Anyone know if Boxwood is distributed in Richmond? I have never seen a bottle at retail and I have wanted to try a bottle since I learned about the winery several years ago.
Which vintage? I have had the 2005 through 2008 and feel that there is a huge deference based on vintage. For me only the 2007 would be considered good and I found some other vintages not to my liking.
i don’t know about the quality of the wine, but that guy de Vink certainly has a world-class PR machine in place…
Outstanding magazine. You should give it a try.
Not really; RdV has certainly gotten some good ink, especially considering how a new they are, but it’s not like they have a team of publicists or anything.
Lived in Richmond for 20 plus years. Visited most of the va wineries.
Live in Reno now and have gotten to maybe 30 wineries in ca so far.
No offense, but you can have the va wines 
Lots of deep pocket investors have helped get the word out to the right people.
Will be tasting the basic bottling within the next week or so, and likely the two top bottling before the end of the year, so will report back with first hand notes. Have heard some very positive feedback from palates I trust.
This is based on, what, inside information to which you’re privy? Please share. As far as I know this is a family affair, but I’m willing to be corrected.
Also, who are “the right people”? W. Blake Gray? Garden and Gun magazine? Not exactly Parker or Tanzer, simply in terms of market influence. The connection with Jancis Robinson, and her subsequent positive mention, was purely happenstance, not the result of a marketing ploy.
two rows of cabernet franc
i think i’m going to do two rows of viognier, but i haven’t made the final decision. Does anyone here have experience growing viognier?
Maybe Spurrier (not the ol’ ball coach) can do a Virginia vs. California bottle shock tasting to prove the merits of Va. wines. I doubt we’ll see another Montelena miracle. So far I have been underwhelmed, especially at the current price point.
This is one of those groundhog day topics that cycles through the board periodically. There’s a lot of uninteresting wine made in Virginia, but also at least a couple of good producers. Linden and Barboursville, for example, are reliable: both sell prestige bottles, but both have good wines in the $15-30 range. They aren’t bargains, but, considering the scale of production and local wine culture, they are viable. Neal’s oft-repeated tirade about pricing is misleading, in my experience. As with the products of any region, though, the best approach is to try around yourself.
Re: Naked Mountain, I used to be a fan, but quality seemed to go down some time after 2004.
I’ll chime in here, simply because I have some experience with Rugter’s “team of publicists” and the “deep pocket investors [who] have helped get the word out to the right people.”
Such claims are completely false, and have no basis in reality. Rutger certainly has marketing/self-promotional savvy, but there’s no PR team. It’s him and him alone.
After my keynote address at this year’s Nederburg wine auction (http://bit.ly/oj7o9C), I received an incredibly humble invitation from Rutger to come to the winery for lunch. I’ll assume he’s okay with me sharing the text:
“In your speech, I noticed that you are based in Washington and I would like to invite you to visit RdV for lunch in the coming months. I imagine that you are limited with your time, but I would like for you to visit so that we can show you our vineyards, explain our winemaking philosophy, let you tour our facility and taste our wines.”
I declined, as Scott Claffee – a friend and fellow WineBerserker – had already arranged for about ten of us to go visit the winery for dinner. (In full disclosure, I’m writing an article for the World of Fine Wine on the past, present, and future of Virginia wine, so will be visiting Rutger for an in-depth interview in the next couple months.)
In advance of our dinner, Scott urged us to bring rock star wines to pour alongside the RdVs. Among the reds we brought were a 2008 Chateau La Confession; 2004 Montrose; 2008 La Reserve de Leoville Barton; 2007 Montes Alpha “M”; 2006 Clerc Milon; 2006 Duckhorn Estate; 2007 Outpost; 2006 Ghost Horse Shadow.
Rutger’s wines absolutely belonged alongside these – and other top wines from Bordeaux and California. In fact, his 2008 RdV was one of my top three wines of the night (with the Outpost and La Confession). (If you ever replicate this experiment, wrap the wines in foil. We hate to admit bias, but when “Virginia” is visible on a label, people tend to put the wine down a notch regardless of if they deserve it.)
Even cooler, the wines definitely had unique terroir. I wouldn’t have been able to peg where the wines were from. There was something unique about all four of his wines – I’ve described it as a subtle, earthy coffee component that didn’t seem to come from the oak.
