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.

T'was the day before christmas eve....

Although I had off the day, I was a dutiful husband and dropped my wife at her job this morning.
My day consisted of finishing off a little Christmas shopping I still had to do at Arundel Mills, a lunch date with my wife planned at Cheesetique in Del Ray, and since I was off for the day I was preparing the night's meal. I decided to be lazy and go with a slow cooker meal since I had a couple hours of gift wrapping still needing to be done.

Our menu consisted of a spicy slow cooker chicken, risotto rice with parmesan cheese, and a black bean and corn salad. Although I hadn't made this recipe before I was very excited to give
it a whirl. Since I was chef tonight, I decided to put my wife chief in charge of bar tending for the evening.

She selected a fine cocktail to get the night started, a fine bourbon and coke, but I was really excited for her wine selection. She slected delicious VA white that should match perfectly with the spicy chicken.

Since I won't claim to be a chef extraordinaire I was surprised how well my dinner came together tonight. I took the liberty to check the 2009 Hiddencroft Traminette to make sure it wasn't corked (Ok I just wanted a taste, but any excuse right). The bottle was still a bit cold from chilling in the fridge. The nose came across with a hint of banana and melon with a good balanced acid.

After serving dinner for my wife and I, the wine had a chance to warm a little. It became real floral with hints of honey suckle. It still maintained its delicious acidic balance, but also showed hints of mineral essence on the finish. It has a sweet composite, that ran smack dab through the spicy chicken, the white balsamic in the black bean and corn salad added to the flavor profile leaving a clean fresh feeling through out the mouth. Overall, I thought all parts of the meal complimented in each other.

As a bonus, this Hiddencroft Traminette made a great sipper while watching Cops. It was great relaxing evening heading into what should be an enjoyable Christmas Weekend. Merry Christmas to all my readers.

Virginia wine adds to Curry flavor...

Bringing an end to our usual Sunday night, our laundry was going strong, my wife was up making a delicious dinner, and it was my chore to pick a wine to go with her creation. Tonight's dinner will be a delicious curry with beef. So what region did my wine selection come from????

After great deliberation, I decided on a C-ville favorite White Hall winery. However, with
all their great selections settling on one was a bit tougher. Having not had an exotic grape for a while, I decided on a bottle of their 2009 Touriga National.

It was not a disappointment, the nose was well rounded and complete. It exhibited aromas of vanilla, cardamom, and light red fruit. Additionally, hints of cumin and coriander came through at the end. The wine exhibited warm red fruit with light white pepper flavor. The wine exhibited almost no notable tannins was most prevelent on the front of the tongue. A nice starter red for many non-red drinkers.

The lack of complexity and depth paired well the toned down beef curry. The rice and sugar snap peas rounded out the meal and left that mmm mmm good feeling. This was a nice sunday night meal
and I looked forward to the left overs for tomorrow lunch.

Following the Men with Dark Glasses

We determined that Friday night T.V. has gotten horrible. After enjoying dinner and drinks
with a friend of ours at Shooter Mcgees in Alexandria, VA, and having a busy day of christmas shopping and wine tasting planned tomorrow, the wife and I settled in for some good Friday night T.V.

To our disappointment there was nothing good on, so as we sulked we'd decided on opening some wine and and choose a free on-demand movie. After sorting through the extensive free movie list on Comcast, we pick the 1980 classic, "Blues Brothers." To sooth our disappointment with the T.V. selection we opened a great drinking wine from Chateau O'Brien winery in Markham, VA.






The 2008 Padlock Red was a little less approachable than the previous years vintage, but then again 2007 was a great vintage across the state. The nose was a bit weak with red fruit and spice, but the wine did not disappoint. It displayed red fruit with with firm tannins and many cooking spices. A great tasty treat to share while watching a classic 80's flick.

Old friend spends two nights...

The wife and I usually don't do mid week wine drinking by nature. We enjoy our mid week health kick, however after two long days and I was craving a drink, bourbon would have been my first choice on a night like tonight, but intentionally, I don't leave a stash in the house. My wife had gone out with some girlfriends to celebrate to a birthday and said a night cap would be nice so while watching the DVR'd NCIS we went for our wine stash. Taking a quick look at our everyday wines, we spotted a wine made with some favorite VA varietals from a favorite place in our wall wine rack.

Cuvee Laurent from Delfosse is a blend of two wines that grow particularly well in Virginia Cabrenet Franc and Chamborcin red from Delfosee winery which is just a wee drive south of Charlottesville in Faber, VA.


Night One

Only wanting one glass the first night, we opened the bottle and re-corked it after pouring two glasses. The initial glass smelled of dried red sweet cherries mixed with spice and earth. Taste was very pleasent and a great wine for sipping on the couch. It rang out with bright red fruit, light green pepper mild tannins on the middle of the tongue with a long almost effervessent feel on the middle tongue and cheeks.

