A Trip To Charlottesville Virginia: The Must-Visit Winery List

As a follow up to my post on Virginia wines, I promised to give an overview of the wineries that I visited. This post will focus on the 6 I hit in the Monticello/Central Virginia area. All were good, but some were outstanding. Below I described my top picks in detail and then addressed the others in more general terms.

I hope this gives you an idea of what this area has to offer. As I said before, I think it's a pretty awesome place. To set your expectations, the alcohol levels are lower and the wines much less fruity than other wines from the US -- expect a more European flare here.

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Barboursville Vineyards

Founded in 1976 by Gianni Zonin, 6th generation winemaker from the northeast part of Italy (Zonin is a massive company in Italy, BTW), this was one of the first wineries established by the new generation of Virginia winemakers. 

 

Although everyone told the guy to plant tobacco and not grapes, Gianni followed his gut and 36 years later, Barboursville, which is north of Charlottesville, is at the top of my list. 

There's something to be said for experience. The wines are refined, elegant, and just plain fabulous. Barboursville is the biggest winery in the area with 900 acres of vineyards at various elevations. What does this mean? They have a lot of land and different terroir to work with so they can work with the land to grow the best grapes on the best sites.

The first thing I noticed when we drove up, total dork that I am, was the very sophisticated and intricate trellising system in the vineyard (how the vines are attached to wire so the grapes don't grow in a bush, maximizing sunlight and minimizing humidity and wetness that can cause rot). It was easy to see the maze of wires since the vines were dormant for winter and had no leaves. Apparently Luca Paschina, the winemaker, immediately changed the trellising when he first came to the winery in 1990. His hunch was that this would lead to a dramatic quality improvement. I don't know what the wines were like before, but I can tell you that they are doing something right and this trellising didn't look simple, so it may be one of the keys.

Another big plus for Barboursville -- Ginger, the woman who helped us -- was a total normal wine person. She was  knowledgeable and slightly dorky too -- I loved it! I learned a lot about the wine and the winery because she was so passionate and smart. A great experience all around.

Here were the highlights of the tasting (almost everything was a highlight, except the Barbera, which I didn't review because it was just released and didn't show any character yet)

Brut Nonvintage Sparkling Wine, 

12.5% Alcohol, $17.99
95% Pinot Noir, 5% Chardonnay, this was a nice start. It smelled and tasted like pear, apple, and flowers and had low acid and a very light spritz (it had been open for a few hours so the wine had lost much of its spunk). Not sure if they'll be making this in the future, since they ripped up all the Pinot Noir on the estate because this is NOT a place that's cool enough to grow Pinot Noir, so get it while it's available!

2010 Pinot Grigio

12.5% Alcohol, $14.99

A nice mineral smell with something that resembled herbal tea -- like chamomile or Earl Grey. The wine tasted like the zest of a lemon, herbs (lemongrass, maybe?), red apple, and like how a waterfall smells. It had awesome, strong acidity. This was excellent and better than most Italian Pinot Grigios. Total score.

2010 Chardonnay 

12.5% Alcohol, $11.99

This wine is their "naked" version -- no oak aging and no malo-lactic fermentation, which makes a wine feel creamy. The wine smelled so clean -- like pears, apples, and surprisingly like raspberries. It was fresh. I wasn't crazy about the taste -- it seemed a little musty or dusty. It had great mouthwatering acid and green apple flavors, but it didn't taste bright or fruity. Not a favorite for me.

2010 Chardonnay Reserve

13% Alcohol, $14.99

This wine also doesn't go through malo-lactic fermentation, but it's stored in a little used oak (they use the barrels a few times before they put the wine it in so the barrel imparts less oak flavor). 

The wine smelled like thyme and basil, but there was a distinct vanilla smell and also something that was like the sweet paste inside an almond croissant. The wine tasted like oak. It was like a pineapple lollipop or Lifesaver and a little like coconut (American oak can sometimes make wine taste like coconut and that's what they used here). It had substance and was good, but it was a little too tropical for my style. If you like oak but want a wine that has it in moderation, this is a great one.

2010 Viognier

13.2% Alcohol, $21.99

This wine was a lot greener and more golden than the previous whites -- Viognier tends to be darker and richer in color.  

Man, did this smell good. It reminded me of peaches and a honeycomb -- with a little twang of outdoor/fresh laundry smell to it. The aroma was like a lemon cookie and dried apricots. Yum. A sip of this and I could see why Viognier is a big grape in this area -- this was unlike other Viognier I've had. It tasted like peach and honeysuckle, which is totally normal for this grape, but then it had this white pepper, grassy thing going on that surprised me. It was lush AND spicy. My favorite white from here. Really something special.

