I can't believe that came from your mouth!
Wineries
Idaho Has Good Wine- Snake River Winery
May 1st
It has been a while since I wrote about visiting a winery, and honestly, I havent had the chance to visit the Snake River Winery in Idaho, but they have a tasting room in downtown Boise with friendly staff and free tastings. You know, once upon a time you could get free tastings at Virginia wineries, but that is becoming very rare. And rarest of all when you encounter free tastings for wines that are this good.
The Snake River Winery has a huge selection of wines, and it seems that it would be hard to do a lot of different wines well. But Snake River manages it okay. Their Chardonnays are good, and their Merlots are good too, but neither are spectacular. Wonderful wines for the prices, however. But they have 21 blends or bottles to choose from. I only had the chance to tast 5 of the wines.
I settled on the Zweigelt, an Austrian grape that seems to grow quite well in the higher elevations of Idaho. It is a dry wine, but very light bodied with soft tannins, and it is quite drinkable alone or paired with- in my case- Idaho Barbecue Spareribs. Absolutely delicious!
The vintner at the tasting room told me that Snake River sells a Spanish grape, the Barbera. The last time I had one of those, I was in Australia. He mentioned that the gift shop at the Boise airport still has a few bottles of the Barbera and I’m planning on taking that one home with me as I fly out.
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Loading ...Spooky Wine
Oct 16th
All of the vineyards in Napa are decorated for Halloween. This was taken inside the tasting room at Trefethen-
In addition to the 15 dollar tasting, I went home with a 30 dollar bottle of Chardonnay. Yeah, its better than the Chardonnay I get at home in Virginia, but perhaps not worth the 45 bucks for the bottle.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Autumn Ivy at Silverado Vineyard
Oct 15th
Who says California doesn’t experience seasons? In Napa Valley, the seasons express themselves with color changes on the vineyard tasting rooms.
This was taken at Silverado Vineyard, where I picked out a great Sangiovese.
Funny- when I was here last in May, it was so cold you needed a coat. Now the weather is warm and the leaves are changing.
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(1 votes, average: 6.00 out of 6) Loading ...Poizin – The Wine to Die For
May 28th
Poizin Zinfandel wine is from the awesome Armida Winery. The bottle is awesome, but you might want to get your Zin from another winery. Just Sayin’. Their Pinot Noir here is fantastic and a good price too.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Mill Creek Vineyards
May 28th
I am between jobs out here in the Bay Area and I brought the family along for the three day weekend. Today we are touring some vineyards and wineries tasting wines we don’t get much of in our own backyard. This is my generous pour of oak fermented Zinfandel
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Awesome Wine Cellar
May 13th
Maybe if my wife lets me rent a jackhammer I can begin construction through my basement concrete floor to install one of these-
And when the zombies come, you can lock yourself in and survive happily on wine and cheese and crackers. You can see more details over at mad4red here.
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(1 votes, average: 6.00 out of 6) Loading ...Paradise Springs
Apr 30th
Friends of ours invited us out to Clifton Virginia tonight to do some wine tasting. Clifton is a tiny town on the edge of Fairfax County, and the idea that Fairfax County had an active vineyard was news to me. In fact, their old tasting room displayed Washington Post stories about the battles this vineyard had with the zoning boards to allow a vineyard to produce commercial wine within Fairfax county. I love that this vineyard fought the law and the wine won.
Paradise Springs is not only an active vineyard, but they are a hopping place! Friday nights feature live music and Brazilian Barbecue Steak on the patio. There were about 300 people at the place tonight to celebrate the opening of their new grand Tasting Room, the biggest I’ve seen in all of Virginia.
And the wine’s not bad either. Not much fruit is grown on the estate, but they have a great wine maker on property that seems to work some magic with fruit purchased from around the region. Pictured is the Petit Manseng, a dry, yet fruity flavored wine that is really different from most Virginia whites like Chardonnay or Viognier.
What a wonderful time we had on a crisp Friday night! I don’t think the Petit Manseng survived past Midnight, but we have another wine of theirs, the Nana’s Rose, which is a wonderful blend wine that will be great on a warm spring day.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Wine Tasting Saturday
Apr 23rd
While I was in Australia doing my own wine tasting, my wife was home introducing her girlfriends to the magic of Virginia wine. We each dreaded tasting great wine without the other. Our first chance to do wine tasting together this year was at Quattro Gooma’s.
And we loved it.
Quattro Goomba’s is one of the newest wineries on the Loudon Wine trail and they don’t grow their own fruit. They started as a cellar operation for fun, by purchasing fruit from around the world to make some custom wine, and they grew to a wonderful operation that attracts visitors from around the region.
