The weekend of February 28th I had to make a visit home to Northern Virginia. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to visit some wineries and do some tastings in the area. So after consulting with my brother and his special friend (his girlfriend but he refuses to acknowledge that) we set out to The Winery at La Grange in Haymarket, Virginia. For anyone who decides to visit La Grange, you will not be let down. The staff is extremely attentive and helpful, the wine is great, and on a nice spring day it looks gorgeous. We had a great time and shared some fantastic wine together, however my only frustration was how expensive the wine was.
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| Entrance to The Winery at La Grange. Nice throw back to colonial styled homes |
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| Enjoying a glass of Cab Franc in the sunroom |
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The stainless steel vats
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The Winery at La Grange does not give tours, but their grounds are open to the public and their staff are more than willing to answer any questions you may have about their vineyards, history, grapes, etc. I was very pleased and felt right at home drinking a glass or two with a nice meal in their sun-room. La Grange starting producing wine back in 2006 and since then has received a number of awards which can be seen displayed across the wall as you walk into the restored 1790 manor house. My tasting assistant explained to me that La Grange plants three different varietals; Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Petit Manseng across eight acres of vineyards on the grounds. The wine is aged on site in either stainless steal vats or oak barrels. La Grange has some play over which style of Oak they want their wines to exhibit. In the aging room they have American Oak, French Oak, Hungarian Oak, and even some Acacia barrels for their vino. Like many other vineyards in the region La Grange does not have a bottling facility, rather they enlist the services of a bottling truck. Up until a few weeks ago I actually had never heard of this before, but it is essentially an 18 wheeler that drives from vineyard to vineyard,
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| Two of the larger oak barrels |
or even breweries I'm sure, which is equipped with a portable bottling facility. Sounds like a pretty lucrative business and one that is in high demand in the area. I'm not entirely sure what La Grange's plans are for the future of their winery, but one thing is for sure they are always mixing things up with a different seasonal variety. I especially enjoyed the cider on my visit. It had the emotional persuasion to make me wish I was back in Fall where I could enjoy the leaves and fresh apple pie.
Now onto the actual wines, we tasted seven of them:
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2011 Fletcher's
Chardonnay |
2011 Fletcher's Chardonnay:
This non-malolactic chardonnay has ripe pear and yellow peach flavors that lead into stone fruits and melon that are all brightened by the green apple acidity. Minerality lingers with the finish.
My thoughts: Buttery for sure. Distinct hints of melon and pear linger in this Chardonnay as well. Decent Chardonnay not much else to say.
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| 2013 Cuvee Blanc |
2013 Cuvee Blanc: Fermented and aged in stainless tanks to maintain the bright purity of the varietals fruit flavors. The characteristic aroma and flavor of rose petal fromk the Traminette followed by the yellow peach and floral notes that follow through on the palate, where they are joined by lemon curd, citrus, apricot and honey locust. The acid is bright and cleanses the palate to a dry finish.
My Thoughts: This wine had a very nice floral aspect with good acidity. It was pretty refreshing to boot. Nice notes of peach or some vibrant fruit and not too sweet on the finish.
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| 2013 Cabernet Franc |
2013 Cabernet Franc: Red fruits and violets begin this pleasant experience. Cab Franc aficionados will immediately recognize the elegant style of classic Cab Franc from the Loire Valley, France. Flavors of cherry, pencil shavings and eucalyptus are framed by tight acidity. The finish is where white pepper joins the flavor medley and lingers.
My thoughts: I was immediately aware of the yeasty component going on this wine. It definitely smelled like buttered toast crusts. Always a surprise to come across this. This light bodied Cab Franc gave off soft finishes of sweet cherries and a general jamminess.
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| Generals Battlefield |
General's Battlefield: This is the fourth edition of our wine in commemoration of the American Civil War and the last year that we aged various components in oak from Manassas Battlefield. It has an aroma of cherry creamsicle. A pleasant, easy sipping wine!
My thoughts: Pretty interesting looking bottle! Anyway, I picked up on violets and dark cherries. On my palette this wine had a definite oak component. It was tannic, but not over the top, and had me thinking of plump plums. Say that ten times fast.
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2012 Harrison House
Red |
2012 Harrison House Red: Greeting you is an intense ruby color with aromas of blackberry, cocoa and nuances of oak and earth. The earth flavor continues on the palate and is joined by candied dark red fruits, cassis, dried leather with pomegranate and forest floor surfacing as the wine travels across your palate. The ‘grippy’ tannins keep this pleasant sipper bright and lively through a medium finish with some lingering red fruits.
My thoughts: My favorite of all the wines in the tasting as it turns out. Unfortunately, it seems that La Grange knows that this and a few others are there top notch wines that people will seek out and so have decided to make it members only. So if you want their quality wine you'll have to pay an extra buck on top of an already pretty steep price point for Virginia wine. This was definitely the most complex of the bunch. I got this great waft of oak and dirt infused together (no idea what that would look like). The mid palette was great as well, somewhat tart and well balanced. The finish had that nice tannic component and a splash of blackberries and raspberries.
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| Snort Desert Wine |
Snort Desert Wine: The Solera system of blending multiple vintages produces layers of flavor, texture and depth. This port style wine is rich yet soft with hints of smoke, wood and dark fruit. Great with dark chocolate, red fruit and nuts.
My thoughts: Finally the last wine. This one was supposedly mixed with brandy and man could you smell it. The snort was packing that jammy component as well. It had a very fruit forward aspect going on. Not overpoweringly sugary like a lot of desert wines sometimes are.
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| My tasting assistant and I! |
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Walkway from the sun-room out to the barrel rooms. In the
distance is Pam and Kent |
The last tasting that we tried was warm apple cider. And like I stated above it tasted absolutely amazing. I'd buy a five gallon bucket of that stuff and sip it in my rocking chair on the front of my wrap around porch during Autumn if I had any of those things (besides the five gallon bucket). Anyways, after the tasting we walked around and got to visit the barrel rooms. Since it wasn't harvest season I was able to see a completely different side of the wine business. The hustle and bustle was that of packaging and shipping. I've always been curious about just how much wine a vineyard about the size of La Grange can produce and the answer is, a whole lot more than I ever expected. There were crates of wine stacked to the ceiling! In the end I really enjoyed my time there and appreciated the tranquil atmosphere that the owners at La Grange Winery have created. I'd love to buy some of their wines and appreciate their hard work, but I'm just going to have to wait until I can spare the extra buck or the prices drop a little.
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| The vines and in the horizon the Bull Run Mountains |