2008 Nebbiolo

13.5% Alcohol, $31.99

This was so strange to see on the menu -- clearly the Italian influence! 

Nebbiolo is the great grape of the Piemonte region in Northwest Italy. It makes the famous wines of Barolo and Barbaresco and really doesn't grow well anywhere else...except, apparently in Virginia!

The wine was orange and had some brown, amber color to it. Nebbiolo tends to show its age and this was a sign of it. The wine smelled almost like a Chianti to me -- it was rustic and earthy and like an orange peel. But, oh the taste! First, it was like rose petals and a little bit of mint. Then it was totally typical for Nebbiolo -- it tasted like tobacco and tar (no, I don't know what that tastes like but it tastes like what tar smells like when it's warmed up on a hot day). It was like cherries and it had strong mouthdrying tannin. The thing is, nothing overpowered anything -- it all came together so well and was so tasty. I've never had a Nebbiolo like this one before. It's not like the Italian version, but I love it just the same!

2009 Cabernet Franc 

13% Alcohol, $22.99
Another of this area's marquee grapes, this wine was a pretty ruby color and smelled very European (ie, dirty!). It was like green pepper, earth, rose petals, and decayed leaves with a little bit of vanilla. That's so typical of Cabernet Franc -- it had these really nice low notes that make you think of being outside or camping. It tasted like vanilla, plums, and a little like a carnation. It had long lasting tannins that I chewed on after the wine left my mouth, but it also had nice acidity so the wine wasn't cloying. Great.

Octagon, 2007 (their Bordeaux blend)

13.5% Alcohol, $39.99
A blend of (45%) Merlot with Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot, the wine was a little brownish, had some sediment (little flakes from chemicals recombining) and kind of thick legs (the things that drip down the glass and indicate alcohol or sugar in the wine). Because this is Barboursville's flagship, and because Cabernet Sauvignon doesn't grow particularly well in these parts, this wine is only made in the best years. Only 10 vintages have ever been made in the 30+ year history of the winery.

Could have fooled me in a tasting -- this wine smells like a Bordeaux! It was earthy -- like decaying leaves and wet soil -- with a green pepper and violet smell too. I'm glad I wasn't tasting this blind. The wine tasted like it smelled -- earth, green pepper plus a little bit of vanilla oak and it had great tannin and acid. Again, the word that came to mind was balance. This was a medium wine but everything was in harmony. Fabulous. 

In summary -- this is a must visit in the area. Barboursville is excellent and a great sign of what Charlottesville/Monticello has to offer.

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 King Family Vineyards

This time the winemaker is also European, but from the Rhône Valley in Southern France. The winery is combined with a polo field, since the Kings, who are originally from Houston, Texas decided to blend their two passions -- wine and horses. They set up shop in 1998 and have been making wine since. 

Fortunately, the polo thing hasn't detracted from the wines -- their French winemaker, Matthieu Finot who is from the Rhône and trained in Burgundy, has seen to that. This was another hit parade -- with great wine after great wine. Shawn, our very smart and informative guide through the wines, was super professional and helpful -- this place was a class act.  Here are the wines:

2010 Viognier

13.5% Alcohol, $24.95

This wine was a pale straw with some golden notes and smelled like lemon, honeysuckle, and honeydew melon. The wine tasted just like it smelled but had great mouthwatering acid, which is not always the case with Viognier. Very well made wine and super fruity. Great porch sipper.

2010 Chardonnay

13% Alcohol, $21.95

The wine had all the trappings of a California Chard -- it went through malo-lactic fermentation, 25% of it was in new French oak barrels (means more oaky taste), and it was creeping up on the higher side for  alcohol. It looked dark from the oak -- it was golden and almost like honey. But the smell was super fresh -- like lemon, pineapple and tropical fruit and then some mild wood smell. I was surprised by this wine. It was so fresh. It tasted like honeyed lemon or lemon herb tea with a little vanilla and tropical flavor and great acid. So different from California because it had a much lighter touch and was more refreshing than most of those wines. A great balance, this is an oaked Chardonnay I'd love to drink.

2010 Cabernet Franc

13.4% Alcohol, $22.95

Dark crimson in the center and then kind of pinkish on the rim. This was a higher alcohol wine for this area, and you could see it on the glass -- the legs took forever to drip down. Surprisingly, this didn't smell like earth -- which is what most Cabernet Franc smells like to me. It was more like ripe raspberries, strawberries, and red cherries. But the aroma was deceptive. The wine tasted more floral and earthy, and had some really great tannin to dry out my mouth after it went down. 

