05
Meet Virginia
Posted by | Posted in Wine Reviews | Posted on 07-05-2012
The 2012 Gold Medal Lineup
Living in Washington DC, I hear a lot of talk about Virginia wine. Generally, people have positive things to say about their visits to Virginia wine country, if not always about the wines themselves. I’ve attended a few Virginia wine festivals and visited some vineyards myself. It has always been a fun experience, but the wines are rarely memorable.
So I was excited when I was offered the opportunity to taste through the entire lineup of the 2012 Virginia Governor’s Cup gold medal winning wines — the cream of the Virginia crop. The contest has occurred almost every year since 1982, and this year Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell announced a number of enhancements, meant to “make it one of the most stringent and thorough wine competitions in the United States.”
Judging was led by DC’s only Master of Wine, Jay Youmans, and he recruited a number of other well-qualified colleagues to join his team. Although I was a little concerned that some top-tier vineyards — including Barboursville, Linden, and RdV — were absent from the winner’s circle, I decided the judges must have identified some good up-and-coming wineries to tout instead.
Two Saturdays ago, a group of tasters gathered for the tasting at Weygandt Wines. Of the twelve of us who started, only three managed to struggle through the entire gold medal-winning lineup. Our tongues were purple. Our palates were dead. We were exhausted.
As we revived ourselves with a bottle of 1999 Domaine Pierre de la Grange (Luneau-Papin) Muscadet, we reflected on the wines. While there was no real standout of the night, the 2008 Trump Winery Blanc de Blancs Kluge SP emerged as the overall favorite, and tasted on par with some mid-range Cavas. The wines from Veritas, King Family Vineyards, and Glen Manor also showed well, and my favorite red of the night was the 2007 Delfosse Vineyards and Winery Meritage, which had better balance than most, and showed notes of cherries, raspberries, and cocoa.
Mostly though, the group was frustrated by the lineup. How could the 2010 Tarara Winery Voignier Honah Lee, an alcohol bomb at 15.5% that smelled like a papaya smoothie, win a gold medal, while the 2008 Linden Chardonnay Hardscrabble, by far the best Virginia wine of the night (brought in as a ringer by two of our tasters) only win silver? The majority of the wines had high alcohol and were over-extracted, and many of the reds had a cloying fruity characteristic that one taster described as “purple drank.”
Adding to our frustration was the cost. The gold medal winners were priced between $26 and $75 a bottle, and we all agreed that the ratio of price to quality was poor.
That said, there is a silver lining: in spite of the high prices in Virginia, every person at the tasting had previously traveled to Virginia wine country and purchased wine. And given that we all gave up our Saturday afternoons to attend this tasting, it’s reasonable to conclude that we all wanted to like Virginia wine, despite its shortcomings.
Were we a room full of Muscadet-loving dreamers and hypocrites?
Maybe (probably). But we also started to understand the real success of the Virginia wine industry. While it struggles to cement its status as a quality wine producing region, it shines as a great tourist destination. Who knows — maybe we would have enjoyed the Tarara Viognier as much as Jay Youmans did if we had sipped it at the winery in Leesburg, VA.
The quality of Virginia wine has a long way to go before it catches up with Oregon, Washington, and New York. However, the state is clearly willing to invest significant resources in its wine industry, with expenditures rising from $57 million in 2005 to $131 million in 2010. The investment appears to be paying off. Its wineries have started to attract world-class talent from the west coast and Europe, and the number of wineries in Virginia has increased dramatically from 129 in 2005 to 210 in 2011.
As Virginia wine country continues to improve its infrastructure, its wines will also improve, and eventually the price-quality ratio should become more favorable to the consumer. Until then, we should choose our Virginia wines carefully. Bear in mind that many Virginia competitions (like the Governor’s Cup) are often more about brand or regional promotion than quality recognition.
Seriously consider making a trip to taste Virginia’s wines at the source, rather than in your home or local bar. A visit to wine country adds major value to the experience, and can make the difference between an enjoyable tasting and a disappointing one.
When deciding where to go or what to buy, don’t rely on gold medals. Instead, ask your local wine merchant or search the internet to identify vineyards that cater to the quality-minded drinker rather than to the party-bus tourist. My own suggestions would be Linden, Barboursville, Glen Manor, and Chrysalis.
