A Brand New Winery....Maggie Malick Wine Caves

We had a last minute whim to go out to Loudoun county today. We had a wine pick-up to make at 8 Chains North, and we heard Padawan Pumpkin was on tap at Corcoran Brewery (spoiler alert, it wasn't). But, after a glass of wine, and a glass of beer we headed out on Harpers Ferry Road to try a new-to-us winery Cardamon Family Winery. I know, big surprise that isn't the winery in the title, and I promise our visit to Cardamon Family Winery is a blog for another day, but while enjoying a tasting and salsa there, the wine maker and owner Chuck told us his neighbor was having his grand opening today, and that if we had time we should visit Maggie Malick Wine Caves.

So after our tasting we took the right and headed north until we saw the open flags waving, and the sign saying last tasting starts at 4:45 PM. We found out later they plan on being open later, but they had an event to attend that night so were closing at 5 P.M. sharp that night. No worries for us as we got there by 3:45...1 hour early!

The current tasting room (pictured above), I learned from the owners Mark and Maggie, was originally built to be a storage facility that is a kit made in the ground building that reminded me of an old school weapons bunker I have come across during my Air Force career. Once inside though, you're greeted by a well laid out, ecologically friendly facility for making, storing, and more importantly serving their wines.

Since it was their first day, they featured all their wines, five whites and six reds. The husband and wife duo first planted in 2001 with Viognier, and expanded in 2009 to 20 acres and 10 varietals, with plenty of room to grow, which they fully plan on doing. Since most of their vines went in in 2009, all of their wines are from 2011 which was their first usable harvest.

As many of you know, 2011 in Virginia was very challenging year for grape growers and wine makers alike. With this in mind, my wife and I had tempered expectations of the wine we were about to taste, as we do with all 2011 wines we come across from Virginia. To our surprise Maggie, the wine maker, demonstrated her talent in wine making by having a line up of solid 2011's that were all on the lighter side, with good structure, and solid acid. Maggie uses primarily French and Hungarian oak for her barrel aged wines.











With eleven wines on the menu today, as pictured below, I won't go wine by wine through our tasting, however I will hit the highlights. There was one blend the Melange Blanc (Chardonay and Petite Manseng). The others are all varietal wines, but Maggie informed us most included some blending of other varietals to account for the less than stellar growing year. The Melange Rouge is a varietal wine of Grenache Tinto, a lesser known Spanish grape, that tastes greatly different depending on whether it is served chilled or at cellar temperature but both very interesting. Our favorites included the Petite Manseng, Merlot and the Melange Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tannat which came home with us as bottles.

Next time you're out in western Loudoun county and looking to try something new, I'd recommend visiting Mark and Maggie at Maggie Malick Wine Caves. They are picnic and animal friendly. They have a great seating area with views of rolling hills, ponds, and even some mountain views. Mark and Maggie are very friendly, passionate about what they are doing, and will gladly take the time to discuss there future plans for their winery and don't forget to mention you heard about them from me.

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.

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.