Virginia Governor’s Cup 2020

Guess who showed up in Richmond last week? My mom has no idea that I sneaked in the car to make my own appearance at the Governor’s Cup Gala, but I did! I donned my best suit and snuck right in under everybody’s nose. It may seem like a dog would seem a little out of place in the newly remodeled train station, but I was a wine lover surrounded by other wine lovers, so I fit right in!

I will tell you who else showed up at the Gala last night: the Shenandoah Valley AVA, that’s who! From the gold medals won by five vineyards in the Shenandoah Valley AVA, to the awarding of the Lifetime Achievement Award to a local winemaker, to the delegate who introduced the presentation of the David King Advocate of Year Award, all the way to the Governor’s Case, the Shenandoah Valley AVA was present every step of the way.

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Picture it: Our valley, the beautiful land we call home, showing up all the way in Richmond at a swanky train station where history meets architectural renewal. The light twinkling off of the walls of glass only enhanced the magical feeling of the evening. Tables laden with food were scattered around the room: the selections on these were a wide range from charcuterie and truffled macaroni and cheese to fruit spreads and decadent tarts. All around the room, people milled around with wine glasses in hand, eager to try as many gold medal winners as they could.

After a little over an hour of tasting time, everyone was called to the far end of the room to hear the evening’s program. The ceremony always begins with recognition of leaders in the Virginia wine industry. It was wonderful to hear Randy Phillips, of Cave Ridge Vineyard, recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award. He started his venture 20 years ago when he opened his winery; before that, Randy was involved with resource management. Since entering the wine world, Randy has consistently acted in ways to further the wine industry in both the Shenandoah Valley AVA and Virginia. From his instrumental presence in the creation of the Shenandoah Wine Grower’s Association to his creation of the Virginia Wine Distribution Center, it is evident that Randy has had an incredible influence in the explosive growth the Virginia wine industry has seen over the past 20 years. 

When he stepped on stage, Randy humbly gave thanks for the award and encouraged all of those present in the room to do their part in whatever journey they are on: “The world is run by people who show up, so continue to show up.” Thank you, Randy, for continuing to show up everyday and for helping to shape the Virginia wine industry into what it is today.

Chris Runion, an area delegate, made his way to the stage next to announce a recently passed resolution that recognized the significant impact that David King had on the Virginia wine industry through his advocacy for needed legislation that supported wine growers and winemakers across the state. David King, of King Family Vineyards, was pivotal in moving the wine industry forward by fighting for legislation that supports wine growers and others in the industry, and the Virginia Wineries Association wanted to carry on his legacy by giving an Advocate of the Year Award in his honor. As his son James recognized George Hodson for this year’s award, he quoted one of his father’s frequent reminders that “90% of life is showing up, and if you don’t, you might be legislated out.”

After the awards were given, the portion of the evening we were all waiting for arrived: the announcement of the winner of the Governor’s Cup. Each year, the Capital Wine School in Washington, DC, organizes and manages the judging process, and this year they had their work cut out for them! Out of the 532 wines that were entered from 105 wineries, 64 of those won gold medals. The judges remarked that it was evident that “Virginia wine makers were becoming more comfortable with their craft” and they were routinely impressed with the “elegant” and “stylistic profiles” that they encountered in the process. The “world-class” dessert wines received special notice this year when 868 Estate Vineyards won the Cup with their 2017 Vidal Blanc Passito. 

All twelve wines that made it into the Governor’s Case are listed below with hyperlinks to their vineyards. Be sure to take your own trip to taste the best of what Virginia has to offer.

868 Estate Vineyards 2017 Vidal Blanc Passito

Afton Mountain Vineyards 2017 Tradition

Barboursville Vineyards 2014 Octagon

Barboursville Vineyards 2018 Vermentino Reserve

Delaplane Cellars 2017 Williams Gap

Lake Anna Winery 2017 Tannat

Michael Shaps 2016 Meritage

Pollak Vineyards 2017 Cabernet Franc Reserve

Pollak Vineyards 2017 Smuggler

Rockbridge Vineyard 2017 Vd’Or (Shenandoah Valley AVA)

Shenandoah Vineyards 2017 Shenandoah Reserve Red (Shenandoah Valley AVA)

Virginia Cellars Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards 2017 Petit Verdot

 

Another Dynamic Duo: Wine & Chocolate

It’s Valentine’s Day, and I am especially missing my favorite snuggler. It is always hard to lose a friend, and when you look up to someone like I looked up to Winston, the loss feels even greater. We were almost inseparable and the only time you could find us apart is when he had grown tired of my shenanigans and had gone to find a quiet place to nap instead. Mom has taken me on a lot of long walks these past two weeks, so I can get out my energy and emotions. Some days it has helped (like the day I found a bone to play with in the middle of the field) and other days it hasn’t (like the day I got sprayed by a skunk next to our barn).

