Annual WineMaker Magazine Conference set for Virginia Wine Country in 2014

Do you make your own wine or our thinking about starting? Then...

"Join fellow hobby winemakers from across North America in Northern Virginia's wine country for three days packed with seminars and special events to help you make your own great wine. "

From June 5-7th, WineMaker Magazine is hosting their annual conference at the Lansdowne Resort, Leesburg in DC's Wine Country - Loudoun County Virginia. The conference includes workshops, seminars, and a keynote address from Doug Fabbioli of Fabbioli Cellars. There are also several boot camps lead by consultant Tom Payette; Wes Hagen of  Clos Pepe Estate; Daniel Pambianchi of Maleta Winery; Chik Brenneman from UC-Davis; Robert Herold, Winemaker for M&M Wine Grape Co.; Tim Vandergrift, Technical Services Manager for Global Vintners International; and BobPeak, Partner in The Beverage People home winemaking retailer shop.  The conference also includes a day trip to a few Virginia Wineries and admission to the 2014 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition Awards Dinner as well as the Friday night Wine Share & Tasting Party. That's the event I want to attend; but sounds like an informative weekend. Cheers.  

Winemaker Series: Jordan Harris of Tarara Winery

Here's our first episode that eventually lead to creating the VirginiaWineTV series. It features former bluegrass sensation Cadillac Sky (as the band went separate ways soon after this video) in a discussion of wine and music with Jordan Harris, the winemaker at Tarara Vineyard & Winery. We discussed the similarities between the two occupations: wine makers and musician. During the discussion we sampled three yet to be bottled wines in Tarara's new "Nova" series. These wines are made from the best grapes grown in specific vineyards or appellations and the futures are actually already sold out. Thanks also to Echo Propp, from WAMU Bluegrass Country, for co-hosting. The video is available to download for iTunes and Windows Media Player.

Episode 1: Cadillac Sky at Tarara Winery from MyJoogTV on Vimeo.

Winemaker Series: Corcoran Brewing and Vineyards

This episode features Kevin Bills, brew master at Corcoran Brewing Company, and Lori Corcoran, winemaker at Corcoran Vineyards, discussing wine and beer at the Corcoran complex. This is the only joint winery-brewery facility in Virginia and was intended to provide visitors with the greatest incentive to visit the winery. Now the brewery has taken a life of its own, with demand facilitating an early expansion. In addition to using local ingredients when possible, Corcoran Brewing also maintains a small Hop farm. On the other side of the farm lies Corcoran Vineyards, with a new brand of fun fruit wines such as Apple, Cello (Petit Manseng), Raz (Merlot and Raspberries), and USB (Chambourcin aged in used A. Smith Bowman Distillery barrels). As usual, the intro music is "How High the Mountain" by Andrew McKnight and all VirginiaWineTV videos are available via iTunes. Cheers.

Winemaker Series: Breaux Vineyards & Vertical Tasting

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.

Voice of America Continues to Feature Virginia Wines

We are a little late featuring these broadcasts, but in 2011, Voice of America News released two videos focusing on the Virginia Wine Industry. The first video features Doukenie Winery in Loudoun County, while the second video features Hillsborough Vineyards, Lake Anna Winery, and Narmada Winery - wineries located in Loudoun, Spotsylvania, and Rappahannock counties.

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