Sunset Hills Winery

I went with the wine club to Sunset Hills Winery back in September and really enjoyed it. Sunset Hills has the distinction of being the only winery in Virginia to sponsor a race car (at least that I know of).

They also have a great tasting room, it is a 130 year old barn that was restored using Amish workers -- and the craftsmanship is amazing. The pictures below are from before the tasting room was completed -- but you can see how great the finished product will be.

As for their wines, the standout was a the Petite Verdot, yet another Virginia winery has turned this blending grape into an excellent standalone wine. The Petite Verdot is 80% Petite Verdot and 20% Cabernet Franc. It has deep rich color and a plum taste, the Cabernet Franc adds a touch of spice to the wine and the 18 months in oak have smoothed it out a little.

And, if you are excited about the winery, you are in luck. They are having their grand opening this weekend (occasionally, my procrastination pays off). They are really worth the look.

A friend of mine celebrated her birthday at Notaviva Vineyards. Stephen and Shannon have done a great job building first rate tasting room, the pictures below don't do it justice. They've also done a great job with their wines.

The tasting at Notaviva includes wines from several local wineries as well as their own. There were two wines that were exceptional. The Vivace Viognier and the Cantabile Cabernet Franc. The Vivace is a crisp wine that had hints of pears and grapefruit. Light and breezy, a good summer wine.

The Cantabile is dark, rich Cabernet Franc. It has aromas of tobacco and a peppery kick to it. The 2007 is still a little young, but I am sure it will age well.

I know I promised to catch up on older posts, but I wanted to mention the two wineries I went to today.

I've said before that Fall is my favorite season to visit Virginia wineries, and today was a perfect Fall day. The temperature was in the high 60s, the leaves are changing colors and there were no clouds in the sky.

The wine club went to Mediterranean Cellars this afternoon. This is a perfect fall winery. It is nestled between rolling hills densely populated with trees and it has a patio that looks out over the vines and offers clear views of the countryside.

In addition to the usual complement of wines: Chardonnay, Merlot, Vidal Blanc, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, they also had a Chambourcin and a Rechina. The Chambourcin was unique because it was naturally fermented, no additional yeast was needed. It had a strong peppery taste that lingered on the palette. They also had a blended wine, Romance, that was a lighter wine, more fruit forward with a hint of black cherries.

Good wines, combined with an excellent view, make this a must visit winery.

Hiddencroft Vineyards sits in a secluded spot near Short Hills Mountain. The trip to winery requires a long drive down a dirt road with only their signs to guide visitors, but it is worth the visit.

Hiddencroft opened its doors on May 3rd and you can tell from the sparse tasting room that they are a young winery. The owners are friendly and enjoy talking about their wines, so you can find out everything you want to know. And, while the tasting room may be sparse, the Gazeebo is beautiful and takes advantage of the cooler temperatures in the valley to provide a great place to hang out and drink wine.

The highlight of the visit is the Sweet Cherry wine. A great summer wine, its a full-flavored wine that is made from 100% sour cherries with 5% residual sugar. Its a great wine to pair with chocolate or drink by itself.

The 2007 Cabernet Franc is also excellent, it is a blend of 2007 with some leftover 2005. The more bland 2005 takes some of the edge off this young wine making it less tannic but still with pepperiness of a good Virginia Cabernet Franc.

I wrote about Barrel Oak Winery a few months back. Belated congratulations are in order to Brian and Sharon for the largest winery opening in Virginia.

I went out to visit them with the wine club a week after they opened and the winery is amazing. In his previous life Brian built houses and it really shows in the winery design, it is open an expansive with three floors, all of which will eventually have tasting stations.

In addition to a great interior, the stone patio is laid out nicely with great views of the rolling land behind the tasting room.

How do the wines match up to the winery? Very well. They have a wide range of wines to suit almost any palette. Three highlights of the tasting:

Seyval Blanc: A great summer wine. This was a light and fruity wine with hints of grapefruit and a clean taste that was easy on the tongue.

