Report from the 2008 Virginia Vintner's Table

It's been a while, I know. I was waiting for something that I considered worthwhile enough to post on, and when that something finally came along I procastinated. But now I return, with news from a truly novel event in the history of the Virginia wine industry, one that I hope will be the first of many. I am referring to the Virginia Vintner's Table, which was hosted at Virginia Tech from May 23rd to 25th.

It's hard to describe this as the brainchild or result of any one discipline, study, or area of business. Rather, it was one of those happy confluences that (in my opinion) seem to arise more often when wine is involved. Credit is of course due to Dr. Bruce Zoecklein, head of the Enology Program of the Food Sciences and Technology Department at VT, as well as Messrs. Dan Berger and Doug Frost, respectively a wine columnist and author/master sommelier who were present as speakers. However, the real driving force behind this event is the rapidly growing and ever-expanding Virginia wine industry.

If you find this assertion hard to believe--or if you were unaware that Virginia had a wine industry, let alone an expanding one--I really wish you could have seen the participating wineries who were in the President's Suite at Lane Stadium on Friday, May 23rd. I count twenty-eight on the sheet that was part of the packet I was given when I arrived; however, my estimate (admittedly fuzzier as bottles the night went by) is somewhat higher. Given that Virginia has roughly 120-130 functioning wineries, the fact around a quarter of them--and not just the rich, Northern Virginia ones; the advantage, perhaps, of having the event in Blacksburg--is significant.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I left home at the ungodly hour of somewhere around 6 AM(usually referred to in the HTBD househould as "still asleep o'clock") in order to get to VT by 10 AM. This was because I had paid $45 extra, in addition to my registration fee, to tour three wineries with other diehard wine enthusiasts. (As it turned out, there were only about six people, including me, willing to set out for the tour).

Chateau Morissette was the first winery on our tour. Overall the wines were pleasant, although I thought the red wines were of generally better quality than the whites (although the Viognier was quite lovely). Morrisette has the distinction of rising high in the field from modest beginnings, and for maintaining a quality level in their wines that is not inversely proportional to their (impressively) high production capacity. They had been on my "to do" list for quite a while, so this was a nice visit to take.
Recommendations: 2005 Viognier, 2006 Pinot Noir.

Top: The Chateau Morissette tasting room.

Bottom: Outside the Chateau.

Villa Appalaccia was the second winery, and also where we had lunch. The lady who poured our tasting--who, with her husband, is the co-owner of the winery--was also nice enough to serve us a very Italian meal (prosciutto, salami, cheese, olives, olive oil, bread, and melon). Of the wines, I found the Sangiovese most pleasing, and had a glass of it with the excellent lunch. The wines were all excellently crafted and a pleasure to drink. If you're in the Roanoke area or are going out that way, I recommend that you pay them a visit.
Recommendations: 2006 Pinot Grigio Reserve, 2006 Aglianico, 2005 "Mercurio" Sangiovese

Top and Middle: The Villa Appalaccia tasting room.
Bottom: The patio and dining area at Villa Appalaccia.

Our third and final stop was Valhalla Vineyards. Interestingly, they are the only winery on the East Coast growing and producing an Alicante Bouschet, of which I bought a bottle. The charmingly named "Gotterdammerung", a blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot, was also quite nice, and in keeping with the overall Nordic theme of the winery. As if that wasn't singular enough, Valhalla also has an honest-to-God cave that they blew--dynamited--out of the mountainside their winery is built on. While constructing the cave, they found a Buddha statue. No one knows how a Buddha statue got onto a theretofore unused stretch of mountainside in southwestern Virginia, but they left it be as a monument to luck, and perhaps the overall unique nature of the winery. (Or maybe I'm just a sucker for surreality.)

Recommendations: 2002 Gotterdammerung, 2005 Alicante Bouschet

Top to Bottom: Outside the Valhalla tasting room, inside the Valhalla tasting room facing out, the Buddha statue found during the excavation, and the Valhalla cave.

(To be continued...)