There are also a number of great festivals. These are low-risk, since there are so many wineries that participate, and there is a lot of country fun to be had. Look, here I am at the 2010 Long Branch Wine Festival driving a pumpkin!
Sarah driving a pumpkin
I’ll leave you with a little ditty that I made up when I was writing this article. It’s to the tune of Train’s 1999 pop hit, Meet Virginia:
Grapes are ripe to excess
Labels are often a mess
If they chaptalize, they don’t confess
But Virginia wine country is beautiful…
Comments, please!
Unfortunately, these types of state-run competitions are rarely reliable when it comes to identifying a state’s best wines. I honestly don’t have an explanation for it, but the same if often true in New York where a off-dry sparkling riesling or hybrid is just as likely (more?) to win than a top riesling from the Finger Lakes or a merlot from Long Island.
I think part of it is that many judges, even extremely knowledgeable ones, go for showy wines in these settings. That and/or they grew up with certain California wines serving as their models for quality.
Maybe they just REALLY like papaya smoothies?
As to the price issue — that’s a slippery discussion. If they can get $X for a wine, it’s hard to fault them for not LOWERING the price to match what we think it’s worth. For us a wine may be over-priced but if someone is in a tasting room (the tourism angle!) and the like that $75 blend, they may find it to be a good deal for them, on that day, in that situation.
Your list is a good one, but especially if we’re talking price-to-value, you should include Boxwood Winery, which really over-delivers.
“maybe we would have enjoyed the Tarara Viognier as much as Jay Youmans did if we had sipped it at the winery in Leesburg, VA”
I call that “the tasting room effect”. I estimate it’s usually good for an extra 5 points in the score.
Not just the tasting room effect, but also being face to face with the winemaker makes a difference too. You factor in having met the person who made it and what they’ve said about it. Even if you’re not crazy about it, you have more appreciation for the effort.
State wine competitions are completely bogus as a rule. I think there are exceptions, but my personal experience is that the more medals a California wine has won, the less I am likely to enjoy it. And some statistical analysis shows that there is no correlation between quality and winning medals (e.g. http://www.wine-economics.org/journal/content/Volume4/number1/Full%20Texts/1_wine%20economics_vol%204_1_Robert%20Hodgson.pdf) <– 130k PDF
Echoing Lenn’s point: they need to decide if they want to price wines as part of a tourism experience, or price wines to sell wine. I think in many cases in non-“Big 4” states, the destination is the primary product, the tasting fee is the revenue generator, and bottle sales are an ancillary revenue stream.
Indeed, we do have to remember that many of these wines are estate grown and produced, many sit in French oak barrels, and many are working with the economies of scale that come with relatively small production. So, to be viable, the prices HAVE to be higher. But- for any reason other than supporting local- why would I pay $50 for Virginia Petit Verdot when I can get a very nice bottle from Europe for the same price (or less)? It’s an uphill battle, for sure.
Lenn and Alder, I totally agree. The more medals on the wine, the more likely I am to avoid a wine.
Does anyone know: are some state competitions known to be more likely than others to award prizes to quality wine (as opposed to whatever the state decided to promote that year)?
A big part of the problem in CA is that only wineries “on the make” enter these competitions. If the wine is great, and has any track record, why risk getting a bronze medal from a panel made up of distributor salesmen?