This was a good wine, but I think it needs some time to mellow -- it's a little strong and screaming. I bought some and I'm looking forward to trying it again in a year or two.

2009 Meritage (Bordeaux Blend, pronounced merit-IGE)

14% Alcohol, $27.95
'm going to beat a dead horse on this, since I say it all the time. Meritage is word that Americans made up when they were no longer allowed to call something a Bordeaux Blend. It's a combo of two words -- Merit + Heritage. Unless you say Herit-ahhhhje, you need to pronounce this Meritage -- like Heritage with an M. This wine was 52% Merlot, 20% each of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, and 8% Malbec. Per my earlier comment, Cabernet Sauvignon can't get the heat it needs to ripen here so it's not used too often.

This was a BIG wine. Thick legs from the alcohol took on some color from the plummy skins of the grapes used. The wine smelled like earth, potting soil, plums, and then mocha, tobacco and cedar from the oak aging. Damn this was good. It tasted like cranberries, earth, violets, and cedar with a little pencil-like flavor to it (yes, I chew on pencils so I actually know this to be the case!). Excellent.

2009 Petit Verdot 

14.4% Alcohol, $34.95

I'm not a big proponent of making wines from Petit Verdot alone. I think this grape always makes wines that taste like plant stems and they are too tannic. Some grapes are better as blenders, and I think Petit Verdot is one of them. However, folks in Monticello disagree with me -- lots of them make this grape as a standalone.

To even make it drinkable, King Family has to age this wine for 20 months in an oak barrel to calm the tannins. Then they mix Petit Verdot with 20% Merlot. Still, the wine smelled like green stems and cocoa powder to me. It had vanilla scents from the oak but I was worried this was not going to be my style. This was my least favorite of their line -- it was like prunes, black raspberries, and vanilla and then it was very tannic, a little stinky like mud and had that green stem flavor to it. Although it was well made, I just didn't like the flavors. Less to do with the wine and more to do with my dislike for the grape.

2010 Lorely Late Harvest, Vin de Paille (straw wine, grapes are dried on straw mats or on racks to achieve a concentrated sugar flavor)

13.5% alcohol, 10% sugar, $24.95

The wine is 50% Viognier and 50% Petit Manseng (a grape native to Southwest France and usually used for late harvest/sweet wines). It smelled and tasted like honeysuckle, peaches, and apricots. It had lower acid and was kind of mild, albeit sweet but very balanced. Would have been great with goat cheese. Very delicious.

King Family also makes a Port style wine from Merlot. To me, it was like milk chocolate and stewed cherries. Was not a favorite, but that was the only one that I wasn't into and didn't think was very well made since the sugar and tannins were out of balance to me.

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Pollak Vineyards

Founded in 2003 by David Pollak and wife Margo, this wasn't their first rodeo. David had some experience with building wineries in Carneros, in southern Sonoma/Napa and he and Margo bought 98 acres of which 27 are planted with grapes. It's a cute tasting room -- great windows look out on the vineyard and it had a nice relaxed vibe, and great wines. It was the end of our day, so I told me to pour their best lineup. Here it is..

2010 Chardonnay

13% Alcohol, $19

This wine is put only in old oak, so it had a mild oak flavor and only 5% of it is put through malo-lactic fermentation, so it wasn't overly creamy. Kind of golden-green in color, this wine wasn't darkened by oak, like a lot of Chardonnays. That said, it did smell like oak and the things that accompany it -- vanilla and caramel. It was also green appley, like pineapples and tropical stuff and floral. With powerful acid, it was a little sharp and like a green apple or green herbs. It wasn't quite austere, but it definitely made my mouth water.  Really well-balanced. A great porch wine.

2009 Merlot

13.5% Alcohol, $20

100% Merlot , which is something we didn't see too much of in other wineries, I was excited to see if this was better than a lot of the California versions, which I usually find kind of watered down.

The wine was blood red with thick legs from the alcohol and it held its color to the rim -- it was really pigmented. I could definitely smell the fact that 50% of the wine logged (pun intended) some time in new French oak -- new barrels give off a lot of flavor/aroma and this wine smelled like oak and toast, along with cranberry, cherry, and plum. The wine tasted like cranberry and cherry and it was both acidic and tannic. It was a little oaky but it also tasted like earth or dried dirt, which I really liked. It was a balanced wine -- not too fruity and not too restrained. Great Merlot.