Tour'Ga Franc: This is a blend of 60% Touriga and 40% Cabernet Franc, an interesting idea with a cute name. Virginia Cabernet Francs tend to have a peppery taste to them, the Touriga helps to smooth that out and you get more of a cinnamon taste with a aromas of vanilla and plum. A very good wine.

Chocolate Lab: This port-style wine is a blend of Merlot, Muscat and Cabernet Sauvignon that is infused with cocoa beans. I am not really a fan of port, but everyone who tried the wine loved it. The wine has a unique taste, and the way the wine blends with the chocolate on your tongue creates a wonderful sensation.

Definitely check out Barrel Oak as soon as you get a chance!

A few weeks ago we went out to Three Fox Vineyards with the wine club. Three Fox has a very Italian theme and their wines reflect that. They offer two Sangioveses a regular (Il Volpe) and a reserve (Il Signor). The reserve is made from 100% Sangiovese, while the regular is a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Franc.

Between the two, I actually preferred the Il Volpe. the two varietals blended surprisingly well and created a spicy wine with a nice chocolate finish. They also had a good Cabernet Franc and a Chambourcin that was done in a port style.

The grounds are very impressive with several places to picnic, including a bench at the top of the hill that looks over the vines. It is definitely worth the trip out there.

Over the weekend I got 40 comments telling me how great my writing is. Oddly, all of them were also advertising Viagara knock-offs. Needless to say, they all got rejected. The sad thing is this blog gets, on average, 25 hits a day so even if I did let the comments through chances are, no one would see them :).

The wine club recently went to the The Winery at La Grange. The winery at La Grange is one of Chris Pearmund's properties and has been around for about a year.

This is the only winery in Prince William County. The tasting room and the grounds are impressive, it is obvious that a lot of thought went into the user experience.

Because the winery is so new none of the wines are made from grapes grown at La Grange, instead the grapes are imported from all over Virginia and made on site.

The winemaker's focus is definitely on the reds. While they do make a good Pinot Grigio, the wines that shine are their 2006 Cabernet Franc, the Claret (a blend of Graciano, Tannat and Touriga Nacional) -- which is a great everyday wine, and their Meritage is absolutely fantastic.

We've been doing something kind of fun in the wine club: wine and a movie. The first one was a screening of Sideways paired with Merlot. Last week we paired a series of Australian movies with Shiraz.

I like doing this because you get to sample a wide variety of of wines from different regions, and there is surprisingly little duplication, which makes it even more fun.

For October I was thinking of pairing Hitchcock movies with selections from Bordeaux -- a pairing of complexity :). Any other suggestions for good wine/movie pairing?

My final post on the Charlottesville brings us to DelFosse for a wine tasting and a fabulous dinner. The dinner started off smoked salmon and spinach and feta empanadas served with Chardonnay. The main course was a herb-crusted sirloin kebab served with Cuvee Laurent. Dinner was interspersed with soup, salad and rolls all served with an appropriate wine.

Post-dinner we had a chocolate hazelnut torte that they recommended a Merlot with, but most of us opted to substitute the Ambrosia instead.

Our hostess, Alex, was a lot of fun (and don't we make a cute couple ;)) and very knowledgeable about the wines and vineyard.

It was a great way to end a wonderful weekend. And I finished this post just in time for my next wine weekend...this one in Sonoma :).

Wow, I blew that attempt at mass posting, huh?

The next day, we hit 4 wineries. The first winery was Afton Mountain Vineyards.





The winery was nice with a good-sized tasting room. Some of the highlights were the Sangiovese, the Old Vine Cabernet Sauvignon and the Cabernet Franc, which was not bad for an '05.

The next winery was Veritas. More than any other winery I have visited in Virginia this one reminded me of wineries in Sonoma. It is beautiful with a wrap-around deck and great open space for picnicing. The tasting room is huge with lots of great places to sit and enjoy a glass/bottle of wine after your tasting.





Highlights from Veritas were their Sauvignon Blanc and their Petit Verdot.

