This week's episode features Jennifer Breaux-Blosser, Breaux Vineyards in Loudoun County, discussing vertical tasting through various Merlot vintages (2002, 2004, 2007). She describes how a vertical tasting shows yearly differences in the same varietal wine, but also how a wine's composition changes over time. The next Merlot Vertical Tasting at Breaux is scheduled for March 24th. This is also an exciting time for Breaux Vineyards. Their 2010 Viognier was just included Oz Clarke 250 Best Wines. That's worldwide - not just here in the states. As usual, the intro music is "How High the Mountain" by Andrew McKnight and all VirginiaWineTV videos are available via iTunes. Cheers.
On October 26th, the Virginia Tourism office sponsored a wine reception featuring Governor Robert McDonnell to celebrate the end of Virginia Wine Month. The event was held at the Lincoln Restaurant in Washington D.C. and included four Virginia wineries, each pouring three wines for the invited guests. These wineries represented the diverse regions that represent the industry; Chatham Vineyards on the eastern shore, Barboursville Vineyards from the Monticello Wine Trail, and Breaux Vineyards & Boxwood Winery from Loudoun County (DC's Wine Country). We were fortunate to be invited to the event, along with other wine bloggers, reporters, and restaurant owners. Based on geographic location, one would think that the Virginia wine industry would have penetrated the D.C. market; yet, in reality, progress has been slow. Even the host, the Lincoln Restaurant, just agreed to start serving Virginia wines, based on tasting wines that afternoon. And why not after tasting the Barboursville Octagon, or the Breaux Nebbiolo, or the Boxwood Topiary, or the Chatham Vintner's Blend. And those are just the reds. Remember, Virginia is also for Viognier Lovers; and two brands were poured this evening - one each from Barboursville and Breaux. Boxwood smartly brought their Topiary Rose Blend, perhaps the best rose styled wine produced in the state - but definitely the best value - less than $15/bottle. And Chatham featured their old world styled Church Creek Chardonnay, showing that the popular Chardonnay grape has a home in the Commonwealth.
As Virginia Wine Month recedes into winter, take to heart the message delivered by Governor McDonnell below. If you find yourself in a restaurant that doesn't serve a Virginia wine - speak up - and if Virginia wine is server - it should be in your glass. Furthermore, late fall and winter are still enjoyable seasons for visiting Virginia wineries - check out the many Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas events scheduled for the remainder of the Year. The Virginia Tourism office, the Virginia Wine Board, and of course, WineCompass.com, are all valuable sources for your event planning. Cheers to Virginia Wine.
One of the best kept secrets of the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference was the Loudoun County Pre-Tour sponsored by Visit Loudoun. This two day tour was available to the first 25 bloggers who registered and consisted of visits to four wineries: Tarara Vineyard & Winery, Breaux Vineyards, Chrysalis Vineyards, and Boxwood Winery. Each winery rolled out the red carpet with the winemaker greeting the participants and providing tours and tastings of their regular offerings as well as reserve and barrel wines. These were very intimate engagements where the participants were able to discuss Norton or Albarino with Jenni McCloud and Alan Kinne at Chrysalis; Bordeaux with Rachel Martin and Adam McTaggart at Boxwood, Terroir with Jordan Harris at Tarara; and Nebbiolo with the Breaux crew. These wineries may be familiar to the larger group of conference attendees since they participated in many of the WBC11 events in Charlottesville, either as sponsors, the twitter tastings, the Other 46 tasting, and the Monticello dinner.
Check out the video below, which includes audio from Stacey Sheetz of Visit Loudoun discussing the wine region, to see why this area is one of the top wine destinations in Virginia and considered DC's Wine Country. The video also features the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band "Worn Out Show" courtesy of Side One Dummy Records. And below is a list of blog posts concerning the Loudoun pre-tour and WBC11.
One of the best kept secrets of the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference was the Loudoun County Pre-Tour sponsored by Visit Loudoun. This two day tour was available to the first 25 bloggers who registered and consisted of visits to four wineries: Tarara Vineyard & Winery, Breaux Vineyards, Chrysalis Vineyards, and Boxwood Winery. Each winery rolled out the red carpet with the winemaker greeting the participants and providing tours and tastings of their regular offerings as well as reserve and barrel wines. These were very intimate engagements where the participants were able to discuss Norton or Albarino with Jenni McCloud and Alan Kinne at Chrysalis; Bordeaux with Rachel Martin and Adam McTaggart at Boxwood, Terroir with Jordan Harris at Tarara; and Nebbiolo with the Breaux crew. These wineries may be familiar to the larger group of conference attendees since they participated in many of the WBC11 events in Charlottesville, either as sponsors, the twitter tastings, the Other 46 tasting, and the Monticello dinner.
Check out the video below, which includes audio from Stacey Sheetz of Visit Loudoun discussing the wine region, to see why this area is one of the top wine destinations in Virginia and considered DC's Wine Country. The video also features Tara Nevins (Donna the Buffalo) "Beauty of Days Gone By" from her new solo release: Wood & Stone. And below is a list of blog posts concerning the Loudoun pre-tour and WBC11.
This week's episode features Jennifer Breaux-Blosser, Breaux Vineyards in Loudoun County, discussing vertical tasting through various Merlot vintages (2002, 2004, 2007). She describes how a vertical tasting shows yearly differences in the same varietal wine, but also how a wine's composition changes over time. The next Merlot Vertical Tasting at Breaux is scheduled for March 24th. This is also an exciting time for Breaux Vineyards. Their 2010 Viognier was just included Oz Clarke 250 Best Wines
. That's worldwide - not just here in the states. As usual, the intro music is "How High the Mountain" by Andrew McKnight and all VirginiaWineTV videos are available via iTunes. Cheers.
. And below is a list of blog posts concerning the Loudoun pre-tour and WBC11.