Tag: Stinson Vineyards

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Culture Food & Drink

Drink in color

Stinson Vineyards’ Tannat has an earthy, complex flavor—perfect for fall. Photo: Staff photo

As summer disappears and temperatures begin to drop, wine drinkers look for more weight, more depth, and more complexity in their glass. This is, in part, to temper the chill in the air, but it also means wines that will better pair with the food of the season. Autumn leads to more roasting, smoking, stews, and heavier desserts. It also means more cooking over coals, hanging out on the deck, and time spent around open fire. 

Almost all red wines fit naturally into the seasonal shift. If you stick strictly to white wines, the lean, crisp whites and rosés that were a mainstay of the beach and poolside won’t feel as substantial as wines with more weight and texture. Look to flavors that tend toward stone fruits and tropical fruits, as opposed to just citrus notes.

Here are some new locally produced wines suited to your autumn tailgate, barbecue, or firepit.

The 2020 Keswick Vineyards Rives White is a blend of pinot gris and chardonnay that has lighter citrus fruit notes combined with deeper flavors of white peaches and apricots. The fruit is complemented nicely by hints of vanilla. A medium weight on the palate yields easily to a crisp, acidic finish, and it would be a perfect pairing with roasted chicken or a root vegetable gratin.

The 2019 Gabriele Rausse Winery Roussanne is produced from 100 percent Virginia-grown roussanne grapes, an unusual variety for the state that is not widely known or planted. Rausse’s European roots are obvious here. After fermentation is complete, 75 percent of the wine is aged in French oak barrels and 25 percent is aged in Italian terracotta amphorae for one year. The resulting wine has an elegant floral nose that hints at orange blossoms, a palate that is broad and full, with flavors of tangerine and vanilla that are almost reminiscent of a baked pastry. It finishes without sweetness and just a hint of textural astringency. Try this with a pork roast, smoked turkey, or roasted sweet potatoes. 

When the temperatures are too high, even dedicated red wine drinkers have a hard time thinking about consuming big-bodied tannic wines. So, the transition into autumn is an exciting time because it’s a chance to bring out wines with more flavor and complexity. In Virginia, as in other parts of the world, varieties such as petit verdot and tannat are often utilized in blends with other red grapes to achieve deeply colored, structured, and boldly flavored wines. 

The 2017 Hark Vineyards Spark is a red blend of cabernet franc, merlot, and petit verdot that was aged in oak barrels for 20 months. Deeply garnet colored, the nose is full of sweet tobacco, black fruit, and vanilla. The taste follows the aromas, with black plum and blackberries combining with smoke, leather, and baking spices. While this has enough structure that it should age well, it also would pair well now with a steak, a smoked brisket, or a venison stew. 

In addition to being used in blends, petit verdot and tannat are also being made in Virginia as single varietal wines. The 2017 Stinson Vineyards Tannat is an outstanding example of this. While tannat is a grape that brings very prominent tannins, Stinson has produced a version that reveals a lifted and elegant fruit structure of cherry and plum on top of those tannins. Aged 27 months in oak, there are also flavors of smoke, tobacco, and earth that add complexity and weight. The combination of fruit with a smoky, earthy backbone makes this a great match for barbecue, smoked sausage, or a spicy black bean soup.

Wine as an option during, or even in place of, the dessert course is often overlooked. While some may tend toward harder spirits like bourbon or brandy around a fire, an interesting option might be the many dessert wines produced by adding brandy to wine. This is an old and traditional winemaking technique that stops fermentation to maintain sweetness, and at the same time fortifies the wine (increases alcohol) to give it body and concentration. 

The Afton Mountain Vineyards VDN (non-vintage) takes its name from the vin doux naturel style of winemaking that originated in southern France. Although these wines are sweet, the process of making them does not involve added sugar. Instead, brandy is added to grapes to stop fermentation, preventing the yeast from converting all the sugar from the grapes into alcohol and thus leaving residual sweetness in the wine. The Afton version comes in at 20 percent alcohol and is made from a blend of malbec and tannat grapes. It is full of deep plum and berry flavors combined with a pleasant sweetness. Try it paired with a blackberry cobbler, caramel-pecan pie, or anything chocolate.

