Northern Neck Yields Rare Find.

Recently we visited Ingleside winery on the Northern Neck Virginia. It was bitter sweet day for me. On the one hand it had been more than 18 months for me since the last time I had been to the Northern Neck for wine tasting. If I only new that later that night I'd be in the E.R. it might make me rethink my choices.

Thankfully it was nothing life threatening, and with a little rest and recoup, I can now happily be wine touring and more importantly drinking good Virginia wine again, in moderation of course. But less about that and more about our trip. First Lessons learned:

1. Northern Neck is a summer time winery destination. Many of the wineries shutdown during the winter.

2. When visiting bring a DD, I'm previous trips I didn't realize how clustered the tasting rooms are. On this trip we only visited two, but drove by five in our short little day trip.

3. Ingleside plantation Vineryard is a day trip in and of itself. With three separate tastings "mostly whites" "mostly reds" and the "Full Tour." The first two are tastings themselves and the last one a combination of the first two, well if you go for the full tour, you are consuming almost two and half glasses of wine. You do the math.

We left Ingleside "like we usually do" with more than our fair share of wine, but the rare gem of the bunch was a wine they were still tasting from 2005. For those of you that travel to VA wineries regularly you know that most wineries don't produce enough wine that they can keep in the tasting room a year, maybe two and after that it is cellar collection at best.

Ingleside on the other hand, owns or controls so much acreage of grape vine that they grow the most unusual grapes, and can store it for you for at least the first three years. However even for Ingleside, a 2005 vintage is not common.

Most Virginia wineries say 7 years and a VA wine has peaked and starting to slide with rare exceptions. With that said, the night before we were heading off to NJ to sea concert of Eric Church and Brantley Gilbert, we decided it was time to open this rare gem and enjoy.

The Ingleside 2005 Cab Sav had a strong smell from the time the cork was pulled. It reminded me a really ripe black raspberry with a kiss of spice. It featured a smooth start with dark red fruit. It had light middle tannins and slight burnt tobacco finish. I think the light tannis says the wine is as good as it is gonna get, and my wife and I enjoy sipping it while watching upset night in March Madness.

Crowds Flocking from near and far for Virginia wine….Literally.

Arriving at the second of three new wineries we planned to visit on recent weekend wine trip, we found we had not done enough scouting and were greeted by a closed sign at Capital Vineyards. Not wanting to lose the time slot, the wife and I headed to one of our favorite locations for a glass on an extraordinary enclosed heated deck before heading to our last stop on our Saturday wine tour.

Chateau O’Brien is known for its great wine, engaging owners, and unfortunately it can also be known for its crowds. Based on the car already parked in their lower parking lot, we were glad we weren't going to be doing a tasting. However, after reaching their primary parking lot we realized that it wasn’t that crowded.

Entering through the front door, we were greeted by Howard O'Brien the winery owner. Howard told us that the deck was closed today because it is too cold to keep the heat up warm using the the gas space heaters, but invited us to enjoy the fireplace room which was warm and cozy. The wife and I agree that we needed a glass of wine so we quickly purchased a bottle of his Padlock red and headed for fire place. Since the fire place wasn't lit, we were lucky to snag the two seats right in front of the it to enjoy our glasses of wine.

This one is one of my favorites from Chateau O’Brien. It displays a rich full mouth feel, firm by not over powering tannins. It has dark fruit flavors with a slight leathery earthy finish. It will pair well with most red meats, but is equally good by itself for an evening sipper.

The atmosphere that day at Chateau O’Brien was a mixed lot. There were several small groups enjoying wine along with both the classic and reserve tasting bars full of people sampling the full selection that Chateau O’Brien has to offer. I usually recommend Chateau O’Brien to anyone looking for all the good a Virginia winery can be. Plus if you only want to visit one, this a location you can go to enjoy two distinctly different types of tasting and have great views along with a place to have a picnic for those of you who are like us and enjoy packing a lunch with you on the Virginia wine trail.

Wine enthusiast versus Wine Fan....It comes down to storage.