Although this wine didn't strike me as having a lot of layers, depth, or width it is great for an evening sipper and left me curious for Friday night when we'd pair it with some grilled bar-b-que chicken pizza.

Night Two

Unfortunately, somehow an additional half glass each seemed to disappear out of the bottle that same night so when Friday came around there was only really one glass left to finish off the rest of the bottle. Instead of having that with dinner, we decided to enjoy it as a pre-cursor as we prepared our bar-b-que chicken pizza.

The couple days in the bottle did nothing to hurt this wine. It smelled of bright red rasberries and a slight burn in the top of the nose. It wasn't probably best sipper and would have been really good with food as it had mellowed greatly. It shared flavors of back raspberries and green bell pepper with just a pop of late tannins as it went down the throat.

It was nice to experience how oxygen can change a wine greatly. It didn't hurt it at all and proves why decanting wine is so important.

An unexpected house guest doesn’t over stay its welcome and leaves on a high note….

So I’m not too proud to admit, I’m a California wine bigot. I go out of my way to avoid California wine. Not that I don’t think they make great wines, but I’ve been jaded by a family uncle who lives and dies by California wine. So given the choice to buy a California wine, or live eternity without wine, I usually choose the latter. So you can imagine my scorn with after recently hosting an early Thanksgiving party with friends, I discovered an unopened bottle of red wine from Sonoma California amongst the left overs.

So it got buried my wine racks to start the process of collecting house dust, never to be drunk. However, after cramming five days of work into three, cleaning the house for the expected real Thanksgiving guests, and starting a fajita dinner, it made an appearance as the wine pairing for dinner. It sat in the decanter while I chopped and made the fajitas and guacamole. With dinner all prepared it was time to swallow my pride and try the beast from out west.

The bottle: “The Path.”
The grape: Cab Sav.
The vintage: 2009.

The nose of the wine was very intense. It was dark plum nose with black currant and cooking spices. The wine showed big red fruit characteristics, deepening layers with mild acidity and very smooth through the finish. Unlike most California wines that exhibit a bit too much oak, this showed none at all an almost pure wine. I would bet it was aged in used oak barrels to bring forth the fruit flavors and just add the proper amount of body.

Although it wasn’t the perfect pairing with our slightly spicy dinner, it showed well enough to compliment the flavors like a good wine will. This single experience won’t soften my general feelings towards CA wine, maybe because I believe there is enough good wine on this side of the Mississippi river to keep me happy for a life time, but it is nice to know that if ever on the left coast and wine tasting, there should be at least a few wines that will make me smile.



***Update…. After writing this I did a search online and could find little about this wine. The make of the wine is the same make of the smoking loon series wine but this particular bottle is very mysterious. I’d appreciate any comments on where I could find more information about it.*******

The good The Bad…and then Cloudy????

With the first weekend of nothing planned what so ever in weeks, the wife and I were amazed how our Saturday was so relaxing. A quick trip to the gym, lunch with my uncle, and then it was time to hit a winery. As it was already 2 P.M., we decided to hit one that was close. Having not been to Winery at La Grange since spring, it was an obvious choice. So a quick drive out I-66 to Haymarket and it became clear, we had made a mistake. I forgot I got the e-mail earlier that week that they were having a fall festival this weekend. Add to that a special event supporting the fight against breast cancer, and the parking lot and grounds were full.

But with few other options, we decided to fight the crowd and do a tasting. Thankfully the good people at La Grange had planned well for the day, with two indoor tasting bars, and multiple out door tasting bars, all up and running, our wait in the patio bar in their back porch was very small, and we were going to their selection of wine. For those of you who have never been there, this is a place where you can make a day of it. They have 11 wines on their tasting menu, and today they had a bonus wine that wasn’t on their tasting menu. So when you go, plan on being there a while, and with their beautiful grounds, multiple fire pits, and cozy indoor and outdoor seating areas, it is a great place to bring a picnic and just sitting back and enjoying. And if you’re lucky, you’ll see their ghost that haunts their tasting room house.

Below is the complete list of the wines on their tasting menu currently, however I was bit remiss in my wine blogging duties and left my notes on the tasting bar so I will only highlight my likes and dislikes from the list:

2010 Pinot Gris

2009 Viognier
2008 Fletcher’s Chardonnay
2009 Cuvee Blanc
2010 Rose’ of Merlot
2009 Benoni’s Dead but still Red
2009 Cab Franc
2010 Merlot
2009 Meritage
General’s Battle Field Red
2008 Tannat
2009 Snort

On the good Category, the 2009 Cuvee Blanc has a big lush tropical fruit nose. It moves into a pineapple spice taste, great balance of acid in this wine to make a delicious versatile wine. Other good wines are the 2010 Merlot which is a red fruit bomb with tannins and balance. It could use some time on the bottle for aging, but it showed great promise. The current vintage of General’s Battle Field Red was also a surprise, it is a meritage blend that showed good fruit, balanced tannins but maybe a touch too much oak. No matter how you sliced it, it would pair well with a juicy grilled steak.