Sarah Interesting piece. There’s much that I agree with, including the thought that medals in wine competitions are frequently meaningless. In some competitions, virtually everyone gets some sort of medal and in many the qualifications of the judges can make your eyes roll. But I’m not sure either of those is correct for this year’s Virginia competition. If you take a look at the list of judges, you’ll see not just Jay Youmans MW, but a total of 4 MWs…Kathy Morgan MS and an absolute “who’s who” of DC area sommeliers…and the top wine critics and wine educators in the area. I’m not sure you could put together a more credible group around here. Whether the list they assembled is in fact the best, I’ll leave as a matter of judgment…but I was interested in the results because the list was published about the time I decided to investigate Virginia wine in some depth. I’ve traveled to ~30 wine regions around the country and around the world but had never paid much attention to the wine in my home state–so I spent much of the month of May visiting ~50 Virginia wineries and tasting their portfolios. In some cases, I found just what you described: lovely places with gorgeous views and wine that was pleasant and enjoyable to drink in that setting. In too many cases, I found wine that was (for me) undrinkable. I had a sense that some of the now more than 200 Virginia wineries must have been born in a moment of “Wouldn’t it be cool to own a winery.” But–and here’s why I’m writing–I did find some serious wineries making good wine…wine that passed the “take it home test” (because as you and others pointed out the lovely setting can influence judgment). I served some of the better ones to tasting groups and tasting dinners…no one bowed in reverence or wonder, but responses tended to be along the “this is good” and “I’m surprised…I would buy this” line. The Linden Hardscrabble Chardonnay you cited was one. The challenge from my perspective is that it’s a relatively small percentage of Virginia wineries that produce this kind of quality. That’s not really surprising–in many challenging climate wine regions the percentage of producers who are making really good wine is relatively small. For example, Bordeaux has ~3000 producers…how many really make good wine? 250? In a good vintage, maybe 400? Germany has ~6000 producers. I’ve lived there. A lot of that wine is pretty pedestrian. Making good wine is hard here and it’s hard there. The difference is that they have history and ways to provide clues as to who the good producers are…we don’t yet have that in Virginia. I had to kiss a lot of frogs to find some princesses. But I did find some. And they won me over as a supporter. I certainly won’t stop buying from the classic regions–but I have added some Virginia wine to the cellar. I make no claim to having a comprehensive list as to who the quality producers are, but those that you named would be on my list: Linden, Barboursville, RdV, Glen Manor…Boxwood, which someone else mentioned…Veritas, King Family and Keswick. And there are others. But it’s not hundreds of others…probably not even dozens of others. Apologize for writing so much, but after spending a lot of time on the subject, I believe there is good wine in Virginia–and want to speak out on behalf of those who are working so hard to make it because I think there’s some danger that they’ll get lost among those who won’t or can’t.
“Purple drank”! That has to be a Brettism. And I agree with your assessment of the wines tasted. A few were drinkable and most were not very good. It is too bad some others were not included, like the ones mentioned–Linden, Barboursville, etc. But pricing has always been my biggest issue. Why would I spend $25-$50 on a Cab Franc from VA if I can get a superior option for $15-$20 from the Loire Valley? Same goes for Chardonnay–VA vs the Macon or Chablis. Sauvignon Blanc? VA vs Touraine or Alto Adige. I can go on and on. And $75? I can buy 1er Cru Burgs, Grand Cru Chablis, Ridge Monte Bello, vintage Champagne, Gaja, Rhys, Clos Rougeard, Mags of Foillard or Lapierre, FX Pichler–shall I continue? I’d gladly discuss whether there is wine from VA right now that can come close to any listed above.
I think Tim hits the nail on the head – VA probably needs more capital expenditure to get their wines up to a qualitative level to compete with international staples. However, that tends to push prices well outside of competition, making the situation really challenging. These wineries will need to sell on romanticism, with visitors buying bottles to commemorate great trips, but they won’t win on shelves unless they’re subsidized to a point where the training wheels can come off.
Sarah, Tim, Bob, and others..
I read your comments and felt I should respond.
First off, I ran the Virginia Governors Cup, but was not one of the judges. The judges were sommeliers, retailers, and wine writers, both local and imported. All the wines were tasted blind, at a neutral site, and not at the winery. This was a group that knows wine quality. Also, most of the winning wines are priced $20-40, not $75.
I would agree that Barboursville, Linden, Boxwood, etc are all making outstanding wines. The Linden Hardscrabble Chardonnay is a great wine. Receiving a Silver medal in the competition does not dimmish that fact. It is important to note the RdV did not submit a wine. If they had, I am confident it would have done well.
Yes, the Tarara Honah Lee white is rich, alcoholic, and off dry. It may not be your style of wine, but the quality is outstanding. Next time, don’t try it after a tart, austere Muscadet.
Jay Youmans
I would like to thank everyone who has chimed in, particularly Jay, since his input is uniquely valuable to this conversation.
The tasting, the post, and the resulting discussion have truly been educational, and I am very grateful for that. Keep it coming!