Taking a Break from wine drinking due to some medical concerns, I’m sorting through tasting notes, reviewing old pictures, and concerned that this blog that I have created will slowly fade into just a distant memory. I mean what is a person supposed to blog about on a wine blog when he can’t drink wine? Thankfully some of my fellow wine bloggers provided me an opportunity to blog about something that doesn’t involve tasting delicious Virginia wine, Wine storage.

After viewing pictures of the cellaring and storage techniques of some the other wine bloggers I follow (Virginia Wine time, Cellar Blog, SwirlSnipSnark, WineaboutVirginia), I think I have finally deciphered the difference between a wine enthusiast and people like me who are more like casual wine fans. It comes down to the wine collection. Don’t get me wrong, I love my wine, but even at peak capacity six cases of wine is my capacity for wine cellaring. However, even with that restriction, I’d like to think I’m able to keep a diverse variety of wines available around the house. Wine enthusiasts on the other hand, have storage capacity to survive a small nuclear holocaust. See other bloggers for good examples. Then there are a few who are just starting their adventure like JulesVine.

My storage system is fairly simple. My cellaring wines go in this electric wine “fridge.” My wife and I received this as a wedding gift. Its functionality kicked the bucket two years ago, but as it is always in the basement of my home where the temperature is mostly stable and cool, I’m not missing it. It houses all red wines. These are those bottles that only get brought out on special occasions, and must be at least 4 years old before they are even considered. Right now it primarily filled with 2007 VA red wines, with a few ‘06s hanging around for good measure. Additionally a pair of French stowaways are hiding within. They were gifts I received when I graduated college.

Next to that I have basic case storage of nicer wines that we wouldn’t mind hanging around a while, but will drink if it has been a tough week or will pair well with a nice dinner we have made.

On the wall we have our day to day wines. These are the wines that get cycled through our inventory. On the left are the whites, and on the Right are the reds.

In addition to the wall we have two additional case wine holders that sit on the floor that hold overflow. Usually that means day to day wines, with an occasional nicer one that is waiting for a place in the cellar.

As you can see, our storage area is quite full, and with my timeout from wine drinking I have been forced to take, it should stay that way, at least for a couple months until I am able to return to light wine drinking.

Route 9 Barrel Tasting: Sunset Hills Vineyard

When our group headed out for the Route 9 Barrel tasting, the plan had always been to end at Sunset Hills. It made sense, first my wife and I are wine club member so we get to use the upper level for the lunch we had pack with us. Second because we have been addicted to their 2010 Viognier which we wanted to let our friends try, and last because it has a great tasting room and a nice place to relax after a hard day of Va wine tasting.

So when we walked in the door and were pretty much directed down stairs to their private tasting room and production facility, we smiled because it had got a little later in the day than we had planned, and we were all really hungry. We have done the standard tasting many time, so my wife and I took it easy waiting to be pointed back to the barrel room. When the door opened up to the barrel room and the group exited there was about 10 or so of us ready to enter and talk to Nate Walsh Sunset Hills wine maker about what we were about to sample.

In the room were two barrels and a sign talking about futures for chardonnay so I expected chardonnay to be the white wine from the barrel to be tasted. However surprise, Nate walked around with a sample of the next vintage of viognier. It had the typical tropical flower and fruit nose that is associated with a viognier, but lacked a little of the balanced the explosion of fruit I have grown accustom too with their 2010 vintage. Overall it was well balance and probably will develop more until it is ready to be bottled.

Nate was curious about the group’s experience out during the route 9 Barrel tasting. It was toward the end of the day, and he was surprised that no one in the group and made it to all five wineries participating. Like ourselves, most people there had made it to four of them and for a few this was just their second stop, but they had said they planned on taking full advantage of the second day of the barrel tasting. I believe the two day event was the way to go. Trying to squeeze in that many wine tasting would bound to lead to trouble, especially because the wineries through in a their standard tasting which means a glass of two of wine at each winery visited. Although I didn’t say it there, I’ll admit it here. My pallet was pretty trashed even after four, something I’ll remember going into next year if we do this again. And we had only done part of the standard tastings at the other three wineries we visited.

