Winemaker Series: Reynard Florence Vineyard & Petit Manseng

This week we feature a newcomer to the Virginia Wine scene, Roe Allison of Reynard Florence Vineyard. This Barboursville winery specializes in Petit Manseng - a French grape from the Jurançon region of South West France. This grape is most suitable for off-dry or dessert wines as it combines concentrated natural sugar with high acidity. As we listen to Mr. Allison, we find that Petit Manseng is suitable for Virginia because its loose clusters and think skins protect the grape from humid summers.

Whereas most vinifera grapes made their entrance in America through California; Petit Manseng owes its existence in the New World to the Virginia Wine industry. Jennifer McCloud of Chrysalis Vineyards and Alan Kinne, then at Horton Vineyards, embarked on a wine exploration of Europe - searching for wine grapes that could by cultivated in Virginia. Two grapes that registered were Albarino and Petit Manseng. Chrysalis and Horton both received budwood from Virginia Tech Extension Agent Tony Wolf and here is where the story gets interesting. Both wineries bottled a 100% Petit Manseng. Horton labeled the wine Petit Manseng and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Trade (TTB) had no idea it was a grape variety and accepted the label as just the name of a wine; not a specific grape. On the other hand, Jenni McCloud petitioned the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Trade (TTB) to include it as an approved American Grape Variety name and became the first winery to legally bottle a Petit Manseng. Fast forward a decade later and almost 25 Virginia wineries are producing a Petit Manseng and some popular California wineries such as Tablas Creek Vineyard have followed Virginia's leadership and starting to bottle a 100% Petit Manseng.

The intro music to this series is "How High the Mountain" by Andrew McKnight. And as always, VirginiaWineTV videos are available via iTunes. Cheers.

2011 Wine Bloggers Conference Pre-Tour: Loudoun County (DC's Wine Country)

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.

Dallas Wine Chick: Loudoun County Wine Pre-Trip
Tarara Winery: WineBloggers
Wine Biz Radio: X Does WBC ’11
The Wine Hub: Why Terroir Matters – Blog by: Jordan Harris – Tarara Winery Winemaker

2011 Wine Bloggers Conference Pre-Tour: Loudoun County (DC's Wine Country) Music Video

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.

Dallas Wine Chick: Loudoun County Wine Pre-Trip
Tarara Winery: WineBloggers
Wine Biz Radio: X Does WBC ’11
The Wine Hub: Why Terroir Matters – Blog by: Jordan Harris – Tarara Winery Winemaker

CNN - Red Wine's 'Greenest' Grape

Talking Norton and DLW with Jennifer McCloud

Last year DrinkLocalWine.com held their annual conference in Leesburg Virginia to showcase and promote the wines crafted in Maryland and Virginia. This year, their annual conference is being held April 2nd-3rd in St. Louis Missouri to showcases the wines of the Midwest. The most popular red wine grape grown in that area is Norton - which was actually first discovered in Virginia in the early 1800s. The grape migrated west with the German, Swiss, and Italian immigrants who settled in Missouri and the surrounding states. Eventually Norton production died out along the East Coast and survived primarily within Missouri vineyards. Slightly over 25 years ago, Dennis Horton migrated east to Virginia carrying some cuttings from Stone Hill Winery and re-established Norton back to its native terrior. Jenni McCloud soon became the second grower of Norton at Chrysalis Vineyards and today, has the world's largest estate of Norton vines. In this episode of Virginia Wine TV, Ms. McCloud elaborates on the history of Norton production and tastes us through several Midwestern and Chrysalis Norton wines. The music for this episode is provided by Arlington based Memphis 59. Their latest CD, "Ragged But Right" is highly recommended; as is The Wild Vine: A Forgotten Grape and the Untold Story of American Wine.

Virginia wineries that produce Norton Wine: Abingdon Vineyard Winery Belle Mount Vineyards Bluemont Vineyard Bright Meadows Farm Burnley Vineyards Byrd Cellars Casanel Vineyards Castle Gruen Vineyards and Winery Chrysalis Vineyards DeVault Family Vineyards Dry Mill Vineyards Winery DuCard Vineyards Glass House Winery Horton Vineyards Hummel Vineyards Keswick Vineyards Lexington Valley Vineyard Molliver Vineyards & Winery Mountain Cove Vineyards New Kent Winery Paradise Springs Winery Potomac Point Winery Rappahannock Cellars Rockbridge Vineyard The Winery at La Grange Veramar Vineyard and Bogati Bodega Weston Farm Vineyard and Winery Wisteria Farm & Vineyard Missouri and Kansas wineries featured in the episode: Adam Puchta Winery Stone Hill Winery St. James Winery Holy-Field Vineyard & Winery