We drove to Fincastle on a beautiful Saturday and began following a windy road with signs pointing to our vineyard destination. When we arrived there was something different about this winery - it was a house. Melissa and I looked around and there was another sign that said tasting room up the stairs. We followed the signs and luckily enough we entered a tasting room with another couple and one woman pouring wine, Marie. We spoke to her and she told us a little about the winery and explained her, her mother and her husband do all the wine production and have been since 2005. We collected all of our living social swag and did one flight of wine tasting.
They make a total of 12 wines, I chose to taste a flight of five semi-sweet/sweet wines.
Traminette: This was a grape I was unfamiliar with but it was described as a crisp citrus white wine so I was excited. Although the nose was a little overly alcoholic to me the taste was delightful. It was bright, crisp, with a sweet aftertaste and a strong green apple flavor. I would love to try this wine with cheese, salad, or citrus glazed fish.
Acacia Gold: This was the most forgettable wine. There was nothing particularly surprising or distinguishing about it. The description was even boring, blandly saying it is a semi-sweet blend, light bodied. The flavors were fruity and sweet with a strong fruity smell, mainly berry. It did have a nice finish with no after burn.
Virginia White: This white wine is a blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot. I thought this would be an interesting blend expressed as a white wine, and it was. The smell immediately was overwhelmingly sweet and fruity with a strong blackberry flavor. The mouth feel of this wine is really what set it apart it was incredibly smooth and buttery. It had a really delicate and smooth finish that was really nice and my favorite part of this wine.
Virginia Red: I had never had a sweet red wine before but the woman pouring for us thought I would really enjoy it after watching what I liked in the previous wines. Thankfully she was right and I found this wine one of the most enjoyable and intriguing wines I have had ever! I was light bodied but full flavored, filled with strong fruit smells and flavors. The taste was very much like sweet pepper which was really unexpected and the wine was incredibly aromatic. I considered purchasing a bottle of this wine, and still regret not. I would love to try this wine with spaghetti and meatballs or a teriyaki salmon.
Holiday Spice: I was very excited to try this wine, I had never had spiced wine and from the way it smelled I couldn't wait to taste it. The nose of this wine strongly resembles hot apple cider which was a really nice surprise. Unfortunately, it didn't taste much like apple cider. The wine had a much stronger alcohol taste than I expected and although it was light bodied the flavors really over took the wine. It was a very strange wine that I don't think I need to try again.
After our wine tasting, we headed over to the vineyard to get a tour of the winery and vineyard on property.
We then went down to the winery and met Marie's husband, David. He showed us the refrigeration station, crush pad, barrels, and bottling station. They use barrels to age both red and white wine.
We then took a trip to the vineyard. I had never been to a vineyard before, only a winery and was extremely excited to see the fruit on the vine. David grows about 15 varieties of grapes including red and white. He does all of the wine crafting himself and only brings in some extra helpers during the harvest season. They use about half of the grapes they grow to make wine on their property and then sell half of their grapes to wineries across Virginia, including Chateau Morisette which I also visited this semester.
They harvest the grape during the end of August and the beginning of September, so the grapes were quite new at this point and looked just like tiny berries.
Overall, the day was really amazing. This winery and vineyard was the perfect example of a family winery and it was great getting to know Marie and David and learning how they craft wine and learning the story behind Virginia Mountain Vineyard.
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