After a big lead in, we found out the other wine we would be sampling the cellar was Nate’s Petite Verdot. It was right what we were expecting a smooth blend of fruit, oak and balanced tannin. I had found the nose a little over barring but coming from the barrel that was not so unusual. I’m excited to taste the final product when it is released, even if that isn’t in the foreseeable future.

The Petite verdot signaled the end of the barrel tasting, my wife and I caught up with our friends upstairs in the member’s only area for some delicious lunch. We opened a bottle of their 2010 Viognier and enjoyed conversation and some laughs and memories of the day’s experience.

Route 9 Barrel tasting Loudon Valley Vineyard

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.

Route 9 Barrel Tasting Hillsboro Winery

We started our route 9 Barrel tasting at Hillsborough winery. We are familiar with Kerem Baki, the wine maker at Hillsborough, from an event we did with him last year when he gave a tour through his vineyards. I did a small series of blogs based on that event that I encourage you to review, it was the in the vine series of blogs and the first one can be read here here. During this event, we got to sample fresh grapes before harvest from all over his 36 acres of vines. We were very excited to try wine that was still in the barrel. Upon arriving, our friends made their way to the regular tasting bar for their current vintage tasting, while we were directed down to their production facility. It was a small bar about 100 yards from their tasting room. We had seen it several times out the window from their tasting room and never knew the number of barrels that were stored down there.

Upon walking in, we were surprised by the large group of people already well into their barrel tasting. The room was stacked ceiling to floor with barrels from different grapes, years, and of course blends. In the back left corner were three barrels with labels on them describing the wine within, a table with crackers and a sign in sheet, and of course drain grates for any wine you didn't enjoy.

We opened with a 2011 single varietal chardonnay done not in traditional oak but in Acucia wood barrel. It keeps the fruit as the key flavor and takes away the buttery taste that happens with California chardonnays. We found this quite young still and needing a little more time in the barrel, but showed great promise.

From there we moved on to his 2010 Cab Sav. This too was quite young. It was still quite acidic and needed time to mellow and develop, but with several more months on the barrel it should be delicious.

The last on the scheduled tasting was the 2010 Petite Verdot. We are kind of home bodies for Petite Verdot. I always lobby that Virginia needs to change its signature grape from Viognier to Petite Verdot, but unfortunately my voice is small in the grand sea of Virginia wineries. This wine was great as it was. It was well balanced with equal parts fruit and oak. I was ready to buy futures of it right there, unfortunately they were not being offered so I instead just made this sample last as long as I could while Kerem answered more questions on the 2011 vintage, growing grapes, the starting of the winery, and of course what was in the rest of the barrels surrounding us.

Kerem knew he had a group of red wine lovers with him and he took advantage to let us try his 2010 Tannat. It showed very well, but more was the love that Kerem showed in telling why it does so well in Virginia and the pain staking care it takes to grow. Tannat is one of the last grapes he harvests so although October was very wet this year, Tannat still did quite well because it hung on the vine well into November.

Lastly, Kerem climbed high into his barrels to allow us to try his 2011 Fer Servadou. It is a lesser known grape from France that is only grown in three vineyards in the U.S. in which Hillsborough is the largest one. It was a bit pasty for me for some reason, but I know the end product will be quite delicious when blended bottled in the final product.

After finishing off our last sample and thanking Kerem for his time, my wife and I headed back to the tasting room to collect our friends. It was at that time I realized that this event wasn’t going to be for the faint of heart, and why I was glad they had extended it over two days. This many wineries in one day would not be an advisable undertaking, unless of course you have a limo. The walk back to the tasting room was all up hill and gave me a chance to enjoy the scenery surrounding Hillsborough winery.

Route 9 Barrel Tasting: 8 Chains North

By popular demand, I’m not following the chronological order of my recent visits during the Route 9 Barrel tasting event hosted in Loudon Country Virginia. Instead, I’ll be sharing our experience at 8 Chains North Winery first. This was our second stop on our tour of the day. In our group was my wife and two of her girlfriends. My wife and I were the only ones actually doing the barrel tasting on that day. Her girlfriends had never been to any of the Loudon County wineries so while we were enjoying tasting future releases, they were soaking up the current vintage releases.