The Bad category for me included the 2010 Rose’ of Merlot and the 2010 Pinot Gris, The Rose just had a funky nose that I couldn't really get by. It lacked flavor, structure or layers, and the funk re-appeared on the back of the tongue. The 2010 Pinot Gris tasted more like a chardonnay then a Pinot Gris. I think it must have been dominated by new French oak and that is why it had those characteristics.It lacked flavor, structure or layers, and the funk re-appeared on the back of the tongue. The 2010 Pinot Gris tasted more like a chardonnay then a Pinot Gris. I think it must have been dominated by new French oak and that is why it had those characteristics.

There was an additional wine not on the list above on their tasting menu, it was a Norton, but not a VA Norton. The grapes of the primary V=varietal Norton were brought in from Missouri due to the struggles they have had in VA. This wine was blended with a VA Cab Sav, and the results were very good. It is a great table wine, and the tasting showed bright red fruit with hints of smoke on the nose. The taste was more distinct red fruit, but the Cab Sav adds just hints of camp fire smoke to the finish. Medium body and well balanced, it was our selection to enjoy while enjoying the grounds at La Grange.

After finding a location near one of the fire pits,

we poured a couple of glasses. We noticed that the wine was very cloudy and we were concerned the bottle was bad. However, the taste was we remembered at the tasting bar so we figured it must be just be a touch of the sediment floating around. The sun’s low angle really gave this wine a funny look but thankfully it still tasted good. Upon seeing the same signs when we returned home and poured another glass, I researched bottle shock, however it didn’t seem to fit the billet. I’m not really sure what was going on with this bottle, but as long as it doesn’t affect the flavor, I guess I won’t complain.

All I wanna do is a zooma zoom zoom and a boom boom…..Syrah that is…

So I admit, usually when I go out to eat, I’m not looking for good or unusual wines, especially
on the by the glass section of wine. So when the wife and I went out for date night last Saturday at the Light Horse restaurant in Old Town Alexandria, I stuck to beer. However, my wife made me slightly regret that decision with her selection of the 2010 Boom Boom Syrah.

This wine was very unique.

I believe they served it a bit warm but aside from that, the wine drew me in mostly because of its nose. At first whiff, I thought the wine was going to be funky. I couldn’t identify what I smelled, and then hit me, salty warm caramel. I took several whiffs, and that was certainly what I smelled. I don’t believe I have ever got that from a wine and was intrigued as to what this Syrah was going to taste like.

Thankfully the wine didn’t disappointment me; it came right out with lush bright red fruit on the pallet, a little acidity for balance, no notable tannins, and then a finishing hint of the salty caramel on the finish that was prevalent in the nose.

Overall I was intrigued by the wine, my home research found me pleasantly surprised that this bottle cost about $15.00 a bottle, comes from Walla Walla, Washington, and is made by Charles Smith Wine Maker. If my wine collection was running low and I didn’t have time for a trip to VA wine country, I’d have no problem picking up a few bottles of this for an everyday drinking wine.

Spicy Food Meet Spicy Wine

Well if you can’t tell my by total disappearance from the blog world, my job has been keeping me insanely busy. If work didn’t have me hopping, my seemingly endless social engagements have. So last Friday when my wife was excited to make a delicious dinner and relax at home, well I couldn’t believe my life was accommodating. Arriving home, I got a text. “You should put a white in the fridge.” Looking forward to a good local wine, it was my surprise when a NY wine flew off the shelf and into the freezer right before I went to fight insane rush hour traffic to pick up my wife at the metro. A “QUICK” trip to whole foods, and we were ready to tear into our wine selection while preparing dinner.

On the dinner menu, Pumpkin Curry with shrimp over roasted spaghetti squash.











On the wine list, Goose Watch 2009 Traminette.

















Goose Watch is a small winery on the North West shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lake region of New York. For those not totally familiar with Traminette, it is a Gewurztaminer hybrid developed at Cornell University. With the spicy qualities of the Gewurztaminer, this wine promised to meld beautifully with the spicy curry my wife was making.


With curry just about finished, it was time to open the wine and see what we had in store. The nose contained lush tropical fruits of melon with hints of orange peel. The taste greeted you with more bright citrus fruit. A mild acidic to round out the mouth, and once it warmed a little, a spicy little finish.


The pumpkin curry paired as advertised with this wine. It gracefully balanced the acidic fruit of the wine with spicy sauce of the curry, leaving a rich full mouth spicy clean feel. I’d recommend this wine with almost any spicy selection.