Lovingston Winery does an impressive job with Pinotage. The clusters are looser than Pinot Noir which helps with air flow (humidity is a B-atch here most summers) and the skins are tougher, yet it takes on more of the Pinot side of structure and tannins most vintages compared to the S African versions which get more of the Cinsault origins.
Experimenting with varieties is going to happen much more readily with whites than reds, simply because they ripen earlier, and one of Virginia’s major problems is getting their reds to ripen enough before the inevitable September storms come through. Cab Franc works here because if need be a winery can make something light and softly extracted, more Loire in style without much penalty. 1 in 4 Cab Sauv vintages can be out and out unsellable when forced to harvest before a tropical storm.
Tom I have a friend who has been putting in Tocai Friuliano. If you have a few extra $$million I can see if he will let you sponsor an acre or two of Teroldego for 10 years, see how it turns out.
Afton got Pinot right one out of every 4 years. Their Gewürztraminer and Riesling have a much better hit rate, but they have been hit by some of the recent storm and frost issues so they have been hard to find in retail. The only winery that has had a reasonable hit rate with Pinot IMHO has been Rockbridge and their Dechiel label, but I think Shep is right there with Jim Law of Linden as the best winemaker/farmer out there.
Ankida Ridge started doing Chard and Pinot as a focus about 6-7 years ago, but their site in the mountains is extreme, and so is the $$ for the quality. But at least they’re trying, I guess.
Btw had the Linden Boisseau 2009 Chardonnay last week and it’s a very fine and showing nice aged character. Actually a little surprised as I didn’t expect the Boisseau to age so well.
I visited 2012 (or 2013) and didn’t think the Pinot was good. I don’t see any PN for sale on their website - I wonder if they still have the vines planted?
And how many of these wineries have you followed, from the very start? I don’t see you posting many notes of Virginia wineries. Some of these are not too bad. I recently bought a couple that could compete well in the world. Let’s see how they age.
You know the answer to that. If you want to do something, do it yourself. Stop spending money on what you wish California would plant, come east, start growing some vineyards and make wine from it. Put your money where your mouth is. Until then…
Living here in the heart of the Virginia wine country and seeing so much of the same old same old competent-but-unexciting wines being made year after year, it’s awesome when you do get some experimentation.
King Family does a thriving event business and could probably strictly sell “good enough” chard and meritage to pay the bills, but they also offer a “small batch” series of this and that, and their orange Viognier is as good a Virginia wine as I’ve ever had. Competent as always, but exciting and interesting for a change, too. Would love to see more of that.
I guess this is the place to come express unpopular opinions for those of us who drink a lot of Virginia wine. Vineyard owners make decisions to make money. If you’re not making money, you go out of business. Like many of the Willamette places that front on 9W, several VA vineyards have to decided to make their money on parties/events. Not hating, but those places don’t typically make the best wine.
If your fear is a lack of experimentation, then all you have to do is look at Horton’s website. At least 20 varieities in the ground. Barboursville can’t be far behind (one variety being Nebbiolo).
IMO the biggest problem that most of the places north of Charlottesville on 29 have is that their soil sucks - it’s all clay and limited slopes.
Go up to Skyline Drive/Front Royal (Linden/Glen Manor/RdV), SW of Charlottesville (Veritas/Michael Shaps), Amherst (Ankida Ridge/Stinson).
It’s somewhat as mystifying to me as it to Tom why everyone wants to do Bdx blends as their top end wines. (Oh wait, that’s what people will pay $$$ for). I personally think that for whites the Petit Manseng and Chards are the best (VA Viognier sucks on the whole). For reds - CabFranc/Petit Verdot/Merlot. Oh yeah, I know at least one vineyard that has recently planted Nebbiolo in response to a warming climate at their site.
Early Mountain actually makes some ‘Pet-Nat’ wine, but the volume is extremely low because they don’t have enough juice to spare for experiments like that. The type of wines people on this web site look for are made barrel by barrel, not on a mass consumer level. The public think VA wine is vastly overpriced as it is, to charge $25 for a variety that’s obscure even in Italy is financial suicide at best.
True about quality of Ankida Ridge PN and Chard. Stone Tower makes a nice Chard. Shaps is a player in VA - custom winemakes, e.g. - and even makes wine in Burgundy.
For Nebbiolo, try Villa Appalacia - they specialize in Italian varieties and the winery is actually for sale! Owners have been doing it for 30+ years and need to retire, I heard they may have sold at least some of their vineyards, though.
Yes to Law/Linden, Shep at Rockbridge is a good man; I have though found his Pinot Noir stewy.
And of course as Brian mentioned the climate factors are so important - fairly humid with little diurnal affect - and active grapevines with warm nighttime summer temps in some places - that in paper yes Colorado and even New Mexico and Arizona make more sense.
And yes that NoVA has heavy clay based soils.
Finally yes to the economic side - most of the wineries are in NoVA, within an hour of DC, because that is where the money is, both to spend on wine and wineries.
Early Mountain is getting better . . .
Have thought Alsatian varieties would do well in the rocky ridges but again climate: Alsace is dry but much of VA is muggy, if not as bad as NC and N Georgia!
I’ll keep an eye out! I tasted some of his wines at your shop once and recall they were very good. I’ve always generally liked the Lovingston wines, where he was (maybe is?) the winemaker.