in Virginia.   And who knew how delicious sunchokes are!  Going to try growing those next year.

Following a key note speech by Ray Isle and chocolates from Gearharts , we moved onto the True to Our Roots session.   Vintners from the various regions in Virginia and Dr. Tony Wolf related their experiences growing in a variety of microclimates within the state.  We also had more wine to taste.

In February it is off to the Virginia Vineyards Association Winter Technical Meeting.  We'll be attending the Beginning Growers session on Thursday.  Looking forward to meeting other newbies and old friends!