I have some questions for Jay:
1. Based on your final statement or rather conjuncture about the tasting order, do you feel as though large blind tastings of the nature of your competition create a skew towards a homogenized center? I tasted these wines not blind and palate fatigue saw my likings of the wine to move to the least offensive, i.e. a personally subjective center. Just look at what Jay Miller did to Spain as a reference for what I am talking about. Also, the Virginia wines were tasted first and the French wines after. Surprisingly that Pepiere and Baudry cut through on my palate, which was a delight to me and not the other way around.
2. Since you are a MW of wine, let’s suppose I walk into your home, restaurant, whatever hypothetical scenario you would like and say “Hey, I love world class wines.” Would you honestly sell or recommend me a Virginia wine over any other region in the world? What if I said I like “harmony, lithe power and minerality?”
3. Since so many sommeliers took part, I am curious about the ability to pair these wines with food. Naturally, based on my obviously apparent bias that I wholeheartedly accept and present since it divulges my subjective tastes; I prefer not to taste wines in a large setting but at the table. Now, I am not a big red meat eater so that is another bias. But I could not see any obvious food pairings other than rustic meat dishes. Which I guess a somm could concoct a nice story about how this boar and wine come from the same idyllic Virginia countryside and for a certain customer that would be a picture perfect. Next, I think about how top restaurants love Chef tasting menus. Where but other than the back end of such a menu would Virginia wines go (unless they were all VA wines)? Also, do you think a highly technical pairing of a dish with a Virginia wine is possible as it is with a fine wine from Burgundy, Piemonte or Germany? If so, what is one that you have done in the past?
4. I understand that this tasting is for the benefit of Virginia wines, industry and economy. I understand that Virginia wineries benefit the economy in several ways while also preserving natural farmlands from other commercial and private enterprises. Would you say that the purpose of these tastings is first and foremost, to create interest in a consumer base for Virginia wines?
5. The reality in my mind is that Virginia is a difficult place to grow grapes. In that sense, should we really reward wineries that try to eek out homogenized wines for a consumer base from grapes unsuited for their terroir? Or should we reward wineries that use hybrids and lesser-known varietals to create wines that can be naturally and this is important, sustainably grown in Virginia? I have tasted enough Gros Manseng to know that the one we tasted was not correct for its variety. I guess I will keep on drinking like the Founders of this country, my Virginia cider since nowhere do apples grow like in Virginia! Nature’s reality doesn’t change much, only our human desire to force it to our will.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Jay a few times at the shop and have attended a wine dinner/tasting he conducted on wines of the Alentejo at the Portuguese Embassy. With that in mind, I’ll list my biases: I like Jay–he’s a terrific and knowledgeable guy, easy and fun to talk to about anything wine related (and probably anything else–just haven’t had the opportunity). I have an old world palate. I feel that VA wines are overpriced. I tend to scoff at most wines that I feel do not express terroir adequately.
And my biases aside, I do not know what terroir can be expressed from VA wines. That in itself is a problem–partly mine for not tasting more, partly winemakers of VA for seemingly not making this a priority. Maybe I am wrong about this and need to pay better attention. And maybe this is only important to me–I don’t think so, but it could be…
With all of this being said, Jay, it’s good information to know you were not on the tasting panel. Again, my issue, especially as a retailer but also as a consumer is about value. I will not argue that there are not good wines that are being made–rather that there is not a clear cut, competitively priced wine from VA that can be compared equally or favorably to one from another region for the same $. My biases listed above took care of the wines we tasted–they were in a tough position as soon as I saw the prices.
I agree with Warren that VA is a terribly difficult place to grow grapes. I’d further that by saying that many of the varietals that have come to be stables of VA wineries may not have a chance of expressing “typical” characteristics because of the heat and humidity. So at some point, something has to give or we’re going to have this discussion for a very long time: my palate has to change towards one that accepts and enjoys riper, more forward examples of varietals I have come to expect certain typicity from or the wines have to change–whether from variety or vinification or both. Since I don’t see either of those changes occurring anytime soon, the final option for me is this: accept that there are well made wines from VA that I don’t have a particular interest in purchasing. And that is what I have settled on for quite some time now.