2009 Cabernet Franc

Alcohol 13%, $20

Kind of crimson, and lighter than the Merlot (which I'd expect -- that's usually true), the wine smelled earthy and like damp soil. It also had a really nice fresh and dried cherry thing going on which was delicious. Cabernet Franc sometimes can taste a little like a green pepper (as can Cabernet Sauvignon, its love child with Sauvignon Blanc) and this was true to form. It was very spicy -- like black pepper but also like baking spices -- cinnamon and nutmeg. The wine was medium in acid and tannin and was really pleasant. It reminded me a lot of a Cabernet Franc from the Loire -- a Chinon or a St Nicolas de Bourgueil (look for these if you haven't had them, they're great). Fabulous wine.

2009 Meritage

Alcohol 13.5%, $25

This was Meritage was 44% Cabernet Franc, 43% Merlot and 13% Petit Verdot. The wine was a red cherry color and smelled like cinnamon, green pepper, black cherry and cola. It had a spearmint note to it that was really nice. The wine didn't really taste like what it smelled like. It was almost like a cookie. It had vanilla, brown sugar, and caramel notes from the 17 months it spent in oak and then a little black cherry and cranberry flavors. The tannins were very high -- this could probably use a little more time to mellow out in the bottle. Although not my favorite, this was a solid, well-made wine.

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Veritas

Veritas has a nice story -- a dad and daughter are the winemaking team and it's totally family run. They have a beautiful venue -- it used to be a cattle and horse ranch, so lots of land and sweeping vistas. I also liked that they do a few sparkling wines. Something really different for this area, although I wasn't all that into their Scintilla (a 80% Chardonnay- 20% Cabernet Franc sparkler) or their Mouseeux (the revers of the Scintilla -- 80% Cabernet Franc - 20% Chardonnay). 

My favorite of Veritas was another one you don't see a lot of in Charlottesville -- their Sauvignon Blanc. Grown at a higher altitude to keep the grapes cool, this wine was like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc -- it tasted of grapefruit, grass, tropical fruit, and green herbs. My only criticism - it was a tiny bit sweet, but not enough to kill the lovely fruit. 

Their Merlot was also a very good wine (although I think a little too oaky -- it tasted a bit charred or like burnt toast alongside the great fruit).  Their Vintner's Reserve, a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Sauvignon was also quite good -- it smelled like incense and tasted like zesty barbecue sauce, with a hit of sweet spicy pepper, but it was slightly too tannic and the alcohol overshadowed the fruit a little bit. 

The last wine I had from Veritas was their Petit Verdot. Veritas does this grape right and I think it's the best example I've had of what Petit Verdot should taste like. They did a great job with managing this tough grape and it's a rich wine, but very representative. 

Definitely worth a visit. 

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Jefferson Vineyards

On lots of people's recommendations, we went to Jefferson Vineyards. Dan, the tasting room manager, was a really cool dude, but he has his hands full with the staff there. The woman who was helping us was beyond rude and I almost left before the tasting was over. Dan stepped in and took over after she tried to take MC Ice's glass away for the fourth time (he went out to the car to get something for 2 minutes) and I got really irritated. 

Apart from the crap experience and the fact that I learned next to nothing about the winery, the wines were pretty good. The Cabernet Franc was a nice, light sipper (it's blended with 10% Tannat, one of the most tannic grapes in the world and 6% Lemberger, a really light style German grape), the Petit Verdot was a little bitter but pretty good, and their off-dry Riesling was like a lemon sugar cookie with good acid to keep it light. I would recommend it, but only after you've hit my top 4! 

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Keswick Vineyards

We hit Keswick Vineyards as well. I have to say, it's a family run operation and the people couldn't have been kinder or more welcoming. It was crowded, but they still took time to help each person and explain their story to me and MC Ice. This was possibly the most hospitable of all the wineries and the most cozy/family oriented. Great people. 

That said, they've won a lot of awards for their wines, but I wasn't a fan of their style. Most of the wines were fine, but not at all memorable for me (without notes I couldn't tell you anything about them, which is not like me with my elephant's memory for wine!). The one exception was the Cabernet Franc, which was delicious -- with lots of dried leaf, forest floor, dark cherry aromas and flavors and a really lasting finish which made it sing. I hate to have to criticize them because I loved the people, I just didn't love the wine, and I gotta be honest.

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I hope that gives you a sense of the wines in the Charlottesville area. It's a beautiful place with lots to offer and some of the wines are spectacular. Even the ones I didn't like as much were still well-made, and much better than I had anticipated. It's an area to watch, for sure...and one to visit if you're anywhere nearby.