Over the course of a dozen centuries, wines from France’s Bordeaux region have revolutionized today’s world of wine. As ground zero for some of the globe’s most widely grown grape varieties, Bordeaux itself is as valuable as its far-reaching and varied diasporas. Virginia embodies pieces of a Bordeaux diaspora, so to truly understand Virginia wine, we must first explore the long ago and faraway vines that stood sentinel along Bordeaux’s Gironde River Estuary.
Thanks to Roman soldiers who spread the vine throughout the Roman empire, wine arrived in Bordeaux about 2,000 years ago. Bordeaux wine enjoyed local popularity until the marriage of Aliénor d’Aquitaine and Henry Plantagenet opened up trade routes to Britain. The Bordeaux region transformed into a wine export economy, with the Gironde River as a prime conduit to ocean trade routes during the height of the sea navigation age. The Bordeaux wine region of this era was much smaller, with substantial vines in the Graves area, and some plantings on the Right Bank. The now-famous vineyards of Château Lafite, Mouton, Margaux and Latour? They were…under water.
About four centuries ago, when Dutch merchants waded across the wetlands along the Gironde’s Left Bank, they built a series of canals and drainage ditches that successfully drained the area. Little did they know that they exposed some of the great vineyards of the future. When the water drained away, an interesting melange of soils remained, left behind by a glacier’s retreat at the end of the last Ice Age.
Soils and grapes
These soils birthed some of the most important grape varieties of all time: Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc were born close by, but made their home in Bordeaux. From this great incubator of genetic vine material, cuttings traveled by ship, air and land to new places. Even if you’re not a fan of the varieties, it’s impossible to deny their far-reaching impact on the global economy. Imagine a world without New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, without California Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, no Chilean Carménère and no Virginia Cabernet Franc. Without the Bordeaux diaspora, the vinous landscape would be barely recognizable.
But the soils. Deep gravels in some areas, with hints of clay in others—the many soils of Bordeaux became a place where multiple grapes worked in tandem. Merlot loves the moisture-rich clays and Cabernet likes the moisture- regulating gravels that also soak up heat and slowly release it at night, keeping vine temperatures in a sweet spot for ripening. Apply this thinking to the diaspora, and throughout the world you’ll find plenty of Merlot on clay and cabernet on gravels.
Left Bank (gravel) blends are based mostly on Cabernet Sauvignon, then Merlot and Cabernet Franc in smaller amounts, and many wines incorporate a tiny amount (1 to 2 percent) of Petit Verdot as “spice.” Right Bank (clay) blends are based mostly on Merlot, with Cabernet Franc following behind.
Why blend?
In the United States, we’re accustomed to seeing bottles of this or that grape variety. Why blend varieties together? Bordeaux vintages differ vastly from one another, and with many grapes to choose from, each ripening at a slightly different time, different grape varieties can make or break your crop. A rain at the beginning of the harvest might not affect your late ripeners, and a storm at the very end of the harvest may only affect the last of the fruit. Planting many different blending grapes, some that come in to the winery earlier than others, allows you to hedge your bets a little, without fear of losing your entire crop if bad weather erupts.
Like Bordeaux, Virginia experiences drastic vintage variations. Around Charlottesville, harvest time can be interrupted by hail, rain, droughts and hurricanes. Rachel Stinson Vrooman, of Stinson Vineyards, observes that Bordeaux-style Meritage blends provide an insurance policy in a difficult vintage.
“Ripening Cabernet Sauvignon is a challenge in Virginia due to late-season rain and humidity,” she says. “Petit Verdot can provide the tannic structure that is often missing in our Cab Sauvs. Cabernet Franc does the best in our soil at Stinson, which is a red clay loam. It provides finesse and adds perfume. Merlot makes a softer, more accessible wine—and is also the first to ripen in most years. A sturdy Merlot can make up for a lot of shortcomings in other varietals.”
And then there are the aesthetics—a blend can allow you to capture Merlot’s soft fruit center, the powerful tannins of Cabernet Sauvignon, the savoriness of Cabernet Franc and the dense spiciness of Petit Verdot all in the same wine. Like an orchestra performance as opposed to a solo, multiple varieties blended together can round out the wine and hit more pleasure points—acid, tannin, structure, fruit, minerality—without committing to just one characteristic profile.
Bordeaux-style in Virginia
Virginia’s wine industry looks promising through the lens of Bordeaux’s history. Bordeaux-style blends account for many of the great wines in this state.
The benchmark producer of Bordeaux-style Virginia red is Jim Law at Linden Vineyards. Law has something on his side that only a handful of other Virginia winemakers have: time. Three decades in, he’s had the time a new winery needs to learn and reflect, act on mistakes and grow to embody a particular vision.
“The relationship between grape variety and soil is super important,” Law says. “I always knew it was important, but about 20 years ago, I began to understand how important it really is. I went to Bordeaux, and it became quickly apparent what that [vine-soil] relationship was, and what I needed to focus on. When I planted in ’85, it was hit and miss. Well, I missed with the reds.” To compensate, 15 years ago he began replanting the vineyards in a more soil-appropriate way, which made a noticeable difference. “The wines are much better now.”
Law has granite and greenstone soils at his home vineyard, which make for powerful reds chock-full of minerality. Closer to Charlottesville, we have red clay, and the wines express themselves a bit differently than those at Linden Vineyards. One blend that stands out as an ambassador of Virginia’s wine industry is Barboursville Vineyards’ Octagon blend. Winemaker Luca Paschina makes the wine in great years with a core of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, blending in Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon when possible.
Beyond Bordeaux
A few Virginia winemakers are taking the Bordeaux-style blend and tweaking it for their soils and tastes. Matthieu Finot, winemaker at King Family Vineyards, doesn’t plant Cabernet Sauvignon, finding it unsuited for his soils. He focuses on a Right Bank Bordeaux-style, Merlot-based blend. Instead of following Bordeaux’s trend of using 1 or 2 percent of Petit Verdot to add spice to the wine, Finot adds closer to 25 percent. “The Petit Verdot brings some structure, volume and tannin, without losing the finesse and subtlety of the Merlot,” he says.
Paschina has experimented at Barboursville by integrating one of his favorite grapes, Nebbiolo, into a classic Bordeaux-style. He wonders if there could be a unique grape blend different than European models that makes sense for Virginia.
Ben Jordan, winemaker at Early Mountain Vineyards, has the same hunch. He senses that, as a new wine region, Virginia still has much to learn. He wants to make Virginia blends viable for Virginia soils and climates, rather than blindly following Bordelaise tradition. “It’s great that we are making Bordeaux- style blends, and they can be very good,” Jordan says, “but I think it is important for us to be open to veering from the Bordeaux model, because we can. An example is using Tannat in blends that have a good amount of Cabernet Franc. We are not Bordeaux, we are Virginia, and we’re not done yet.”—Erin Scala