Great discussion, and great article Sarah. Thanks for helping organize this tasting. I was at this tasting and wrote up my own report on the wines. Jay, thanks for chiming in. I just wanted to say that the Tarara Honah Lee was tasted at the beginning of the tasting, and not after the muscadet. I am a big fan of VA viognier, and I’ve tasted dozens of really good ones. The Honah Lee was simply not one of them. I have no problem with high alcohol wines, but I can’t remember the last time I tasted such an unbalanced wine.
Warren,
Wow, quite a list. Let me answer your questions in turn.
1) All tastings done on this scale, involving multiple judges, tend to create an average, or homogenized center. This is hard to avoid. Regarding your palate fatigue, let me ask you: do you like wines from California and Australia, or are you strictly an Old World drinker? Thanks for setting me straight on the tasting order. I will reframe from commenting on Jay Miller’s impact on Spain.
2) I am not sure I would recommend any wine to you without knowing more about your preferences and experience. But, yes, I can list 20-30 wines from Virginia that I would recommend. I would ask that you let me present them to you blind among wines from around the world. I too love “harmony, lithe power and minerality”, but I have an appreciation for other styles of wines as well. And there is the difference, you are commenting on your personal preferences for one style of wine, while I am discussing the quality of another style.
3) Regarding the affinity for food, it depends on the menu. Since you are not a meat eater, what you drink with a classified growth Bordeaux? Assuming you like Bordeaux, would you have grilled eggplant, mushroom risotto? I would argue that Virginia offers plenty of suitable alternatives – if you know where to look. I would also add that wild boar is often the suggested dish for many Nebbiolo based wines from Piemonte. The high tannin, high acid wines from this grape are much trickier to match with most than most of the wines from Virginia. You will get no argument from me on Germany or Burgundy regarding food affinity, but, again, it depends on the dish.
4) I would say that the primary objective of the Virginia Governor’s Cup Wine Competition is to assess the quality of the wines and to identify the top 12 wines. The wines were judged using the same methodology as the most notable wine publications, using the 100 scale. No punches were pulled. Does this create consumer interest? Perhaps. One goal is to try and change the opinions of people judge a wine by its origin and label.
5) Virginia is difficult place to grow grapes; so is Burgundy and Bordeaux. They are still figuring out their terroir. Burgundy has had 2000 years. Should they focus on Hybrids? No, the market has been already tried that. Should they continue to try lesser-known grapes? Absolutely. Regarding the Gros Manseng you tried, I am not sure which wine you are referring to. Let me close by saying that the producers in Virginia are not trying to force their will upon nature any more than winegrowers in France. The Haut-Medoc in Bordeaux would not exist if the Dutch had not drained it. Virginia producers are simply on a long path to figuring it out.
5. The reality in my mind is that Virginia is a difficult place to grow grapes. In that sense, should we really reward wineries that try to eek out homogenized wines for a consumer base from grapes unsuited for their terroir? Or should we reward wineries that use hybrids and lesser-known varietals to create wines that can be naturally and this is important, sustainably grown in Virginia? I have tasted enough Gros Manseng to know that the one we tasted was not correct for its variety. I guess I will keep on drinking like the Founders of this country, my Virginia cider since nowhere do apples grow like in Virginia! Nature’s reality doesn’t change much, only our human desire to force it to our will.
Tim,
thanks for the kind words. I just want emphasize that while I was not a judge, I feel we came up with a good selection of wines.
While I agree with you regarding the price of most Virginia wines; I disagree regarding the their lack of terroir. Having a great deal of experience with blind tastings, I can tell you that Virginia has as much, or more, terroir as any other new world wine region.
Your expectations regarding “typicity” are based on the classic styles of wine you sell from France, Italy, Austria, and Germany. Typicity comes only with time and a track record. Virginia has a way to go before this term can be applied.
Do me a favor, next time you guys do a comparative tasting with Virginia wines, do it blind. Insert some wines from California, Chile, South Africa. Then tell me what you think. Thanks…
I just got around to reading through these comments. Wow – what a great discussion! Kudos, Sarah, for the article, and everyone else for the participation.
Jay: I have done a non-blind comparative tasting of RdV versus Cab-based blends from BDX, Napa and Chile, and it very much belonged in their company. But, of course, it is expensive, representing one of Tim’s main problems with VA wine. On that note:
Tim: my biggest question after reading through this whole thread is – where in the hell can you buy Ridge Monte Bello for $75?