Don’t get me wrong – Rutger takes image very seriously (everything at the winery is flawless – as if the whole experience is choreographed), and he knows how to market himself and his wines. But the hype his real.
I’ve had a ton of Virginia wine, and most of it is overpriced and disappointing. The reds are too herbaceous, and the whites, too often, are simple and insipid. But some world-class wine is being produced. For the past several years, I’ve urged people from outside the DC Metro area to try Linden’s Chardonnay – and now, I’ll be urging people to try the RdVs.
Well, for starters; distribution out here would help. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bottle of Virginia wine anywhere out here. On a rare occasion you find Finger Lakes, but that’s it other than Oregon and Washington for non California / US Wines (sad, really - would love to find Michigan Rieslings out here).
I couldn’t tell you a thing about Virginia wine. I hate speaking for the majority, that the most we probably know about Virginia is that Thomas Jefferson grew grapes out there… oh and there’s probably a lot of Norton.
I’d like to think that we’d try anything at least once.
Thanks for chiming in, David. I look forward to reading your article. Maybe some day Gabe will post his notes from the dinner!
I have no affiliation with RdV other than the fact that I’m an inaugural member of their list and enjoy their wines. Rutger and his team have been awesome about working with local folks to help spread the word, and therefore I have been trying to do the same. As David said, the RdV wines are truly world class and stand up to top wines from top regions. As they say at RdV, they’re not trying to make a wine that is “pretty good for Virginia” - they’re trying to make an outstanding wine that happens to be from here.
Also, I can tell you that there is no “PR machine.”. In fact, they dismiss Jancis’s favorable ratings when asked if it gives them credibility or somehow justifies their claims or prices. What gives Rutger the most pride is that when they took their samples to en primeur in Bordeaux, they surprised a lot of people. And their French consultant who assists with the final blend does so for little or no compensation, simply because he was so impressed that he wanted to get involved and help out.
RdV is simply a first-rate operation, and Rutger is an impressive yet humble guy. I encourage everyone expressing skepticism to try the wine before passing judgment. I’m happy to bring some to any offline! ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Any VA-haters on here just remember that this was the same attitude that the world had 30 years ago towards CA before the judgement of Paris tasting. It doesn’t take a genius to see that in the next 30 years the epicenter of fine wine in the USA is moving away from CA.
I’ve tasted stellar wines from Linden, Barboursville, and Black Ankle.
Long time NC resident here - Pierce’s dz is a concern, but bigger issues, like fungal disease pressure with the need to spray and spray (and spray); deer, possum, raccoon and in my garden wild turkey predation; late freezes (it snowed here in Asheville on April 28th a few years ago); summer hail and lack of a base of workers to pick the grapes all make it more expensive to grow European grape varieties. American and American hybrid grapes are one way to get around the constraints our climate imposes. They don’t make fine wine, but if you want a true expression of place, then that’s all you get. (IMO)
Up at that elevation, you ought to get the three consecutive nights of 15F every winter which you need to keep the leafhoppers at bay.
But down here in the Piedmont, the Pierce’s is just decimating us.
There’s a guy up-thread who is talking about planting on the James River, and I am just cringing at the thought of what’s going to hit him [at some point in the future, when the leafhoppers discover his vineyard].
An appreciation for non-vinifera wine is definitely an acquired taste, but there is some really interesting work being done in that area - and, quite frankly, the non-vinifera movement is far more fascinating, really, than anything which is going on in the vinifera arena right now.
I’m scared of these leafhoppers finding my little vineyard. Nathan, in your experience what helps get rid of them?
David - I was wondering when you’d chime in! I agree with your comments completely. I (and you) have seen similar regional bias when it comes to Colorado wine. Too many people disregard an entire region because of what’s on the label or by one or two bad experiences. There is a lot more to the high-quality wine world than the usual suspects. I am no longer surprised when I drink CO wine blind alongside Napa, Bordeaux, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, etc that the local vino more than holds its own.
I have been following Jim Law and his wines for the past two decades. He make very nice single vineyard Chardonnays that merits 91-92 points which is a reasonable QPR. Barboursville reds around 90 max. I haven’t had Black Ankle wines.