A great thing about Virginia Wine is that you get to experience wonderful local fruit and the fantastic wines it creates. The bad thing about Virginia Wine is that you are largely limited to Virginia produced fruit which is somewhat limited. Sure you get some fantastic local varietals you just can’t get anywhere else, like the Norton, but on the flip side, you don’t get to experience Chilean grapes or Napa grapes. At Quattro Goomba’s, you can do both. And they are one of the few wineries that serve Sangria.
Jess and I watched cartney play in the rolling hills of green on a beautiful spring day while we enjoyed a bottle of Californian Chardonnay that is simply out of reach for Virginians. It was fun and a great way to spend a Saturday Afternoon.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Wine Tasting in the Canberra Region of Australia
Apr 10th
Rather than write about individual wineries, I thought I’d switch this up just a bit and talk about the entire region of Canberra- Well, mostly the Murrumbateman village region, where I spent most of Sunday Morning. Many wine aficionados like to preach that its not about the wine, but the winemakers who give character to their wine that makes a good wine truly good. So in a region of great wines, how do you pick a winner among four wineries? Simply, the four winemakers who best help you experience their wine.
I visited several wineries, but four stand out in quality. Yass Valley Winery, McKellar Ridge Winery, Dionysus Winery and Clonakilla Winery.
Clonakilla winery is hailed by experts as one of the best wineries in the region. In fact, it was based on this recommendation that I went to the Murrembateman village to begin my winery tour. But the first winery I encountered was the Dionysus Winery. Like many wineries in the region, they specialized in Rieslings and Sauvignon Blancs, but to me what really stood out was their fantastic Shiraz, a bright purple wine with smells of smoke, harvest berries and spice. It was aged in oak, helping to provide a complex, smooth, yet bold flavor to a familiar grape. I took a bottle of their Shiraz back to the hotel to enjoy it during the upcoming week.
Clonakilla, was sadly, lacking in any kind of personal touch, and upon tasting their wines, I honestly had to ask what all the hubbub was about. It was staffed by a young, indifferent man who offered tastings of overpriced wines. His best wine was a Shiraz made from another estate’s grape. While that is not anything to hold against any vineyard, considering some of the local competition who grew local varietals, and grew them better, this caused me to bypass his offering for other regional bottles.
Next on my visit trail was the fantastic Yass Valley Winery, up the street from Clonakilla. This winery was spectacular, mostly because of the winemaker who ran the place. I was welcomed into their bright roomy tasting room, where I helped to remove the reds that were warming(!) over the floor heater because they were too chilly. The winemaker was Mick Withers, a retiree who sank his last years of his life into a beautiful winery making fantastic wines. He playfully guided me through their varieties. Most of their whites were to die for. The Traminer was great, as was the Verdelho, but I ended up settling on the Barbera, a red wine originally from Italy that has a fantastic flavor. I enjoyed a glass of the wine while Withers’ retiree wife made me a beautiful plate of bruscetta with local tomatos and fresh feta cheese. Maybe it was seeing this older couple run their business with pride that made this wine taste so well, but it is most likely the fact that the opposite is true: good wine comes from good, hardworking folk, and this is the clear winner of the wines I enjoyed today.
Last but not least, I stopped by McKellar Ridge Winery, run by Brian Johnston and his talented artist wife, Janet. Janet’s great watercolors, what were left after last week’s wine festival, adorn the tasting room’s walls. The Johnstons are trying to corner the local market on Bordeaux style wines by combining local varieties of Cab Franc, Merlot and Cab Sav together. The wines I tasted that they had to offer were exquisite. And they have won many local awards too. I think they will be successful with their blends. But the Bordeaux style wines were nothing fantastically new to me, coming from Northern Virginia where so many similar blends also tried to capture that French essence. Their whites, however, were what stood out to me. A crisp Sav Blanc and an equally tasty Riesling made for a great sipping wine on a warm rainy Sunday morning as I enjoyed the Johnston’s company.
It really is true. The best wines are not about the chemical makeup of the vintage. Its about the winemakers and their passions- and in my case, their ability to suffer a visiting Yank touring a wet region of outstanding wines.
Oh an that last photo of Kangaroo Prosciutto? I had to try Roo meat while I was here. It goes great with the Barbera!