The third winery was Cardinal Point. The tasting room was smaller than the other two wineries, but but the staff was very knowledgable.





Highlights: Their Quattro, Cab Franc Reserve and the Rockfish Red.

Our last stop, before the wine dinner, was at Horton (have I mentioned how much I hate the design of their website). The grounds around Horton were not much. The tasting room is large, although, clearly set up to move people in and out, with very few places to sit.





Horton had 40+ wines to choose from, I liked their Viognier, many of their fruit wines, their Cabernet Franc, Stonecastle Red, Nebbiolo.

Overall, a fantastic day and a lot of fun.

The weekend of June 15th, some members of the wine club went to Charlottesville for a wine weekend. To make the details readable, I am going to spread the weekend out over three posts. The first (this one) will detail Friday night at OrZo, the second will detail the wineries we hit, and the third one will cover our wine dinner at Delfosse.

I'll try to get all three posts up this weekend, so that Sonadora has a lot to read on Monday :).

Friday night we arrived in Charlottesville. Most of us stayed at the Acorn Inn, a pleasant inn about 35 minutes outside Charlottesville.

Our first night we dined at OrZo Wine Bar. The appetizers were excellent, especially the Calamari, which was lightly fried. Enough to be crispy, but not drowning in oil. They seemed to do seafood really well the Salmon and Halibut were well-received by everyone.




But, where OrZo really shown (shined?) was its wine list. It was extensive, with a selections from all over the world, including quite a feww Greek wines. Not something you normally see.




The hit of the wine list were, in fact, two of the Greek wines. The Amethystos Red and White (a.k.a the boobie wines) were both really good and both very affordable.



The red was a deep purple, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and the native Greek varietal Limnio. It was smooth wine, with a silky aftertaste and overall very enjoyable.

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.

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

On Tuesday the wine club met at Eat Bar for happy hour.



The special this week was a flight of Zinfandels from the Paslo Robles region. The three wines were Quivira Vineyards Zinfandel, Alexander Valley's Sin Zin, and Four Vine's Maverick Zinfandel.

Unlike Leah, I liked the Maverick Zinfandel, but the Sin Zin was absolutely my favorite.

I also got to try Blenheim's Cabernet Franc. For those of you who do not know, Blenheim is owned by Dave Matthews. The wine is 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Merlot. It was a good wine with hints of cranberry and pepper and a strong finish.

The wine club went to Veramar on Sunday. I was bummed that they were completely out of their Cabernet Franc, but i did enjoy their Pink Chicken -- a light rose perfect for sipping out on their patio.

Their D'Ora was also an excellent dessert wine, a late harvest Viongier; very sweet with hints of pineapple and citrus flavors.

Their Red Chicken was a good Bordeaux-style wine, comprised of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes. It was a medium body blend with a taste of brown sugar and a smoot finish.

On Tuesday the wine club met for happy hour at Tavern on the Lake which overlooks Lake Anne in Reston. As always it was a fun time, the food was basic, but good and there was a wide variety of Tapas.

There was a good selection of wines, including some excellent Pinot Noirs and a good Beaujolais. They also had a small selection of Virginia wines. Unfortunately for us, we found out too late that Monday is half-priced bottle night.

Bottles and Tapas are reasonably priced and it has a great atmosphere and good service.

Wine: 2003 Baron de Brane Bordeaux



Review: This is a double review. Last Wednesday the wine club met up at Dino's for their Wine Wednesday. Dino's is one of the wine bars that i have wanted to visit and I was really looking forward to it. As always, Leah has a great recap.

The wine flight that night was Rosso di Montalcino, Toscana all very good, light wines that were obviously designed to be paired with food. The bar was cozy and relaxed as was the upstairs dining area. Overall, a fantastic experience, and I cannot wait to go back.

One of the best features of Dino's Wine Wednesday is the fact that there is no corkage fee. Most members of the wine club brought bottle of wine. My choice for the evening was a bottle of Baron de Brane. If the label looks familiar it is probably because you asre familiar with its more famous cousin: Brane Cantentenac.

