I know this is late, but I went to Vintage Virginia on June 2nd with the wine club. I am getting more turned off by the larger festivals. While it is nice to have such a variety of vineyards to choose from, and it gives me a chance to try some of the more obscure Virginia wineries, it is hard to really enjoy the wines with so many people thronged around the tasting tents.

One highlight from the festival, and a wine I did get a chance to savor, was the 2006 Fabbioli Cabernet Franc. It has the spicy kick that I like in a Cabernet Franc, a great nose and stays on the palette for a while. It was a little young when I tasted it, but should be great in another 6 months or so.

Doug said that he has had several restaurants buy cases of it untasted. Smart move on their part, given his success with the Tre Sorelle and Raspberry Merlot.

My friend Jacki has set up a website to sell her glass wares. Why is that relevant? She makes a really cool cheese tray using old wine bottles:





I love mine and it makes for an interesting conversation piece.

This event looks like a lot of fun...I love sampling the same grape from different regions.

Growing up my family used to get pizza every Friday from the original Ledo Pizza. There is also a Ledo's in Leesburg and I have continued the tradition, by taking my son there every Friday.

I like the fact that even smaller local restaurants are starting to offer wine lists, even if they are haphazard lists. However, it would be nice if they at least got the spelling right:



Please don't get me wrong, Ledo's is a great restaurant and I applaud their addition of wine to the menu...but, Chardannay, come on :).

Wine: 2005 Inniskillin Riesling Ice Wine





Review: I know this might sound antithetical to a wine blog, but sometimes you just don't feel like a bottle of wine with dinner, not often, but sometimes. A friend of mine came over for crabs on Monday. If you have never had Maryland crabs, you are missing out. It is an experience, and having grown up on them, I relish that experience.

But, eating Maryland crabs is messy and even though there a half dozen wines I can think of that go well with crab, it just seemed easier to stick with beer.

Dessert was a different. After a big dinner, I wanted to keep dessert light, so I dipped some strawberries in chocolate and put them in the refrigerator. To complement the chocolate dipped strawberries I chose a 2005 Inniskillin Ice Wine. One thing I can say about Inniskillin is that they know how to make a presentation. The wine comes in its own box and the frosted bottle with the striking silver label makes the wine even more appealing.

The wine itself is unique. It is 100% Riesling and sweet, but it has a hint of tartness that was unexpected but enjoyable. It had aromas of grapefruit and pear and was very smooth. Overall, an excellent dessert wine.

Price: $70

Grade: 95

I have not mentioned this yet because I was out of town, but I want to note the passing Juanita Swedenburg on the 9th of June. Aside from operating Swedenburg Estates, she was famous for:

A gray-haired rebel with a cause in tweed suits and sensible shoes, Juanita became internationally known as the woman who decided in the late 1990s to do something about the fact that she could go to jail for shipping wine from Virginia to New York. "The Constitution," she said, "is not just a piece of paper. We should use it. There's such a thing as freedom of commerce."

So, we all owe her a debt of gratitude for the fact that we can get wine from New York, California and many other states, without have to actually leave our house. Make sure you tip a glass to her next time you drink a bottle that your ordered online.

Wine: 2003 Pavillon Rouge Bordeaux



Review: This is one of those wines that I have been keeping stored waiting to try. Pavillon Rougue is the second growth of Chateau Margaux. Same vines, but slightly lesser quality grapes and a price which reflects the difference. The 2003 was supposed to be a stellar year for Pavillon Rouge and the prices for this vintage are hovering in the $80 range.

This particular vintage was especially well-received with the winemaker, Paul Pontallie, calling it his "best ever." It even received a 93 from Robert Parker

The wine is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 35% Merlot, so it is less complex than most Bordeauxs but that does not detract from its flavor. It is a rich wine with a deep ruby color and aromas of blackberries and leather. It sat very long on the palate and was tannic, with a hint of vanilla.

It definately needs to be decanted and you will be richly rewarded for doing so the aromas seemed to fill the room as the I let it sit. If I had one complaint, it might have needed another year of aging.


Price: $80

Grade: 95

18 Bottles of wine for 14 people is a sign of a good dinner party...details to follow.

This is cool. It is a wine dinner to benefit United States South African Wine Foundation, which helps native wine makers in South Africa. It is June 23rd in the Plains and tickets start at $250.

The 3rd Annual Manassas Jazz and Wine Festival is coming up on the 17th of June. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the gate. There are some good local jazz musicians performing and wine from 11 vineyards. Check it out!

I didn't start this blog to be a media critic, but (to paraphrase Whitesnake) here I go again...

Overall, the article about Maryland and Virginia wineries is very good and I like seeing the good press. But they had to go and ruin it with a list of Virginia wines you should try...



Of course, Barboursville and Linden should be on that list. But, Chrysalis' Norton? I know, I know, Norton is Virginia's grape and Thomas Jefferson grew Norton grapes. I got news for every winery with a Norton wine: Norton sucks, I have never had a good Norton and no matter how drunk I am Norton still tastes awful.

Naked Mountain makes an okay Chardonnay, but nothing all that great. Certainly nothing than better than you can pick up for $10 at Trader Joe's. If you want to go for a white, why not Horton's Viognier, in fact, why are isn't Horton mentioned at all?

Why no Meritages? The list even has Barboursville but fails to mention its Octagon. The Jefferson or Tarara Meritages are good as well.

Slate has an article about the ascendancy of wine over beer. The article is interesting, but some of the claims don't make any sense to me.

The new wine grammar, popularized foremost by the American critic Robert Parker, sounds like a really weird grocery list, privileging flavor over domain: notes of blackcurrant, eucalyptus, tobacco. As annoying as this new pastoral language of wine can be, it's certainly more democratic-sounding, less forbidding. It trades one set of referents that Americans view suspiciously and uneasily—class—for another that, even when we haven't the foggiest notion of what it signifies (Chokecherry, anyone? Lychee?), sure sounds nice. Call it the consumer pastoral.

I really don't see how the grammar has increased interest in wine. If anything, the fact that Parker used a point-scoring system makes more sense. Most wine shops I visit don't focus on the text of the review, just the number.

He also skips over the role that grocery stores have played in increasing wine consumption by making wine easily accessible to shoppers. The role that quality low-cost wines from Australia have played in increasing American consumption is also ignored.

Then there is this:

But it's more than a question of switching terminology. Wine is basically an agricultural product (fermented grapes), while beer is the result of a complicated process of manufacture (boiling barley to extract sugars, adding hops and yeast, fermenting the wort that results).

Mr. Maloney has obviously never made wine. Aside from the fact that he completely ignores blended wines, aging, oak vs non-oak, and even whether not the winemaker allows fermentation to occur naturally or helps it out with chemicals all play an important role in the final product. Yes, no amount of chemistry is going to mask the true nature of the grape, nor should it, but wine is a lot more than just crushing some grapes and waiting.

In fact, you can trace the United States' shift from an agrarian society to an urban, industrial one through beer. In the Colonial era, settlers drank mostly hard cider (the rural drink of choice), rum, and whiskey.

The rise in the popularity of beer coincided with the temperance movement in this country. Whiskey and rum have a high alcohol content, beer has a low alcohol content. As temperance became more popular (a mistake which I hope this country never repeats) people drank less hard liquor.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but don't forget Vintage Virginia is this weekend. You'd think I would have mentioned this during the week, but it is already crowded enough there, I really didn't want to add to the traffic :).

I'll have my recap sometime tomorrow.