We've always been skeptical of Virginia wines. But we recently read some positive reviews by a local wine blogger, Allan of
CellarBlog, whose posts we enjoy and respect. Also, our friends Karen and Luis invited us to spend this past weekend out in Virginia wine country. We took both occurrences as a sign that we should revisit our long-held and much-cherished, but possibly unfair, prejudice against all American wines not made on the West Coast.
So we stopped in at beautiful Linden Vineyards in Linden, Va., for a tasting. (Forgot the camera, unfortunately, so you'll just have to imagine it.) A very nice woman poured us
a
2008 Seyval (made from a French-American hybrid grape, Seyval Blanc), a
2006 Claret, a
2006 Petit Verdot, and
2008 Vidal Riesling. The Seyval and the Petit Verdot, in particular, surprised/impressed us. The former had well-balanced fruit flavors of grapefruit and lemon, and its bright acidity made it very drinkable. The meaty Petit Verdot smelled and tasted of coffee and earth, with a long, satisfying finish.
We didn't buy either of these because, at $20 and $28, we felt they were slightly too expensive for what they were. However, we would be happy to drink them again and felt encouraged about Virginia wines in general. Going to one vineyard once doesn't give us a complete view, obviously, so we plan to try more eventually. Stay tuned.
