The third stop on our route nine barrel tasting was a place that has branched out into the world of food. By day, it is a bustling little winery. By night, at least on the weekends, it is a mysterious and exotic tapa restaurant. Additionally, it offers warm soup and baguettes on the weekend for anyone who is hungry after a hard day on the Loudon county wine trail. For those of you who haven’t guessed yet, our third stop was Loudon Valley Vineyards winery with our host and wine maker Bree Moore. We first heard of Bree on a trip to Unicorn winery back in 2007 where she used to be the winemaker and last time we checked still does the wine consulting with.
We started by going to their standard tasting upstairs while waiting for the next trip to the barrel room tasting. The highlights of the standard tasting were the Vinifera white, 2008 Cab Franc, and the 2008 Syrah. However before we could finish Bree came up from the spiral stair case ready for the next group to taste the treats she had in barrels below.
We started off with a Pinot Grigio, It came out a bit cloudy and for me, well, it had a funky smell. However, having been to a barrel tasting or two, I knew not to judge a wine by its color or nose, unfortunately the funky nose carried over into the wine. I thought it might be just me, but when others went for the dump bucket, or tried to give it to their tasting partner and were turned down, I knew that it might be the wine.
Next up was the next vintage of Route 9 Red, a chambourcin wine. It again had an insignificant nose, but at least it did have some fruit on the pallet but the tannins over powered the flavor. I guess once this is in bottle and has some time settle it could be better, but it will take a tasting to determine if that is the case.
Last on the barrel tasting adventure was something we were excited for. It was the next vintage of her Syrah. It is one of the wines we like the best from Loudon valley. This was different from our previous experiences in the barrel room. This wine displayed great fruit and earthiness on the nose. It followed by a well balance wine with light tannins and soft earth fruit pallet with a lingering finish, just what we would want from a good Syrah.
Our experience at this stop in the barrel tasting was less than stellar, but the standard tasting was pleasant and well, we needed a small break from our barrel tasting adventures. So after getting our friends up, it was time to head off to our last stop on our Route 9 Barrel Tasting adventure.
