Month: March 2017

Virginia’s wine identity orbits around Viognier, Cabernet Franc and Bordeaux-style blends. Increasingly, however, winemakers are pushing the boundaries of possibility and bottling some unique wines.

Part of the new fascination with experimentation, says winemaker Jake Busching, is driven by a desire to learn more about getting well-suited grapes planted on the right sites and learning the nuances of local Virginia terroir. “What I am seeing and discussing with winemakers and growers alike is a continuing focus on what works with our various terroirs,” he says.

The exuberance of unique wines is also driven by the natural blossoming of a new wine region. At King Family Vineyards, winemaker Matthieu Finot suggests that some of the experimentation is because the Virginia wine scene has come of age. The past two decades have shown the world that Virginia—and especially the Monticello AVA—can produce world-class wine, with respect to the standard of classic winemaking. “I think now our industry is mature enough to push our winemaking and explore some different styles,” Finot says.

Producing unique products can also help distinguish a wine program from the crowd. “For the last three vintages, I’ve made an orange Viognier,” Finot says. (Orange or amber wine gets its color from grape skin contact.) “It’s a little bit more of a nerdy wine, but the public reception has been great, which signals that there is an opening for us to explore.”

Finot’s wine is an industry favorite. “My current favorite,” says Busching, “is the orange wine Viognier of Matthieu Finot at King Family Vineyards in Crozet. It’s a beautiful twist on a Virginia wine-certified theme.”

Busching is no stranger to making skin-contact wine himself. A few years ago, when he worked at Pollak Vineyards, he made a skin-contact Pinot Gris that Evan Williams, wine director of The Wine Guild of Charlottesville, still remembers.

“Jake’s skin-contact Pinot Gris was an eye- opener for me: a Gris with complexity, delineation and personality that speaks gently to the true potential this region holds,” says Williams.

And then there’s Rkatsiteli, a grape from the Caucasus that features in the 2015 bottling at Stinson Vineyards.

“The 2015 Wildkat Rkatsiteli will be a new release for us,” says winemaker Rachel Stinson Vrooman. A skin-fermented Rkatsiteli, it’s inspired by traditional wines of the country of Georgia. “It takes on a light orange or amber hue from skin contact. This also adds layered aromatics and textured tannins to the wine’s profile.”

Horton Vineyards also makes a unique wine from Rkatsiteli. Horton winemaker Michael Heny has observed a few exciting things about the grape.

“I find it odd, interesting and fascinating that the spiritual homeland of the orange wine movement should be most closely associated with a grape—Rkatsiteli—that in our experience has very little color,” says Heny. “Coming through the filter, the color of young Rkatsiteli in the glass is hard to distinguish from water. The golden-hued Petit Manseng is on the other end of the spectrum, as if sunlight can’t quite travel through its richness and instead gets trapped inside.”

Pét-nat, Pinotage and Tannat

While most sparkling wine in Virginia is made from Chardonnay, at Horton Vineyards, you’ll find a unique sparkling Viognier that has become a local favorite among wine-lovers. It’s atypical because even in Viognier’s homeland of the Rhône Valley, you rarely find sparkling wine. At Horton, Heny says they embrace its outlier status: “Let’s enjoy this tiny asterisk for what it is: a unique star in the endlessly expanding firmament of wine.”

You’ll also find a fascination with sparkling wine among the team at Early Mountain Vineyards. There, vineyard manager and enologist Maya Hood White experiments with Pétillant Naturel wine (or “Pét-Nat” for short). It’s sparkling wine made from a single fermentation. A few centuries ago, before Champagne houses discovered how to control a secondary fermentation, most sparkling wines were made pét-nat-style, and many were accidentally bubbly, historically considered faulty for the fizz. In 1806, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Thomas Appleton to complain that one wine bottle in a large lot he had received was sparkling. Jefferson wrote, “It… had probably been bottled too new,” which reads today as a recipe for pét-nat. Bottle a wine before it is finished fermenting, and the CO2 in the last bit of the ferment will be captured in the bottle, producing sparkling wine. Today, pét-nats are usually made on purpose, and they are growing in popularity as a tasty and low-intervention method of making sparkling wine.

