Winery Visit 2 - Quattro Goomba's Winery

My brother Kent outside the wine tasting room

Inside the tasting room

Last weekend I visited the Quattro Goomba's Winery and Brewery.  I'd heard about this place from a couple of other local vineyards in the area (Haymarket).  So my brother, his girlfriend and I went for a tour and tasting.  This place was pretty unique in that it doubled as a winery/brewery, and honestly the beer was pretty awesome.  Quattro Goomba's is named literally means four pals or buds.  The back story is these four guys from Jersey decided one day that they wanted to open a vineyard and I guess eventually a brewery and from the looks of it they've done a pretty good job.  Upon arriving the parking lot looked more like some sort of live country festival rather than a winery.  It was packed. Also I forgot to mention the fact that this place has a huge brick oven that they use to make pizzas, pretty awesome.   So we all went to the winery tasting room to kick off the tour.  This winery had a very different style and theme than the previous winery I visited.  There wasn't anything really special or remarkable about the place where we did our tastings.  The interior was nice, finished with hardwood floors and a welcoming cottage feel to it, but it definitely was not the main focus of the Quattro Goombas.  That aside it was pretty crowded and quite loud, something I'm not used to seeing at a winery.  The atmosphere was much, much more like a bar. Anyway these guys have been making wine for the last seven years so it seems they've definitely built up something of a reputation. They mainly grow Traminette, a white varietal, and Chambourcin.  These two grapes are pretty unique, actually I can't think of any varietal wines I've had that were made from either of the two. Like many other wineries the Goombas age their juice

GOOMBA

Myself and the tasting assistant

in stainless steel and oak.  They do most of their whites in stainless steel, but some is aged in oak.  They utilize American oak and French oak, and even do some bourbon barrel aging.  Again, like La Grange Quattro Goomba's Winery doesn't have an on site bottling facility.  They rely on a bottling truck that comes around on demand.  Since there are tons of small wineries popping up all around Northern Virginia I'm sure this is the preferred method of most wineries in the area.  Wine is an expensive business so anything to save a buck!  From the looks of their facility I wouldn't say these guys run a small business, being that they have a pizza kitchen, a brewery, and a winery.  But I was told that due to the cost of entering wine competitions, and the fact that because they're a small wine producer they have yet to compete.  I don't see this being an issue for too long however.  I get the feeling these guys are going to blow up in a good way, but not necessarily because of their wine. The weekend we visited was the fourth open house weekend for their brand new brewery.  It's so new they have yet to completely finish the building.  The beer was phenomenal though, I think I liked it more than wine! But I'll come back to that later.  Since this is a wine blog, more specifically a blog about the winery I should probably talk about the tastings.

It was so crowded at the bar/restauraunt portion we couldn't even get to see
the barrels up close!

• 2013 Piney River White: Made from a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Vidal Blanc, this is a light, clean, crisp white with a citrus finish. 
• I was immediately greeted with oak and pear.  The finish was a nice crisp apricot, slightly sweet as well.  Nothing too special
• 2012 Sorelle: Sorelle is Italian for "sisters" and is the named in honor of the DeCianno sisters, Jessica, Gina, and Becca and the Camden sisters Courtney and Lauren. This dry, fruity Riesling can be enjoyed throughout the year.
• Toilet bowl and fruit intertwined.  It's not too often you'll come across that duet!  This wine had nice notes of grapefruit and a good acidic backbone.  
• 2013 Vino Di Nonni: Vino Di Nonni, or "Grandfather's wine", is a family secret blend passed down to us through many generations of winemakers. We are bringing this old world Italian classic into the marketplace for you to enjoy once again. This vintage is a light-bodied, dry, fruity red wine that is smooth and easy to drink. This wine pairs well with salads, pizza, pasta, salmon, and chicken.
• I really enjoyed this one!  The nose on this wine reminded me of those butterscotch candies you see every once in a while.  Either that or a caramel.  There were also notes of light berries.  Nice finish, medium body.
• 2012 Tradizione: As Italians immigrated to America they brought with them many traditions. One of those was wine making. Our ancestors sought the best grapes and barrels America had to offer. Bourbon barrels were plentiful and necessity, availability, and ingenuity converged and our ancestors began aging their wine in these barrels. This unique wine is a bordeaux blend of Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. It is aged in bourbon barrels to create a sensational enhancement to the Quattro Goombas selection of fine wines. This wine pairs well with anything Italian!
• Great tannic structure on this wine!  On the nose I got very strong notes of vanilla and oak.  The finish was slightly bitter, but there was also some other flavor that kept appearing. 
• 2013 Curico: Curico is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and Syrah. This Chilean blend is earthy and spicy. Pairs well with pizza and anything off the grill.
• This was probably the most distinctive wine of the entire tasting.  If you've ever had 
peperoncino you know where I'm going with this.  It smelled like dirty peperoncino and earth.  Great mouthfeel with decent tannins.  The finish was definitely reminded me of drinking the peperoncino juice!
• 2013 Vino Dolce: A refreshing semi-sweet white wine with honey and apricot flavors. Perfect with Asian cuisine, light desserts and fresh fruit.
• Peach and apricot on the nose.  Decadent fruit cake with peach and apricot being the primary players.  Good balance of residual sugar and body.  Not the best dessert wine, but certainly not the worst.

  

  The unfinished barn/brewery.  The inside of this place was massive

My flight of beers range from light to dark obviously 

Now I've talked enough about the wine, lets get into the beer.  These guys made some amazing beer, and I'm not exaggerating.  Each beer was packed with flavor!  It was easily the best brew I've had all year.  My brother and I stumbled over to their brand new, nearly finished brew house to try a flight of beers.  While we were enjoying our suds we had a chance to talk to two of the owners from Quattro Goombas.  They were extremely straight forward and seemed very happy to be there, despite it being a Saturday.  We talked a lot about their business, and their plans to hopefully get some sort of local distribution of their beer.  I honestly think these guys have a chance to get pretty well known.  Their beer was fantastic, and as long as they don't sacrifice quality for quantity I think they're golden.  I would love to go back to their brewery when it gets a little warmer and spend a few hours eating some of their amazing stone oven pizza and awesome beer. So apparently I'm ending on a beer craze in a wine blog, but honestly you never know what you're going to stumble across when you go wine tasting in Northern Virginia.  It's such a hodge podge of people and entrepreneurial businesses.