Good article on RdV winery. Yes, who isn’t skeptical on a VA winery producing expensive wine? But didn’t the French under estimate California wine? I’m very interested in trying these wines.
I love how this article is from “Garden and Gun” magazine. Seriously though, I am interested in Virginia wines. I live in DC and am planting a vineyard in the spring in Virginia. The state needs a lot more effort, but I still hold out hope for great Virginia wine.
Some of the local guys recently did a tasting out there… Stay tuned.
Priceless name, right? A neighbor brought the magazine to me since he knows I’m a wine fan. It sat on the counter for two weeks and I finally read it today. There is part of me that wants to immediate dismiss and expensive VA wine because my logic is why not spend the same on a proven CA winner? But at the same time, who’s to say it isn’t just as good? I’m trying to keep an open mind. Perhaps it’s just the herd mentality. If a lot of people said this wine was great for the coin, I’m sure I’d bite. Such a lemming. Gotta find out on my own.
The same goes for Black Ankle Winery in MD. Great wine, I believe. It’s just tough to mentally accept that there is such a thing as a really good MD wine. It’s hard to break away from preconceived notions.
Talk about a tease…
Haha, I had to bail. I hear it was good!
This thread is clearly destined for page 2. So here is a question, and actually I’ll start a new thread, but CA folks, what would it take for you to buy VA wine?
I have yet to try an RdV so no direct comment. However I have tasted from probably 20-30 different producers in the state and at least half of those two or more times. Only a few can make consistently good wine while others seem able to have good vintages or good wines only. Virginia for the most part is still learning. To get a feel for what is possible for reds in VA see if you can get some Linden with some age on them. The 2002 Cab Franc (I think) tasted in 2010 was silky smooth and showed that there are reds from VA that can evolve with age. If not possible instead get a horizontal of the Hardscrabble, Aveniue, and Boussiou(sp) to taste the difference in the vineyards.
I think there is little hope for VA wine unfortunately. The climate of VA in the summertime is hot and humid with a lot of thunderstorms(its latitude is near peak for atmospheric disturbance, ie thunderstorms). I know people will argue against me, but seriously go to one of the big VA tastings like they have had at Mt Vernon in the past and you will dump a ton of wines very quickly. The main problem appears to be that to impart character, some are using expensive oak and massive intervention and are producing low quantities. So once in a while you will get a nice 89-90 point wine in my mind and they will want $50 for it. No thanks. The VA wine industry will continue to be more about the experience of beds and breakfasts, good food, and other things than it will be about wine. Sorry to be a pessimist.
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FWIW, Jancis Robinson visited gave RdV a nice review last issue or so, for those who have access to her journal.
Also worth mentioning, Rutger’s a good friend.
Rich, at the moment I think you’re largely correct about the quality of most Virginia wines. But, as they say, God is in the details and most doesn’t mean all. Correct vineyard siting and layout can make a world of difference when it comes to climate, but that’s one of the details that most of the many new entrants in the local industry, in my experience, have neglected. (Rain isn’t that much of a problem if your vineyard readily sheds water, both by slope and soil structure.)
+1
Too much investment in too little potential.
I’ll drink them for 25 bucks maybe
+1 on the cover and about site selection in Virginia.
Here’s another critic writing about Rutger. Wine Review Online - Breaking Barriers in Virginia
Life-long Virginian. I never drink VA wines unless forced to do so. Not that they are bad exactly, but as a class they are vastly over-priced for the quality delivered. For $15, one can find 100 Italian wines that outperform nearly any VA wine for 3X the price. And they are nearly all at least 3X the price.
I wish the industry well. I want the tax revenue. I would love to be proven spectacularly wrong about the quality of the wines, and I have to admit that my curiosity was aroused by Jancis’s article. But no, drinking more VA wines is not on my list of things to do.
Through some blogger events I’ve had a chance to try a handful of VA wines. I view them much as I view Long Island wines - some decent wines for sure, and the level may actually surprise a lot of people on this board, but the good wines cost three times what they would need to cost to compete against other regions like Chile, Argentina, etc. so there isn’t a lot of reason for wine lovers to buy them other than experimentation, interest in the local angle etc. I don’t think the ‘terroir of VA’ aspect is strong enough to overcome that kind of price gap. I do see potential as producers there gain more experience and perhaps global warming will shift what’s possible in the future as well. Open to trying more but not buying them or recommending them to readers on my blog yet.
Yes, Black Ankle is quite good. There are some decent MD wineries. And there are a lot of new Virginia producers that are really putting in the time and money to make it work. It’s just like other lesser known regions, where it takes a few producers to step up and set the bar high. That said, it is kind of hard to justify buying a $50+ of Virginia wine. That said, I’ve bought a few Octagons from Barboursville, a few nebbiolos and some other Bordeaux blends from other producers, and they’ve been impressive. Maybe not the best QPR, but I’m still hopeful.
While researching the site for my vineyard, I’ve become more aware that growing vines and good fruit is difficult. There are a lot of diseases, molds, pests, not to mention potentially massive swings in temperature from late summer storms, excessive heat, etc. But I’ve got a slope very close to an inlet of the James River. It gets hot, but never as hot as nearby areas. We’ll see if it works. I’m planting in the spring, and hopefully they’ll survive!
Every winter, you need something like 3 consecutive nights at 15F or lower to reliably kill off the [i.e. any incipient] local population of leafhoppers.
And that’s EVERY winter.
You also need to kill off all of [u]the invasive Mimosa trees[/u] within an umpteen mile radius.
So even if you go, say, ten consecutive years with suitably cold winters, then you only need that eleventh winter to be too warm, AND YOU ARE SCREWED - you can just kiss your entire vineyard the hell goodbye.
BTW, if you want to try something really interesting in the way of East Coast vinifera, then get a bottle of Shelton’s Yadkin Valley Riesling - it’s actually quite quaffable, and the local Targets and Harris Teeters often have it on sale for less than $10.
I just hope and pray that things stay cold enough up there [general vicinity of Mt Airy, which was the inspiration for the Andy Griffith show] so as to continue to kill the leafhoppers, and to preserve those Riesling vines.
On the other hand, I doubt that there are very many folks on this board who have developed a taste for non-vinifera wine, but that’s where the really interesting work is being done [and the increasingly vital work, if we can’t stop the leafhoppers].
What are you planting?
I wish RdV well, but it will be a looong time before I pay $55, not to mention $100 for any wine made east of the Rockies.
Boxwood, with unimaginably deep pockets, is selling at $25 retail and IMO is a screaming bargain. I rate both the reds 90+. Black Ankle may be better and tops out at $45 retail. 2000 cases at $100 per bottle is $2.4M a year in revenue. I don’t think (including air-freighting samples back to Bordeaux) costs can be that high. Kudos to de Vink’s grandfather for harboring downed allied pilots in WW II. Kudos to de Vink himself reserved until I hear that his wines are screaming bargains at $55 and $100. I truly hope what I hear from reliable sources tells me I need to buy these, because I am still closely connected to Virginia, but it will be a surprise if I’m convinced to buy and a bigger one if I’m happy with my purchase.
BTW, when I lived full time in Virginia (15+ years ago), I would often host French winemakers. The first cork I pulled was always Naked Mountain Chardonnay, blind, which would usually provoke a debate as to whether it was a California or French wine. This often resulted in dropped jaws when I told them they could split the difference as it came from the neighborhood.
Dan Kravitz