We arrived to find cars parked on both sides of the small parking lot at the front of 8 Chains. Not surprising, they had two tasting bars up and running and there was a good crowd at each.

After checking with the Ben’s Fiancée behind the main tasting bar, we found out Ben had a group in the back and that we had enough time to do a regular tasting with our friends before the next barrel tasting would start.

Well, I guess she twisted our arm’s into it, but today’s run down consisted of their 2009 Sauvignon Blanc done in the fume style which for those your who don’t know means fermented on the leafs. Predictably I noticed a green flower smell on the nose, and had very green flavor. I thought it was a bit cold and that was hurting its flavor as I didn’t find it appealing at all. In past visits I had like this wine much better. From there we moved on to the 2010 Loco Vino. A semi-dry blend of Traminette and Vidal Blanc, this wine has a .05% of residual sugar. That is slightly less than the previous year’s vintage which allowed more of the spiciness of the Traminette comes through on the palette. This a popular seller in the summer and good patio wine year round. From there we moved on to the 2008 Merlot. This had a very delicious bouquet of red fruit and smoky essence. Although it tasted only o.k. the nose was a sign that this could get better as it gets another year of two in the bottle. After the merlot we moved on to a wine that is from another winery that Ben is the vineyard manager for in Loundon County, Otium Cellars. This was the 2009 vintage of their Dornfelder. Please feel free to follow this link, to find out all you care about the Dornfelder grape. We all agreed this was a unique wine for the Virginia region, and great day-to-day drinking wine that can be paired with food but doesn’t require it. From there we moved on to the 2009 Furnace Mountain Red. Unfortunately it was at that point that it was time to go back to the cellar and start our cellar tasting so after quickly downing the sample without enjoying it, we were off to the cellar.

For those of you who have never done a cellar tasting, what you taste out of the barrel is usually not what you’ll taste when it has been bottled. Being young the tannins and acidity levels usually haven’t had time to balance out so one or the other is usually very much present. However, what you do get is a chance to catch aromas and tastes you never get in the finished product as they ousted through the continued fermentation and aging product. The real value of these cellar tastings, at least for me, is the time you get to spend with the wine maker. I have done one other barrel tasting with Ben and knew what an engaging and open person he is. He’ll give you great answers to any questions and won’t hold anything back about the wine making process, wine industry, grape growing, and of course his personal expertise, vineyard management.

After greeting us and taking us back into his barrel room and production facility, Ben began our barrel tasting with his '11 Sauvignon Blanc. He explained how this would be the last year in which he does not use grapes that he personally manages as the basis for his wine. The vineyard he has planted behind his tasting room will be ready for their first harvest next year, although he will be keeping the yields lower than the final production because it will be their first vintage. He currently gets his grapes from Delfosse Vineyards south of Charlottesville, VA. The wine displayed the citrus characteristics you would expect although was still quite acidic. As mention earlier, he does in the fume style by fermenting them on the leaves which makes it very different the New Zealand style Sav Blancs that have gained much popularity in recent years in the U.S.

From there we moved on to a new wine that will be released by 8 Chains, it will be single varietal Chardonnay. An interesting story upon how he came upon getting chardonnay to make this varietal out of, but I’ll save that for when he does his release. For me, there were hints of fruit and vanilla on the nose, displaying a little heavier pallet with fruit and oak ever prevalent. It was just about as much oak as I like for an oaked Chardonnay and commented as much. Ben said he was a little concerned about that also as it will continue to age until May. While finishing our taste of chardonnay Ben answered questions on crop damage due to stink bugs and other nasty bug critters that rob what would otherwise be a great glass of wine for you. The key take away from that discussion was that through trial and error Ben learned that stink bugs are not alcohol soluble so as long as you are diligent of taking them out of your vats and barrels they don’t harm the taste of the wine as other insects can.

