“Even in the still-stunning setting, the wines suffer in isolation. The Viognier, the Virginia state specialty, was clean but tasteless; the rosé was water, the Chardonnay, the Cabernet, and the Meritage, alcoholic and sweet. At best the wines, such as the sparkling blanc de blanc and the Viognier, are, as my expert friend said, inoffensive; at worst, like the Cru, they demand to be spat out. “At the end of the day Trump wines suck,” my visiting friend said as our Washington dinner came to a close.”
Thought I would post this for 2 reasons:
So people who don’t get VF could check this out and
See how long it would take before this got moved to the Politics forum.
Posted without bias, my friend. I know nothing about VA wines and I know a lot more about Trump than I would prefer. Given the quality of other things he has produced I would venture to guess that these have less of a shot of being good than the majority of other wines produced in the state.
MN wines would be even worse yet too many local writers seem to like them. I liked one recently but then read the bottle descriptor and it was grapes from California.
I taste VA wines often (my folks live in Central VA), and that is a gross and incorrect generalization.
There are many VA wines that are legitimately very good. Admittedly value is often a problem, but not all the time. Over the Christmas break my wife and I visited Bluestone Vineyard outside of Harrisonburg. They had several objectively very good wines. Laura loved the Muscat, and I was very fond of the Petit Verdot. We bought both, and not out of sympathy.
Decanter rang trump and said his wine was top 3 for the year and MAYBE number 1, tRump said MAYBE is not good enough and refused to let it be listed at all
I live about 20 minutes from this winery—my impression, potentially incorrect, is that the quality went downhill after the trump purchase when production ramped up.
The kluge wines were both overpriced and mostly not too bad.
The sparkling program was tasty.
There are a bunch of competent, artisanal Virginia producers, but the phenomenon of trucking in California juice is not limited to Trump. You see it at a number of higher production wineries here, especially in their lower end products and especially when trying to compensate for a year when weather significantly compromised harvest.
Once, I was corralled into a Rhode Island winery tasting event. The hosts effusively boasted that they had sourced the reserve-wine grapes from…Stonington, Connecticut.
Minimum the Asylum, I don’t see posting this in Wine talk if your point is to make a political statement.I don’t have a dog in the fight, I voted for the pot smoking independent.
[quoteD@vid Bu3ker wrote:
Russ Williams wrote:
Hate to burst your bubble Jim, but the vast majority of VA wines suck.
I taste VA wines often (my folks live in Central VA), and that is a gross and incorrect generalization.
There are many VA wines that are legitimately very good. Admittedly value is often a problem, but not all the time. Over the Christmas break my wife and I visited Bluestone Vineyard outside of Harrisonburg. They had several objectively very good wines. Laura loved the Muscat, and I was very fond of the Petit Verdot. We bought both, and not out of sympathy.
Right on the mark here David. I’ve probably had 50+ VA wines and there are some good wines. Value is certainly an issue though.
Maryland also has a few good wines, among them Black Ankle.][/quote]
Value in the non big 3 states is always an issue. The prices MN charges for their top wines is an embarrassment but someone is buying the local swill.
The '08 Trump Reserve sparkler was actually pretty good (it was served to me blind), but I believe that would have been made under the previous management.
Not sure what folks definition of ‘good’ is, but most VA wines that are drinkable are so overpriced it is a joke. The other problem is soil and weather and neither produce wines that are worth anything north of $15.
Bluestone has some vineyards that are on limestone and quartz, with very shallow topsoil. It’s not the typical, heavy, red soil I have seen elsewhere. They are also at a somewhat higher elevation, helping with climate.
That was often cited years ago, but I get the feeling that that issue isn’t so important these days. For my tastes, the best wines in the East come from the Finger Lakes, and it’s pretty sticky up there in the summer – not to mention brutally cold in the winter.
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