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Australian Winery: Lerida Vineyards
Apr 2nd
I had to drive between Sydney and Canberra, but I was scheduled to arrive too early so I popped into a vineyard on the way. Luckily, they were having their harvest celebration and the tastings were free. Lerida Vineyards is about 15 minutes north of Canberra nestled against the Cullerin Mountain. In the photo below what looks like huge cotton fields is actually their vineyard draped with netting to prevent birds from picking at the fruit.
Their tasting room is very nice with a full service bakery and coffee shop and it overlooks the awesome expanse of the great Canberra Plains.
The Chardonnays they offered were okay, if a bit on the sweet side. For their whites, their Viognier was actually the best- crisp and lightly sweet and best flavor.
The reds were unfortunately, unremarkable. They may be good for the Canberra region, or maybe I’ve been spoiled by Virginia wines, but the only one I really liked was the 2008 Cullerin Pinot Noir.
Aside from the spectacular view of the valley, the vineyard was going all out for their harvest celebration, and it was a wonderful event for their community. Pictured above is also a pumpkin patch with gigantic 5 foot pumpkins and a warning sign to watch out for poisonous snakes.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Zombie Zin
Oct 16th
This Zinfandel is described as blood red in color and with a finish that never dies. I love living in a country that has holiday themed wines. BRAINNSZ!
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(2 votes, average: 3.50 out of 6) Loading ...I Take Back my Smack Down of Carolina Wines
Jul 19th
One of the more pleasant surprises on this week’s poker run was the visit to a winery up the street from Freebourne’s called Thistle Meadow Winery. Unlike Virginia Wineries, who usually grown their own grapes and offer five or so varieties, Thistle Meadow had dozens of different wines to choose from.
They offer four menus for tasting and instead of sorted by color, they sort their wines by dry whites, sweet whites, dry reds, sweet reds and finally, sweet/sours. It was a bit confusing at first, but it allowed for our large group to taste many different wines that were geared toward our own individual preferences.
Thistle Meadow doesn’t grow their own grapes either, but they buy their grapes from around the world and make small outstanding batches of wine to produce some interesting and award winning blends. You can check out their website here and if you happen to go down the Blue Ridge, be sure to stop in.
We had quite a bit of their wine Saturday evening during the annual barbecue, and I definitely needed one of these wine glasses, as did a few of my dear friends.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...San Diego’s Bernardo Winery
Apr 14th
I had a chance to do some wine tasting this afternoon so I drove out to the Bernardo Winery in the hills above the city. The winery is pretty old and the suburbs have encroached upon this winery. I had to drive past a couple of elementary schools and tons of ranch-style homes to get there. And California? How about putting highway markers showing wineries at certain exits from the highway?
Most of their wines are made from grapes from elsewhere in the state, mostly because their acreage is so small. As such, the Chardonnay was simply standard-issue. Unremarkable with a hint of oak. Likewise, their Merlot was so heavy and rich in tannins it felt like my teeth were being stripped with a solvent. Pretty harsh stuff. But they did grow a Syrah on the property and they bottled it as their Estate Reserve. It had wonderful tastes of citrus and sage, but it was way overpriced at 42 dollars per bottle.
They did have a Burgundy on hand. I don’t get many, if any Burgundies back home in Virginia, and theirs was very light, crisp and smooth, like a great table wine. Probably the best pick of the bunch for the price.
Most remarkable about the Winery is the way they created an artist’s village around their tasting room. They had handcrafted jewelry, wedding gowns, custom purses, a couple of restaurants, and more. Quite the little tourist trap!
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Forbidden Fruit
Apr 14th
I went to a local San Diego winery today, and was fascinated that there was a fruit tree right next to the driveway. So backing out I snatched a piece of citrus from the tree. I thought it was a lemon due to the size and color.
But as it turns out, it was a small cutie orange, and it was fully ripe. And quite tasty! Maybe it tasted so good because I plucked it myself or maybe because I was hungry at the time, but it was fantastic.
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(1 votes, average: 6.00 out of 6) Loading ...Gov’t Interference Stifles Wine Innovation in France
Dec 14th
A great analysis on how the California Wines closed the gap with French wines in just a couple of decades. Thanks to HotAir for this clip from ReasonTV
HotAir said:
Reason explores the stultifying effect of French government control over winemaking, including the use of government tasters to approve and reject wines for sale and its diktats on crop choices and methods that keep France’s winemakers straitjacketed. In America, and increasingly around the world, winemakers have the opportunity to take risks, change crops, try new methods, and let the consumer choose what works best.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...The French Surrender to Their Passion for Wine
Sep 4th
Wow, this is something everyone that loves fine wines should get! Thanks to Chris for the video!