After Chardonnay, it was time to move back over into the barrel room and start in the two reds Ben was prepared to let us sample. The first red was the '10 Merlot which has been almost a year in barrel already and only has a couple more months before being ready to bottle. My first wiff of this wine came with a smell of toasted marshmallow with cherry fruit hints. Salted caramel was another popular smell from the group along with other toasted marshmallows. Ben took a sample and after giving it a swirl, agreed that was in the nose. It is strange that caramelized sugars would appear on the nose like that, but I guess that could be a byproduct of the warm fermentation process. This was a delicious wine in almost perfect balance of fruit, weight, and tannin. It was ready for bottling right now in my opinion. To go with this sample, our group asked questions on corks, natural vs synthetic, screw tops and how they will change the wine making processes, and a little on the use of glass corks. It was very insightful on how what type corks you will use needs to be thought about at the very beginning of the wine making process to ensure you get the consistent balance wine you are looking for in the bottle.

Next up was the 2010 Petite Verdot. PV is one of our personal favorite varietals, and a common wine tasted on the Route 9 Barrel tasting. Ben’s was very good, full bodied and left us excited for its release later this year. This initiated a conversation of Viognier being selected as the official wine of Virginia. Although Ben was not against the selection due to the great climate Virginia has for growing Viognier, but Ben commented on how he thought single varietal Petite Verdots would become more common across wineries throughout Virginia.

From there Ben was going to allow us to taste the 2011 Petite Verdot so we could compare what year of aging will do for a wine. Since our conversation had went toward emerging wines in Virginia he instead decided to share his Malbec with us as he believed Virginia was well suited to make some outstanding Malbec wines. In time Virginia might gain some notoriety for the Malbec wines produced here. His Malbec was silky smooth and delicious. It made us talk about becoming wine club members as Ben said this will only be released to his wine club members. Hopefully, if their feedback is positive it will one day be a staple in Ben’s tasting room.

That was the end of the barrel tasting, but as a gracious host Ben continued to talk to the group for about another 10 minutes. It was really enjoyable to talk to someone who is so passionate about not only wine production, but vineyard management, and the local wine industry as a whole. I predict more good things will come from 8 Chains over the course of the next few years.

Virginia Wine Goers Forced to Hike for VA Wine....

Although my wife and I are avid Virginia wine goers, for some reason or another, it had been a long time since the wife and I had made it to a new Virginia winery. With that in mind, the wife and I headed out this weekend with three first time visits in mind. So after filling up on caffeine and gas, my wife and pointed our VA wine tour mobile (also known as a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta) west on 66 to find our first destination of the weekend.

Slightly off the beaten path from Marshall, VA, is a winery that first opened its doors in June 2011 Cobbler Mountain Cellars. Although it took some trust in the back roads we were following, we arrived to what we were surprised to find as a beautiful location for a tasting room. Driving on their private road, we drove by two different vineyard sites, along with a couple picnic areas, and a beautiful creek area that can be used by VA wine goers who pack picnics with them. The parking area is a big open field off the side of their road that greets wine tasters with a hike up a small side hill to their house which currently doubles as their tasting room. Although not up when we arrived, a sign is supposed to point you up to a parking lot closer to the house for winter wine goers and those who suffer from handicap situations.

Excited to try some wine, the wife and I eagerly hopped out of the car and made the short hike up to the tasting room for some wine. We were joined by the owner’s two kids and two dogs to make sure we had no problems finding the front door. Upon entering we had deja vous feelings of a day gone by with Fabbioli Cellars in finding an open rafter tasting room that although was small more than adequately covered all the wine tasting essentials. We were greeted by Jeff and his wife Laura; the owners for Cobbler Mountain cellars. They directed us to a bar made of an old wooden door on top of used wine barrels to start our wine tasting.

Cobbler Mountains current tasting consists of six wines and a hard cider that range from vintages of 09 and 10. Jeff started our tasting with his 2010 Chardonnay Reserve done in stainless steel. We noticed a pear montage on the nose, good fruit on the taste but had slightly bitter end for me. Jeff explained his background in wine during this taste. He got his start as a home kit experimenter in South Carolina and really enjoyed it. He continued to pursue wine making and eventually received formal training in wine making from U.C. Davis.

