Over the past several hours I’ve read through quite a few threads on here, dating back two to three years, which focused on the evolution of red Virginia wine. For the most part there was criticism, even shock that VA had the “nerve” to ask so much for several bottles. I also read the Weygandt tasting and the many comments from a number who passionately represent the industry. Several who were also in the industry simply couldn’t believe that VA was capable of producing a “drinkable” red wine.
Last night I took a friend and former associate (I am retired) out to dinner. We went to Red Hen near 1st and Rhode Island, N. W. which is a superb restaurant with great character (stone, brick walls, wood beam ceilings, much lighting from candles, an open hearth, outstanding food worthy of Beard consideration and an ebullient sommelier who just happen to have '09 RDV Roundezvous.
I had a case of each of the '08 RDV and Roundezvous that I’ve been sampling every couple of months. I know that only now-with two years in bottle - has it really opened up. Fruit forward, mouth coating and satiny (yes, satiny) this big, smooth wine tasted $75, tasted California, to be honest. I also knew to pour it in a decanter and let it open for over an hour before tasting. And when we did taste we used fishbowl sized glasses, frequently swirling the wine high up on their sides. Last night we opened the '09 Roundezvous and gave it two hours. Similar to the '08 it exploded in the glass to a jammy, rich, lucious wine that seemed to approach 15% alcohol.
My friend, from Vancouver couldn’t believe this.
Over the past several months I have spent far more than I expected on VA wine. With a thousand or so bottles my focus had been WA state (esp. syrahs: K Vintners, Reynvaan, Sheridan, Cayuse, Leonetti cab-all put away for several years. Bergevin Lane Moonstar is an excellent $25 cab for '10 but the top end WA syrah is among the best in the world. But it wasn’t always that way. I remember the early '90’s when leonetti and Quilceda Creek were a tough sell. Just as RDV, Glen Manor, Linden, Delaplane and several individual wines currently may be in D. C.
Since retiring my wife and I have now visited perhaps 75 or more VA wineries and a few in MD (Black Ankle, twice and Boordy). We’ve developed real opinions on a number of actual national class bottles coming out of VA that visitors should be considering trying to find. Just as Washington state was “discovered” by the WS with its groundbreaking cover issue on Leonetti calling it America’s best merlot, so will VA . We just need a front page WS cover story to get it off the ground. But it will happen. There are too many seriously good red wines to overlook of dismiss. VA will be discovered in its own way in part because of the '10 vintage for red, the ascension of petit verdot and learning how to structure a wine that may go 15 or more years and continue to improve (eg. 2001 Octagon was superb in the spring of 2013).
Glen Manor Hodder Hill '10 may be better than the '09 which won the Governor’s Cup. (His 2009 Petit Verdot-long gone may have been the best of all!). Jim Law makes an extraordinary '10 Boisseau which is not even listed on his website yet. There’s not a lot of it and he’s still aging it in the bottle-but it’s going to be released sometime over the winter. As will Glen Manor’s '10 Petit Verdot. Both of these are up there, 15.0+ per cent alcohol, lush fruit, jammy, moan inducing-well worth resting one’s nostril squarely over the middle of the fishbowl and inhaling as deeply as possible. A nose like several of these on VA wine is not an everyday event.
Delaplane makes a very good Williams Gap '10 that is almost sold out. Worth every penny of the $52 just as the '10 Boisseau is worth its $40 and '10 Hodder Hill is a bargain at $48.
I am generally not a fan of Breaux but they make a legitimately excellent Nebbiolo from 2007 that sells for about $60. Only at the winery. (Most of these are only at the wineries-and you may have to beg for several of them but that 's a slight price to pay for the true excellence that several have now achieved in Fauquier and Front Royal. Back in Loudoun, west of Hillsboro is the Hillsborough Vineyard which is a Tuscan like several centuries old stone cottage tasting room halfway up a hillside, surrounded by vines. Very good wines for the price point. Seriously consider $32 for Onyx which is a tannat. With your bottle when you walk out on the patio you’ll swear that it is Panzano or Greve across the road from you. With a few sips you’ll wonder how the foothills of the Blueridge could feel so much like Tuscany and yes, now taste so much like Tuscany in the glass.
Delaplane is half way up the side of Lost mountain-it is the ONLY other winery on Lost Mountain beside RDV. Coincidentally Jim and Betsy Dolphin grow most of their own grapes right outside of their panaramic tasting rooms which have heartstoppingly beautiful views looking down over the expansive valley in front. Ask for Williams Gap or Left Bank Reserve, both from '10. Don’t be cheap-you’ll spend $48 but you’ll drink among VA’s best.
Do the same at the exceptionately beautiful Glen Manor which backs to what looks like steep Austrian countryside in back of the tasting room. At the top of the 2000+’ tall mountain is Skyline Drive and a group of hang gliders who use arn upper area as a base to fly down the side of the mountain. Absolutely fascinating site to spend an afternoon sipping Hodder Hill or Petit Verdot and watch. Very good petit manseng, too.
Back at Linden, Jim Law is the common denominator for much of this: Rutger worked for a summer at Linden as did Jim Dolphin from Delaplane; Jeff White was once Jim Law’s winemaker! And there is also a connection with Chester Gap and perhaps more. But Jim Law has his own signatures ready to be sampled. Like RDV, give the Linden wines at least an hour open and decanted, drank in large glasses: Boisseau 2010 which is 15.8% alcohol and a huge, huge fruit forward wine that I think is one of the best ever made in VA. I look forward to giving it about two years in the bottle and trying it. Fantastic potential. Avenius and Petit Verdot are drinking exceptionately well, too. And then there is the $50 Hardscrabble Red which seems that it is much tighter, that it will take a couple or more years to evolve but blossom to a fantastic signature red for Virginia.
All of these are outstanding. All of these are only at the wineries. All of these are expensive, i.e. 40-95. And all are worth it. If you go when you order have a taste of something else for at least 30 minutes. Give these wines time to open. Even a number of hours is not too long-there is real aging potential here.
Sorry for the length of this but VA is taking its first steps on the national stage. Absolutely gorgeous countryside,among the most beautiful in the U.S. And now, with 235 or more wineries in the state who want to serve the fantasies and taste of so many who will come out from D. C. and drive from elsewhere to discover them.
As Napa is worth the trip from the East Coast so are now the foothills of the Blueridge for a couple of days perhaps basing one’s self at either the Ashby Inn or the new Salamander in Middleburg.
Then, we have to talk about a drive to Charlottesville…