“I’ve always been interested in sparkling wines and ended up doing research on them while in school,” says Hood White. “I liked the rusticity of the ones I had encountered.” So, in 2014, she made a small lot from Early Mountain fruit, just to see if she could. When it worked, she made more the following vintage, specifically for the people who helped with the harvest. “I liked the idea of a sparkling wine that is consumable so close to harvest and is somewhat a memory of that vintage.”

At Lovingston Winery, they point to Pinotage as their unique grape. It gets much of the soft cherry and elegance of a Pinot Noir, a genetic parent of Pinotage, with a hint of an earthy/savory component, says winery manager Stephanie Wright. “And we’re discovering that fermenting it at slightly higher temperatures yields a bolder, more complex version off of our site.”

You’ll also find some unique dessert wines, like Imperialis, a fortified Tannat, at Stinson Vineyards. “Our Imperialis is a sweet fortified Tannat inspired by the Maydie Tannat from Château d’Aydie,” says Vrooman. “They’re located just outside the Madiran region in southwest France, where Tannat is king.” Fortifying the wine is another way to round out “Tannat’s aggressive structure by emphasizing its ripe fruit flavors,” she says. The Imperialis tastes like a port-style wine and adds diversity to Virginia’s local after-dinner wine selections.

Summing up the unique Virginia wines on the market, you’ll see plenty of interesting grape varieties, along with wines that use less mainstream winemaking techniques, such as skin- contact or capturing the natural bubbles of a primary fermentation. “Orange wine and pét-nats are hitting the tasting room bars around the state,” says Busching, as Virginia’s wine identity continues to expand its orbit.

Erin Scala is the sommelier at Fleurie and Petit Pois. She holds the Diploma of Wines & Spirits, is a Certified Sake Specialist and writes about beverages on her blog, thinking- drinking.com.

The only thing better than one dessert? A whole assortment of desserts. Grit recently added cakes, brûlées and tarts to the coffee shop’s menu of small plates. Currently only available at the Stonefield location (and only on weekends), the bite-sized selection will pair with the restaurant’s heavily curated beer, wine and cocktail program. “We’re focused on creating more of a European café feel,” says co-founder Brandon Wooten, which means table service each evening. In other words, your next date night is solved. (Just be sure to order enough for sharing.)

Let’s take a moment to celebrate the unsung culinary heroes, shall we? The sweet potato casserole so often overshadowed by the turkey. The tricolore salad pushed aside to make room for the pulled pork. Side dishes are so much more than fillers. Plus, cobbling together a meal out of sides is often less expensive than ordering an entrée, so we’re here to give them their due.

Street corn off the cob

The Fitzroy

Mexican classic meets home cookin’ in this one. The Fitzroy’s menu is all about comfort foods (see also: broiled mac ‘n’ cheese), and co-owner Richard Ridge says it’s not uncommon for guests to build entire meals out of side dishes. The street corn off the cob combines the spices and flavors of elote, or Mexican street corn, with the texture and heartiness of Southern creamed corn.

Orange-roasted fennel

Tavola

New York Times food writer Joan Nathan referred to it as the “best fennel dish ever” in 2012, and it’s hard to disagree. Originally created to accompany a salmon entrée, the simple dish—orange slices and fennel roasted together at high heat and topped with basil—was so well-received that it earned its own spot on the restaurant’s contori list.

Manchego bread pudding

Zocalo

Sous chef Mike Hollard describes it as a “fancy stuffing,” so obviously we’re on board. Zocalo’s manchego bread pudding is a concoction of cubed bread, sage, chicken stock, caramelized onions and (obviously) manchego cheese baked in its own little dish. Pair it with some grilled asparagus and smoked tomato grits and call it a meal.