Fall for these local bottlings

2020 Keswick Vineyards Rives White Blend

$27.95 for a 750ml bottle

keswickvineyards.com

2019 Gabriele Rausse Winery Roussanne

$26 for a 750ml bottle

gabrieleraussewinery.com

2017 Hark Vineyards Spark Red Blend

$42 for a 750ml bottle

harkvineyards.com

2017 Stinson Vineyards Tannat

$37.99 for a 750ml bottle

stinsonvineyards.com

Afton Mountain Vineyards VDN (non-vintage)

$32 for a 325ml bottle

aftonmountainvineyards.com

Categories
Culture Living

Warm ups: Virginia wines for chilling out in autumn

The 2017 Wildkat Rkatsiteli from Stinson Vineyards is an aromatic, heavier white made locally with one of the world’s oldest varietals. Courtesy stinson vineyards

With current temperatures and humidity remaining high, many of us are likely still enjoying crisp and refreshing white, rosé, and sparkling wines, and the thought of drinking something heavier seems impossible. However, soon it will be autumn, and the cooler weather will bring crisper evenings, more time outdoors on porches and decks, and food from the barbecue, grill, or smoker.

The change in season also brings out the heartier wines. White wines with more weight on the palate and aromatic complexity take over from the bright, lean, high-acid summer go-tos. Fuller-bodied red wines, with more structure from tannins and heavier flavor extraction, become welcome companions that promote conversation, comfort, and inspire contemplation.

Virginia wine has many options well suited to this time of year, including familiar varieties such as chardonnay and cabernet franc. Here are some less-well-known examples that are worth seeking out.

Rkatsiteli

Rkatsiteli is perhaps not a variety that immediately jumps to mind when it comes to white wine in Virginia. It’s one of the oldest known grape varieties and it originated in the country of Georgia. The wine is spicy, floral, and a bit textural on the tongue. These characteristics make it a good pairing for roast pork, smoked vegetables, beans, and stews. It also pairs well with Asian- or Middle Eastern-spiced cuisines, such as dishes from India, Lebanon, and Vietnam.

There’s not a lot in Virginia, but I can recommend two excellent examples: the 2019 Rkatsiteli from Blenheim Vineyards ($19, blenheimvineyards.com) and the 2017 Wildkat Rkatsiteli from Stinson Vineyards ($27.99, stinsonvineyards.com). The Blenheim bottling is a bit lighter in weight with a floral nose and flavors of apricots, roasted peaches, and tarragon. Stinson’s version utilizes skin contact, a process similar to how red wines are made, which extracts more flavor, color, and tannins (also known as “orange” wine). The result is a darker, heavier wine with aromas of honeysuckle, Asian pears, and dried apricots, and flavors of white peaches, pumpkin, and a slight bitterness on the finish reminiscent of grapefruit and orange peel.

Both of these wines benefit from being served a bit warmer, which allows the many aromas and flavors to fully express themselves.

Petit Manseng

Petit manseng is beginning to fulfill its early promise, drawing rave reviews and gaining recognition here in Virginia. Made into a white wine, it has full and complex aromas and flavors that often include honey notes, spice characters, and tropical fruits. With a heavier body and lots of complexity, it’s a perfect wine for fall.

I highly recommend the Michael Shaps Wineworks 2017 Petit Manseng ($30, virginiawineworks.com). If I could have only one white wine from Virginia to drink during the autumn months, this would be the one. It exhibits lime, white flowers, and wet stone on the nose. It has a broad, rich, luxurious feel with complex flavors of lemon-lime, beeswax, and papaya. A very long finish extends with a pleasant hint of white stone.

Like rkatsiteli, this wine is better when served a bit warmer than most white wines.

Pinot Noir

If there is one grape variety that many identify with autumn, it’s pinot noir. This red variety produces wines of medium weight, relatively lower tannins, and complex flavors of red and black fruits, Asian and baking spices, and savory characteristics such as mushroom, fall leaves, and dried tea leaves. While there isn’t a lot of pinot noir in Virginia, Ankida Ridge Vineyards makes an excellent example, and the 2017 Pinot Noir ($44, anikdaridge.com) is a great wine from a great vintage. On the nose are aromas of cherry, plum, blackberries, and baking spices, echoed in the flavor, along with a pleasant cola and a long finish that presents hints of vanilla. Fans of pinot noir should also be on the lookout for Ankida Ridge’s yet unreleased 2017 Pinot Noir Reserve, which should be available soon.

Cabernet Sauvignon

For some red wine fans, the bigger and bolder the better. In other regions, cabernet sauvignon fits that bill, but it can be difficult to fully ripen in the local climate. As a result, you don’t see a lot of cabernet sauvignon as a single variety bottling in Virginia. Instead, big red wines often consist of blends that may also include cabernet franc, merlot, petit verdot, and tannat. However, the right vineyard site combined with an excellent vintage year can bring success, and this is the case for the Pollak Vineyards 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon ($50, pollakvineyards.com). On the nose there are hints of vanilla with lots of red fruit and a bit of stewed black plum. On the palate, there are red fruits, vanilla, baking spices, cinnamon, and a hint of smoke with a lingering finish that includes some crushed stone characteristics. This wine has solid tannic structure and great potential to age, but is also balanced and approachable if you are drinking it now. It’s a wonderful wine and winner of the 2020 Monticello Cup.