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(1 votes, average: 6.00 out of 6) Loading ...Linden Winery Still Making Top Chardonnay
Aug 19th
The Washington Post decided to hold their own version of “Judgement of Paris,” the famous 1976 taste test that put California Wines on the map. They based BottleShock on this tasting. Now WaPo has pitted Virginia Wines against some of the best California and French Wines. Virginia didn’t come in first. But they came in third and fourth.
From the WaPo here:
Where California was in the 1970s — underappreciated for its quality — Virginia is today. So when we decided to hold our own Judgment of Washington, it wasn’t just to see whether the United States would best France today. It was to see whether local wines might surprise the judges now as much as Napa Valley bottles did more than three decades ago.
When the scores were totaled and the wines unveiled, a California wine narrowly edged out a French rival for the top spot in each category. But Virginia was nipping at their heels.
In third and fourth place came two Virginia chardonnays: Linden Vineyards 2006 Hardscrabble and the Michael Shaps 2007. Fewer than 1.25 points separated the first four chardonnays, two of them from Virginia. The judges were unanimous in thinking the Shaps was from Burgundy. The Linden was mistaken for French by three of the judges, while the others suspected the West Coast.
What conclusions can we draw from our exercise? That U.S. wines are the equal of the French is no longer the surprise it was in 1976. We cannot ignore that wines produced within a two-hour drive of Washington stood toe-to-toe with highly touted competitors from California and France.
I do like the Linden wines. In fact, both of the wines that won in this competition topped the list of wines by Travel and Leisure magazine. I wrote about that here in 2007. But atop the next mountain over from Linden is Fox Meadow Vineyards, which I may be partial to since I have had so much of their wine with friends over the past few years. But I think its even better. Thanks to Mary for the tip on this article!
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Applause for Lake Anna Winery’s 2005 Merlot
Sep 24th
I had a great gift for Christmas from my brother: enrollment in the wine of the month club for Virginia Wines. I had never been disappointed with it, until that is, I saw that I got bottles from Lake Anna. You see, Lake Anna has never thrilled me when I have done tastings, both onsite and at wine festivals, and when I did a tasting there a couple of years ago, I left with the impression the winery was just trying to manufacture a product, not produce a fine Virginia wine. And a few of the wines from the James River region in the past just have not measured up to the great wines from the Loudon trail or from the Monticello region.
I had friends over tonight and it has been a few weekends since I had the chance to grill steaks. I had some bone-in ribeyes, asparagus, and potatoes on the grill, and because I had guests, I uncorked a bottle of red from my stash. I chose Lake Anna Winery’s 2005 Merlot, thinking I was opening a wine that would be more of a table wine than anything fancy. I like to save my better wines for celebrations. It was a casual night, so I wanted a casual wine. (That sounds better than me saying I was being cheap with my guests!)
When I poured it, I noticed that the wine was clearer than most Merlots and was redder than some of the heavier Merlots from the Loudon region. The taste was medium bodied and flavorful, and you could tell that it had fermented in oak, not steel. It paired really well with the grilled steak and veggies, and the wine was nothing like the wines I remembered from my last visit to Lake Anna winery. I definitely want more for my stash, and this time, I’m saving this Merlot for celebrations or when I get another great steak.
So if you are travelling between DC and Richmond, make a stop at the Lake Anna winery. You might be surprised at what you find.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Go See Bottle Shock
Jul 30th
This looks like it is going to be a great American movie about the wine tasting in 1976 that shocked the world by naming a California Chardonnay superior to it French counterparts. Wow, I am predicting Oscar. The movie’s official site is here.
Click to see the trailer. Thanks to Debbie Schlussel for the story, with more backstory here.
I would love to know how Virginia’s wines stack up.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Oakey, Nutty, Peppery Undertones
Jun 10th
There is a Trader Joe’s by my house. I usually shop there for picnic items like hummus, cheese, olives, and tasty sugary stuff like chocolate covered pretzels. Before I go wine tasting, I stock up. Also, they always give my kid a free balloon, which keeps him quiet for about ten minutes, which is a good thing.
When I walked into the store this past weekend to stock up for a concert, I noticed they had a small table setup for wine tasting. They gave me a small paper cup of some red wine blend, and it tasted just a wee bit better than MD 20/20. I choked it down and then realized it was a 4 dollar bottle of leavings squeegeed from the floor of a California slaughterhouse/winery.
Pro tip to Trader Joe’s: Provide tastings of the good, more expensive wines. You are not selling to street bums.
I found this video at College Humor that pokes fun at wine snobs and it reminded me of this story. Enjoy.
See more funny videos at CollegeHumor
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