I know I will never forget Winston no matter how many walks we take, and I know none of you will either. In fact, I like to think that we are almost famous- a dynamic duo that you can add a long list of others: Winston and Wyatt, peanut butter and jelly, Batman and Robin, cookies and cream, Romeo and Juliet, wine and chocolate.

I actually heard someone talking about pairing wine and chocolate in the tasting room just the other day. I had a little extra time on my paws that evening, so I researched a little bit about pairing. From what I read, when you pair those two, it is a little different than when I pair water with my dry dog food, but the results can be just as delicious. 

Wine and chocolate are actually sort of similar in their chemical makeups – they both contain tannins and polyphenols that make them a bit drying and bitter to taste. While unpleasant if not paired well, if done correctly the fats found in chocolate can help to make the fruity flavors of the wine stand out while any tannic qualities slip away. 

The key is making sure that the wine is a little sweeter than the chocolate you are pairing it with and to use similar weights when pairing (bold with bold, rich with rich, etc.). Milk chocolate and white chocolate are the easiest choices to pair with wines, and you should usually avoid pairing dark chocolates with dry wines because they can overwhelm each other. With careful selection, however, sometimes a bitter chocolate can help to allow the fruit shine through on tannic-heavy wines.  

After reading a bit on how to make good pairings, I have a few suggestions for you from our lineup:

If you are a sweeter wine drinker, I think our Kerus would go really well with a raspberry truffle. The pairing would help to illuminate some of the chocolate berry notes that are already deliciously evident in the wine. Our dessert style Petit Manseng, Lil Em, would pair perfectly with white chocolate. The sweet richness of both will bring the tropical fruit notes to surface and make the wine drinking experience a multi-sensory one. If you like a bit of both worlds, try our Six Penny Postscript coupled with a rich dark chocolate flaked with sea salt. Talk about sensory overload! The decadent sweetness of a port-style wine with bitter chocolate and savory salt is a match made in heaven.

I have some suggestions for you dry drinkers, too! What better way to celebrate this day of love than with a bottle of our Sparkling White and what better to pair it with than a few delicious chocolate dipped strawberries? Not only will you have a photo worthy of any Instagram post, but you will also have an explosion of flavor for your taste buds! It isn’t always easy to find a perfect piece of chocolate to serve with a dryer red wine, but I think a chunk of milk chocolate would go perfectly with our Merlot. The sweetness of the chocolate helps to bring out the berry flavors that exist just under the surface of the traditionally earthier wine. My final suggestion for you is to pair our McGahey Red Reserve wine with a slice of flourless chocolate torte. The creamy fudge-like texture will compliment the velvety structure of the McGahey perfectly!

Let’s be honest. Everyone needs a little sweet treat in their life and there is no better time to embrace the wine and chocolate duo than now! If you try a few of my pairing suggestions, let me know which one was your favorite!

XOXO, Wyatt

Hallielujah! We Have a Sparkling!

Almost all of you know my big brother Winston, but not all of you know that I have another older brother and a few older sisters scattered around the United States (and world!). I don’t get to see them very often, but when I do, I cover them with hugs and kisses and beg them to play chase – which is my favorite game of all time! Well, this past weekend, Mom and Dad were really excited to go visit my sister Hallie. They said she had an important job to do – which was news to me  because I thought Winston and I pulled all the weight around here.

It turns out that Mom and Dad named their newest wine after Hallie, and they needed her to say that it was delicious enough to release to the public. Hallie’s wine is called Hallielujah, and it is perfect for any celebration – just like her! The flavors are zingy and bright, and the bubbles are a delight to anyone who indulges in a glass of our Sparkling White and Sparkling Rosé wines.  

Sparkling wines might be new to our line up, but they aren’t new to the wine world. These bubbly wines were first noticed in the 1500s, but came about in a very accidental way. Wine makers were storing their wines in areas that had less than ideal conditions, and the warmer temperatures were causing the bottled wines to undergo secondary fermentations.

Everyone loved this new variety of wine to drink, so the winemakers decided to figure out a method to create sparkling wine on purpose. Over time, their trial and error processes became established practices, and now we have several processes in use today to create the sparkling wines that are so popular.

The most well-known method is the traditional method that takes the grapes through their first fermentation to create a base wine. This wine is then bottled with an addition of yeast and sugar.  After aging anywhere from 9 months to 5 years, the bottle is rotated to force the dead yeast cells to the top of the bottle. The yeast plug is removed, another shot of sugar is added to the bottle, and the cork is inserted. 