I wholeheartedly encourage you to try these wines as you raise a glass to autumn in Virginia. These bottles showcase great things happening in local vineyards and wineries, and they will definitely reward your time and attention.

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Living

Raise a glass to 2019: Winemakers reflect on a great vintage

Luca Paschina, winemaker at Barboursville Vineyards, has high hopes for the 2019 vintage. "We will be celebrating this growing season for many years to come," he says. Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith

Like all agricultural endeavors, growing grapes is subject to the vicissitudes of weather. In Virginia, after a difficult 2018 harvest (because of rain, rain, and more rain), 2019 was good—some would say great—thanks to timely precipitation and stretches of warm, sunny weather.

“This vintage is a beautiful gift to the faithful farmer,” says Luca Paschina, the winemaker at Barboursville Vineyards. “We will be celebrating this growing season for many years to come, for giving us white wines of great intensity and fragrance and reds of unquestionably long age-worthiness.”

Part of this optimism flows from a sense of relief after 2018. Overcast and wet conditions can present serious challenges in both the vineyard and the winery. Lack of sunlight hinders the fruit’s growth and ripening, decreasing sugar content (it is this sugar that is fermented into alcohol), and producing grapes that lack flavor and can taste “green,” or undesirably vegetal. High moisture can also allow mold, mildew, and disease to take hold, leading to damaged fruit and diminished yields. In one of the sadder images of 2018, some winemakers simply left grapes to rot on the vine, because they had burst from too much water and, regardless, the ground was too soft to move harvesting machinery into place.

The next growing season could not have arrived fast enough. Chris Hill, who has been cultivating grapes in Virginia since 1981, says that better vintages share “the common thread of dry weather from mid-August through mid-October.” In his opinion, 2019 should be compared to great vintages such as 1998, 2002, 2007, 2010, and 2017. But Kirsty Harmon believes 2019 is the best vintage since 2008, when she started as winemaker at Blenheim Vineyards.

Joy Ting, research enologist for the Winemakers Research Exchange (and this writer’s wife), explains that, in addition to a dry season, an abundance of sunlight helped to ripen fruit much earlier than in previous years. “The white grapes came in quickly since daytime temperatures were high and sugar accumulated rapidly,” she says. “A little bit of rain and slightly lower temperatures allowed the red grapes to stay on the vine. This led to very good flavor and tannin development.”

Ting also puts forth a theory, shared by a number of winemakers, that the exceptionally wet conditions of 2018 led to higher groundwater levels in 2019, compensating for rainfall one to three inches below average last July through September. Winemakers Emily Pelton at Veritas Vineyard and Winery, and Michael Heny at Michael Shaps Wineworks, agree with Ting. “I was thankful for all of the rain that we had in 2018,” Heny says. “We had so much groundwater that the vines [in 2019] had everything they needed.”

But what about the 2019 wines? High quality, fully ripe fruit picked when the winemaker thought it had achieved optimal conditions (rather than because the next storm was coming), should lead to high quality, aromatic whites and full-bodied, age-worthy reds. It’s impossible at the moment to recommend specific bottles from the vintage—because, well, the wines are unfinished and unbottled—so I asked winemakers which 2019 wines held the greatest promise. “I feel that, in general, red wines more acutely express the quality of a vintage,” says Nathan Vrooman, winemaker at Ankida Ridge Vineyards. “The white wines coming from the region will be very good, but the red wines will really shine.”

Among those, cabernet franc appears to be rising to the top. Finot says the King Family cabernet franc “performed very well this year.” At Veritas, Pelton calls the 2019 crop “bright and vibrant and full of depth.” Paschina singles out Barboursville’s harvest from Goodlow Mountain, about a mile south of the winery, as perhaps its “most elegant wine of the vintage.” Similarly, Rachel Stinson Vrooman, the winemaker at Stinson Vineyards, points to her cabernet franc as “ripe and concentrated, but also maintaining some of the pretty florals and herbal aromas that I look for.” At Keswick Vineyards, winemaker Stephen Barnard believes the estate’s Block 2 cabernet franc to be “the best expression of terroir yet—savory, extracted, spicy.”