From there, we moved on to their 2010 hard cider. A blend of apples both local to the property and also nearby apple orchards. It presented a light honey taste, however I was left feeling it needed to be bit colder to bring out a little more of the crisp characteristics.

After the cider, we moved on to my favorite wine of the tasting, the 2010 Cobblestone wine. It is a blend of Riesling, Vidal Blanc, Seyval Blanc and Viognier. I detected a large smell of tropical melon on the nose and felt the characteristics of a good Viognier on the finish. This is a perfect summer sipper and would pair well with lighter fare. It got two stars from me and also found its way home with me.

With the whites completed, we transitioned to red wines and I become more inquisitive on the winery as a whole. Jeff gladly told me about how they broke ground on the vineyard on 2006. This site has been in his wife’s family since 1959 and that some of the vines in the front vineyard had been started in South Carolina and made their way north with them.

The first of the red wines was the 2009 Merlot. Like many Virginia merlots, I can say this wine is very plain. It displayed a lot of red berry on the nose, but was nothing fantastic. I found this wine to be a bit dry and had a weak finish. Nothing against the wine, I just don’t think it was my thing.

Moving forward, we were introduced to the 2009 Meritage. It was recently entered into the 2011 D.C. Wine Riot where it one the “People’s Choice Award.” It displayed nose of sweet cherry on the nose, but had a pleasant red fruit burst combined with complexity of green pepper, tannins and a full body. None of that is surprising when you learn it is a blend of Cab Franc, Petite Verdot, and Cab Sav. For those of you who are interested it is the Cab Sav that has made the move from South Carolina to Virginia with the wine maker. This wine too, somehow made its way home with me.

Next on our tasting menu was the 2010 Cabernet Franc. As many of you know, Cab Franc is a staple on many wineries tasting menus based on how well it does in VA. This Cab Franc had a tart red raspberry nose and was followed by and earthy dry red fruit taste. It displayed light tannins which makes it more approachable than some Virginia Cab Francs. However, it lacked a little on the finish which is what I use to judge the common from the exceptional.

From there we moved on the last wine in our tasting, the previously mentioned Cab Sav. They are currently pouring the 2009 vintage and have two different pairings to go with it, chocolate and cheese. As Jeff poured, Laura came down with a plate full of food to go with our wine. The plate consisted of two different type breads from Great harvest bakery, two cheeses from local cheese maker, including a Derby cheese aged in the Cobbler Mountain Meritage. They also suggested we taste the white bread with the local honey that sat is small pitcher to our right.

Jeff generously let us sample some of the wines again as we enjoyed the tasting plate that Laura has brought down to us. I asked him where he saw the winery going as they moved forward. He then eloquently described the Viognier vines that was recently planted just downhill from the tasting room. He also mentioned how they planned to build a barn type tasting room and production facility, and lastly he mentioned that next weekend they’d be releasing their Petite Verdot. I was slightly upset it wasn’t ready now as that is one of my wife and I’s favorite Virginia varietals, but as everything in wine, patience is a virtue.

Overall, I felt this was a young winery, and that it showed enough promise for a return visit. They had a few wines that were worth adding to the rotation, but not exceptional from top to bottom. As a destination though, Cobbler Mountain Cellars was a great stop. It's view is outstanding and I can imagine how that summer picnics on the grounds can be very enjoyable, even if an occasional bear might come by to stir things up.

Flash back to Summer....

I had been torn with my decision on what to blog today. I was on my way back from a great day tasting in Loudon county. I was convinced that I would pick one of the great wineries we visited today and share our experience. However after discussing what we would be making for dinner, my plans got changed.

Our menu was to consist of steaks expertly grilled by yours truly with sauteed onions and mushrooms, and one of my wife's favorite salads. It is a fennel and arugula mix with blue cheese, green beans, and a balsamic dressing. As you can see in the below picture it turned our beautiful. The highlight was the steakhouse onions and mushrooms prepared by my wife. They were cooked in Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, and soy sauce. With such a beautiful dinner prepared it was my hope that the wine selected for tonight's dinner would stand up to such a delightful meal.