Another method, used mainly for Prosecco and Lambrusco, is the tank method. In this method, the base wine goes through its second fermentation in a pressurized tank to achieve the desired amount of bubbles (called atmospheres in the wine world). After the process has finished, the wine is bottled and dosed with sugar. A benefit of this shortened process is that wine tastes a little younger in bottle and brighter in flavor.

A third method that is revered in the wine world is the Ancestral method (lovingly referred to as Pet-Nat). In this method, the base wine does not complete its full fermentation process before it is bottled. Instead, the fermentation is halted so the wine can be bottled; fermentation finishes in the bottle. Eventually the bottle will be disgorged (when the yeast plug is removed), but no sugar will be added. This method gets as close to the original sparkling wines as winemakers are able.

Another common method of creating sparkling wines is to simply add carbonation to the wine. This is the simplest method, and is often employed in the newer sparkling wines hitting the markets.  

Regardless of the method used, you can be sure the product is delightful and ready to be enjoyed with your family and friends – even if it isn’t a special occasion!

What Winston and I want to know is when our wine is being released?  Of course it will be delicious, approachable, and sweet – just like us – but what would we call it? Until that day comes, Hallielujah will have to top your list of must drink wines at Brix & Columns Vineyards.

 

Structure: Not Just for Buildings!

Boy, oh boy, over Christmas, Mom and Dad went on a vacation, and the three of us boys had the adventure of a lifetime!  Ryland, Winston, and I invited Erin and her daughter Halla to stay with us for the two weeks our parents were gone, and it was like a constant party.  We ran, we played, we ate, and we napped. There were rules (but we broke them), there were early nights (but we refused to go to bed), there were new toys (but we destroyed them), and there was an attempted structured schedule (but we overruled it). It. Was. Glorious.

Then Mom and Dad came home and straightened us all back out. It turns out that pups like us need a little bit of structure in our lives. I was reading the front of Mom’s shirt when she was giving me a few extra cuddles today, and I realized that the tagline for our vineyard is “Wine with Structure”. That makes sense because the structure of our tasting room is a little hard to miss when you are driving up to visit us. Our building is one that announces itself with a classical elegance that is reminiscent of the Jeffersonian architecture that influences it. Or so I am told. Who the heck this Jefferson guy is, I may never know. I’m just a little boy still!

Structure in wine, though?  How does that work?

After reading a bit, I found out that the structure of wine is a little bit different than the structure of a building EXCEPT that without structure, both wines and buildings fall flat. In order to find the structure of your wine, you have to put the flavors aside, and, instead, notice the way the wine feels in your mouth and what sensations it brings about.

There are five components that make up a wine’s structure Each of these components brings different qualities to the overall product, so it is important that they are in proper balance. 

Acidity – The higher the level of acidity is in wine, the lighter and brighter the wine seems and the more your mouth waters. When tasting, you can determine the acidity of your wine by noticing if it creates a tingling sensation on the front and sides of your mouth; if it does, the wine is high in acidity. You might also notice a rough sensation when you rub the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth.

Alcohol – The body of a wine gives you clues about its alcohol content.  The fuller-bodied wine is, the more alcohol it likely has (and tannins and acidity, too).  Wines that are lower in alcohol feel lighter in your mouth. Beware, though, you don’t want to be able to taste or smell the alcohol in your glass.

Body – When you notice how heavy or light a wine feels in your mouth, you are noticing the body of the wine. A fuller-bodied wine will not only present more robustly in your mouth, but it will also have a noticeably longer lingering finish. When you encounter a wine that you want to describe as bold or powerful or assertive, you can be sure that you have met a wine that is full of body!

Sweetness – When you perceive the sugar present in wines, you are recognizing how sweet they are, but sometimes that perception can be influenced by the smell of sweetness in the wine. The acidity levels or presence of tannins can also make wines seem sweeter or drier. To accurately measure this component, use the very tip of your tongue to dip into the wine to detect sweetness without being influenced by the aromatics. When you are drinking wines on the sweeter end, you may also notice an oily sensation in the middle of your tongue.  

Tannins – If you have ever tasted a wine that made your mouth feel dry even after you swallowed, you can be sure that the wine was high in tannins. Tannins make their way into wine from the skins, seeds, and stems of the cluster, and they help to add color and ageability. Wines that are lower in tannins present as softer and rounder when you drink them. Tannins will make their presence known by creating a bitter taste on the front and sides of the tongue. 

I know you already have a lot to think about when tasting wines, so just start while you are drinking a glass of your favorite wine. Notice the different sensations the wine is causing in the different locations of your mouth. By recognizing the structural elements of your favorite wines, you can start to fine tune your sense of what characteristics you are seeking when on the hunt for your new favorite bottle. . 

After reading all of this it seems like structure is important for buildings, wine, and puppies; I guess Dad was onto something when he came up with our tagline!