Other varieties to look for in 2019 include pinot noir from Ankida Ridge—one of the few area wineries growing the grape—and chardonnay from Loudoun County’s Wild Meadow vineyard. At Michael Shaps, Heny will use the chardonnay in a vineyard-specific wine; he anticipates the 2019 bottling to rival that of 2015, one of my own personal favorites. Also worth noting, according to Harmon, are albariño, a grape grown mostly in Spain and Portugal that’s still relatively rare in Virginia, and cabernet sauvignon, which the lingering dry heat of 2019 helped to achieve full ripeness and flavor.

With uniformly high hopes for the 2019 vintage, Pelton provides some perspective. “I think it is important for us not to lose sight of how fantastically wine tells the story of the year,” she says. “Great years tend to get all of the attention, but the fact that we get to capture all of the aspects of the fabric of a year—whether it was cool or windy or dry or wet—all speaks to the final product, and I find it thrilling to be a part of that story.”

Categories
Living

Chardonnay and petit verdot lead the 2016 vintage report

How does 2016 measure up to previous vintages? “In short,” Michael Shaps Wineworks production manager and enologist Joy Ting says, “2016 was pretty typical for Virginia, with all the challenges and surprises that entails.” Photo by Tom McGovern

This is a good time to catch up with winemakers about the 2016 vintage, a year marked by frost events early in the season, and rain near the red grape harvest. By now, ferments have finished and some wines are in barrel or bottle. Wineries have a good idea about how their 2016s are tasting.

“Each vintage in Virginia presents its own unique set of challenges and opportunities,” says Rachel Stinson Vrooman of Stinson Vineyards. “As growers and winemakers we love to hate this unpredictability, but it’s a key piece of Virginia wine’s identity—it keeps things interesting and makes us feel like we’re all in it together, for better or worse. The 2016 season was just as action-packed as we’ve come to expect. A hard frost in April meant lower yields on pretty much everything. Early budding varietals like chardonnay and merlot were hit especially hard.”

Joy Ting, production manager and enologist at Michael Shaps Wineworks, also reports early-frost damage. “Yields were down in some varieties due to spring frost and rain during bloom,” Ting says. “The chardonnays were particularly hard hit by frost early in the season, with 30 to 50 percent reduction in crop load in most of the vineyards that come through our winery. Some sites fared better than others. The quality was good, there was just a lot less of it.”

Matthieu Finot, winemaker at King Family Vineyards, is happy with his chardonnay. “Because of this weather,” in summer, he says, “we were able to harvest the white grapes when we wanted, and despite limited quantities due to frost damage, they have good balance with the freshness and the acid that I am looking for.”

So, for white wines, we can expect lower quantities than usual, with high quality and concentration due to low yields forced by frost.

Red grapes had a better early season, but inclement autumn weather pushed into a few harvests. “Much like last year’s Joaquin,” Vrooman says, “Hurricane Matthew forced our hand a bit when it came to ripening the reds. Rains hit at the very end of September and set off the inevitable mad rush to bring in fruit. While we would have preferred higher sugar levels on the reds, the wines have good concentration at this early stage—and most importantly do not taste underripe.”

Ting notes that during harvest, “intermittent rain posed challenges throughout, but especially when it was time to pick reds. Heavy rains threatened vineyards on the eastern side of the state a few times, while central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley saw less heavy rain. When rain threatens, winemakers sometimes have to decide to either pick early or take the risk of letting grapes hang through the rain. Good vineyard management practices were key to producing healthy grapes that could hang through rain and dry out before picking.”

Which 2016 red wines show promise at this point?

“Petit verdot was the star for us this vintage,” says Vrooman. “It escaped most of the spring damage and the tiny berries ripened leisurely while maintaining good acid.”

Ting also points to petit verdot. “The wines that are most exciting in the winery right now are the petit verdots and tannats. These are showing concentrated fruit upfront with a lot of structure backing them up. With so much tannin they still need time to age in barrel, then in bottle, in order to show their full complexity. But, at this stage, they are promising,” Ting says.

Finot is pleased with his cabernet franc. “Overall, I think the cab franc performed the best. I’m very happy with the way it tastes.”

Finot is also enjoying one of King Family Vineyards’ flagship wines: the 2016 Meritage, a Bordeaux-style blend based on merlot, cabernet franc and petit verdot. “I was surprised how much structure the Meritage was showing.” After tasting the 2016 Meritage, he says he likes the way the grape varieties complement each other. “It shows how blending can help consistency in the variable weather we get here in Virginia.”

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.