The wine selection for tonight was a 2006 Meritage from Delfosse winery in Faber, Va. It is a blend of blend of classic Bordeaux grapes, Cab Franc, Merlot, Petite Verdot, and Cab Sav. This was then aged 18 months in French Oak, and according to the bottle should age well for about ten years.

The wine displayed a great nose of dark red fruit, earth, and hints of tobacco. It then followed
that up with a black raspberry flavor with hints of burnt tobacco on the taste. The wine had a good balance of tannins and fruit with a smooth finish. Although it may age a few more years it is certainly ready to be drank right now. The nice part is that it is still available for purchase to anyone at the winery and online. Most wineries are on their '08 and '09 reds. It is nice to be able to find a wine that is just getting to the point where it is really good.

Our Tradition Continues...Part Three

With our presents exchanged and me smiling because even a day early Santa got me everything I wanted, It was time to sit and watch a few Christmas oldies while playing a game of phase 10. A few weeks ago my wife had promised me that if I passed my PT test in November, She would make a delicious dessert with bourbon clearly evident in the final product. After much deliberation she decided on a bourbon chocolate fudge. When She ran it by me, I melted at the idea. I love fudge; I love bourbon; Together, how can they go wrong?

So as we settled into the couch for cards and Christmas movies, we each had a saucer of what was to be chocolate bourbon fudge. Unfortunately, the fudge didn't quite get finished hardening so it was more of a chocolate bourbon syrup or pudding. However even in its unhardened state, the chocolaty goodness was delicious. The embedded walnuts were laidened with Gentleman's Jack. It is my bourbon of choice on most occasions and this was no exception.

Now for the good part, the wine pairing. This summer for some reason I had run where several desserts wines made it to my cellar. This is quite unusual if you know me and my tastes. Most often I found tasting and drinking dessert wines very challenging. I like their sweetness and often subtle raisin like flavors, but the burn of the extra alcohol content leaves me less than pleased.

With richness of tonight's dessert I figured it would mask any burn of the extra alcohol. The wine I chose for our Christmas eve dessert pairing was the 2008 Othello from Veritas vineyards in Afton, Va. This wine smelled heavily of raisin grapes. It had cool rich raisin flavor on the pallet, and displayed a light burn of alcohol on the finish. The best part of all is the lack of syrup that often accompanies VA port style wines .

Having read that description, I guess that could be said of many dessert wines from the state. Being this is made of several red varietals I guess I'm disappointed with that description. However, it is probably more to my lack of drinking dessert wines, then of the lack of complexity from Othello. I find that is the experience I have with dessert wines, unless they of the Late Harvest Vidal variety in which I get more honey characteristics.

In the end, The reason I liked this dessert wine was quite apparent, it paired well with our sweet rich flavor of my bourbon fudge. Now if only we could know why it didn't harden properly? Any suggestions from those in Internet land?

Our Tradition Continues....Part Two....

Well if it were for the last game of the season, the Christmas eve Cowboy vs Eagle Football game might have totally depressed me. Dallas was pretty much shutout by the Eagles less a blocked punt and junk touchdown in late game garbage time. Not to mention Tony Romo was pulled by the coach after bruising his hand. However, since that is not the case, I can take solace in the fact that next week equals win and we're in playoff game with the Giants. Forget the fact that we just got beat by the Giants two weeks ago, and Romo could be hurt...this is the playoffs and anything can happen.

However, most of you aren't here to see me talk about football. You want to hear how the rest of our Christmas eve dinner went, and of course about the next Chateau O'Brien Wine we paired with dinner.

The dinner preparation started with decanting our wine choice. We chose the Chateau O'Brien 2007 Vitner's Reserve. It is blend of 48% Cab Sav, 20% Cab Franc, 20% Tannat, and 12% Petite Verdot. As most real VA wine drinkers know, 2007 was a great year for red wine in VA. The summer was long, hot, and dry and continued that way right through the harvest season. Of course, we chose a big red wine because we are breaking away from tradition tonight and having steaks to celebrate our Christmas Eve. As you can see below, my wife took the boneless ribeye steak I had picked yesterday and marinaded them.