Platanos fritos (fried plantains)

Al Carbon Chicken

Al Carbon’s menu features enough side dishes to fill this entire page, but let’s talk about one of the simplest (and most delicious): platanos fritos, or fried plantains. The perfect balance of crispy, chewy, sweet and salty, and served with a side of dipping sauce, you could almost call them dessert. If you want to skip the entrée altogether, try the chiles toreados and cebollitas (grilled jalapeños with spring onions), nopalitos (roasted cactus) and arroz amarillo (yellow rice).

Belgian fries

Public Fish & Oyster

What would a side dish roundup be without at least one order of fries? Twice-cooked, sprinkled with sea salt and served with a side of aioli, it doesn’t get much better than the Belgian fries at Public Fish & Oyster. Order a simmering serving of moules-frites, or make a meal out of the fries, haricots verts and a couple oysters on the half-shell.

In a delicious commitment to serving beyond good eats, a few local restaurants are making inedible differences by also serving altruistically. Here’s a sampling of eateries nourishing communities with more than savory fare.

Serving the hungry

Albemarle Baking Co. deserves acknowledgment for its charitable efforts. A true community partner, ABC donated enough bread in 2016 to help make 9,143 meals for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank’s Holy Comforter location, and enough pastries to supplement 3,421 bags for their food pantry. Co-owners Gerry Newman and Millie Carson say that although ABC has the supply to give to the unfortunate, the credit really goes to the Food Bank for providing the opportunity. Says Newman, “The Food Bank does remarkable work to nourish folks in our area, and we’ve spent the last two decades fortunate enough to help them; we’re thrilled we get to contribute, because everyone deserves their daily bread.”   

Serving the displaced

With its Sunday Yappy Hours, Keswick Vineyards lends a helping paw to stray, abandoned and otherwise displaced animals by inviting several area rescue shelters, including Green Dogs Unleashed and the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA, to connect available animals with adoption-ready families. In addition, a percentage of the tasting room’s sales are given directly to the visiting shelter. Having once owned a wildlife preserve, co-owners Al and Cindy Schornberg say animal compassion is a cause near and dear to their hearts. “What drives our business is both a love for wine and a love for animals, because, after all, Virginia is for lovers,” says Cindy.

Serving science

“Great strides to help people long-term have been made,” says Charles Roumeliotes of HIV/AIDS research. Having seen too many colleagues and friends die from the disease, for the last 10 years, the Orzo Kitchen & Wine Bar co-owner has committed 10 percent of the restaurant’s profits on Tuesdays in December to the Ryan White Clinic for AIDS Research. “I see value in supporting HIV/AIDS research, and the families who are dealing with the reality of the disease,” he says. Orzo also hosts fundraisers to raise money to buy gas cards for patients so they can get to their treatments.

Serving education

Mas Tapas owner Tomas Rahal doesn’t think owning a business is just about short-term profit. “It’s also about how we impact our community,” he says. The Belmont restaurant contributes by helping area children. “We’re not special, the kids are. And because no one’s lining up to help them, we do what we can.” Mas donates books and musical instruments to the Clark Elementary School Literacy Program, hosts fundraisers for bilingual education and donates to and is an advocate for the City Schoolyard Garden.

Serving those at risk

Come to Shebeen Pub & Braai for the sosatie, stay for the chance to do something good; when you eat here, you’re contributing to a healthy future for orphans in the rural region of eastern Kenya. The Makindu Children’s Foundation, bankrolled by a percentage of Shebeen’s proceeds and its participation in the Proper Walk (which since 2005 has raised approximately $35,000), funds the nutritional and medical needs of hundreds of destitute at-risk children, and provides access to primary education. Says Shebeen owner and Zimbabwe native Walter Slawski, “I’m grateful that Shebeen can pay it forward to those less fortunate in a community that gave so much to me.”