Baron de Brane is the second growth of the Brane Cantenac winery. It is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. Unlike Brane Cantenac this wine is aged for 12 months, rather than 18. Don't let that dissuade you though, this is a good wine.

This is a very intense wine with strong aromas of chocolate and plums. its a very balanced, fully-bodied wine with strong tannins and a smooth finish. It was probably a little soon to open it, but just barely and it definitely was better as the evening progressed and it had a chance to decant.

Price: $26

Grade: 90

On Sunday the wine club went to Breaux Vineyards. It was a beautiful day and Leah has already captured the mood of the afternoon very well.

After doing the tasting I grabbed a bottle of Chere Marie, which was a great match forthe sun and the conversation. I also grabbed a bottle of the Layfayette and can't wait to come up with a meal to match it. Pictures below:

The Great Grapes festival was a lot of fun. There were a number of nice wineries represented as well as the booths that usually follow the wineries. The festival was well-laid out and the lines were very short for the tastings.




Some highlights:

Lake Anna had an excellent 2004 Cabernet Franc. Very peppery with solid Earth tones, it was a great example of Virginia Cabernet Francs.

Peaks of Otter had two very unique wines. The first, called Chili Dawg is 97% Apple wine blended with 3% Chili Pepper wine. They serve it with a touch of Cheese Whiz and it really does taste like a Chili Dog. The second wine is not really a drinking wine, except on a dare. "Kiss the Devil" is made from 30 different Chili Peppers and it is H-O-T. This is really a spicy wine :). They have you follow it up with a shot of Apple wine just to cleanse your palette.

Veramar did not have their Cabernet Franc out, but they did have their Rooster Red, which is a light, well-balanced wine. Very enjoyable. They were also offering their famous mulled-wine, which was perfect for a drizzly afternoon.

I promise the second round of my Indianapolis trip is coming soon. In the meantime check out Sonadora and Leah for thoughts on last night's wine club happy hour at Piola. I'll post more tonight.

The DC Wine and Food Festival is over and my review is mixed. First, anyone who went and assumed that the word "Food" implied there would be plenty of food to sample was severely disappointed. There were crackers and bread, though the tables that had them were often empty, and there was not even a cheese table. Fortunately, Cabot iGourmet were both there with some really good cheeses.

I was also dissapointed that the Champagne table ran out about halfway through the first day and did not appear at all during the second.

I went with the wine club the first day, and it was definately more packed than Sunday. It was difficult to move around in some areas, though I am finding that is par for the course at most large wine festivals. Too many people just love wine :).

Cotes du Rhone was out in force, they had an excellent selection of Rhone wines, and they had three, for lack of a better term, Jagermeister girls, on the floor passing out pins and encouraging people to visit their booth.

There was an interesting wine from South Korea called Pomegranate Wine, made from Pomegranates and Apples. It was very sweet and an interesting combination -- I could not find a website for them, but it is distributed by IN Trading Inc.

Robert Wale had some great wines from Austrailia and New Zealand including their Hell Raiser Cabernet Merlot blend, which had a lot of taste for a $10 bottle of wine.

Bully Hill, a New York winery, had a good Cabernet Franc, it was dry without being too tannic.

Hunt Cellars had a good California Meritage, it was smoot and had aged very well.

Craftsman Wine, from Hungary had a very good selection, including a 2003 Cabernet Franc. The Cab Franc was a little bland, but still enough peppery taste to tell that it is a Cabernet Franc.

From Argentina, mil piedras had a variety of reds, but their Sangiovese and Tempranillo were excellent.

Back to California, the Jan Kris Winery had some unique blends, including Picaro which is a blend of 50% Zinfandel, 25% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and their Crossfire which is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Syrah and 25% Merlot.

After the show on Saturday, I went to Matchbox with some people from the wine club including Leah and TravelGirl. The pizza and the burgers were excellent! A great place to go to fill up after a day spent drinking.

More on Sunday's visit later.