Along with the great wines above, my wife made wedge salad with homemade bleu cheese dressing made with Rogue River Blue Cheese(take minute to stop and read about this very special blue cheese...mmmm...mmm...good), and fancy bacon bits crumbled on top. Additionally, she made cooked chard with a lemon and parmesan. The completed plates were almost too good to be true.

Dinner was set on our christmas table, with candles taboot. We had a great conversation that included an intimate discussion on the wine. We agreed the nose of the wine was filled with tomato sauce smell, a slight burn of ripe red fruit. This made us smile as we realized we still had at least one bottle of this awaiting us in the cellar for another occasion.

This wine rounded out the mouth with flavors of ripe red fruit, pepper, leather and earth. It had a well balance tannin structure ensuring it can stand several more years of aging. It lingered long with a hint of mint just on the finish. Overall a great example of VA Red Wine blend, and one that can stand up to any wine around the world.

With dinner served and being enjoyed, Sara and I looked forward to opening the gifts that waited under the tree. Having a taste of the special dessert Sara had prepared to for me, and seeing how it paired with the dessert wine that had been chilling in the fridge. Unfortunately, Gus our little boy cat couldn't wait on the presents either and got a head start. Tune in to part three of this mini-blog series to see what our dessert wine selection was and how it wrapped up our 2011 Christmas eve tradition.

Our Tradition Continues...Part One

From the very beginning of our relationship Christmas Eve was always our holiday. Since we don't have children, we have always found ourselves traveling to spend Christmas with our family so exchanging presents or stocking Christmas Eve just made sense. It has grown to include having Sara make a delicious dinner, and then exchanging presents followed by a watching the traditional Christmas movie "White Christmas."

This year another tradition of ours was a bonus to our Christmas Eve festivities, watching football. Thankfully the NFL got it right this year and didn't schedule any night football games leaving that time for the family to get together. Unfortunately, this year our favorite teams were playing each, Her the Philly Eagles, Me, Them Dallas Cowboys. Thankfully, the early win by the Giants made the game less important, however with Philly pride hanging in the balance it still had important meeting. And with the Eagles spanking the Cowboys in the end, Sara was happy.

To go with this heated rivalry, the wife made a delicious appetizer of Old Bay shrimp cocktail, homemade cocktail sauce, and garlic and herb boursin with crackers.

She had also selected a surprise choice of wine, a chardonnay. Typically we don't favor chardonnays and being such a special occasion we usually reach back in our reserve collection for our wines. However this was no ordinary chardonnay, it came from a favorite of ours Chateau O'Brien. We had picked up this bottle at their Holiday open house a few weeks ago, however it was far from their most recent vintage. This was their 2006 reserve Chardonnay.

No that was not a typo they still have a Chardonnay from 2006.

The shrimp cocktail was fresh, and the homemade cocktail sauce really made the appetizer, however I would hardly recommend doing the old bay boil when preparing your shrimp for cocktail.

This 5 year old Chardonnay grown locally near Markham, VA displayed a nose of butter rich smell. It had hints of fresh lemon juice and herbs.

This wine continued with a burst of acid on the front of the tongue, but aside from that it was very smooth, composed a nice medium body, contain little hint of fruit or oak because of the age, and contain a mineral finish. At points I also detected flower taste like dandelion or buttercup. This wine paired real well with the boursin cheese and crackers. I would recommend this pairing to almost anybody.





Overall this wine has peaked and is probably in the drink immediately stage, but for those looking for non-fruity, non-California chardonnay this would come as a recommend, just don't delay. It is ready right now.

In part two, I'll be covering our Christmas eve meal and selected VA wine pairing. It too is a Chateau O'Brien wine. And for those of you looking a head, there will be a part three where we cover dessert and a rare appearance in my blog of a red dessert wine.

P.S. For you animal lovers, I'm sharing the below photo of my youngest kitty who can't wait to open his Christmas presents.