Pictures: Tasting Top Virginia Wines in Frankfurt, Germany: Virginia Governor's Cup Case 2017Recently, we tasted the Virginia Governor's Cup Case 2017 in Frankfurt at Mainlust Desche Otto. There were 36 participants, including Annette and me.
This was the second Virginia Governor's Cup Case re-tasting event in Frankfurt, Germany. The first one took place in 2017, with wine journalist Stuart Pigott: Tasting the Best of Virginia Wines in Frankfurt, Germany, with Stuart Pigott: Virginia Governor's Cup Case 2016
A tasting of the Virginia Governor's Cup Case 2018 is planned for later this year in Frankfurt.
Allmost all of the pictures below are mine; there are a few provided by Joachim A. Kaiser, who participated in the tasting in Frankfurt. I also added a few pictures from the 2017 Virginia Governor's Cup Gala in Richmond, in which Annette and I participated. See: Virginia's Best Wines: 2017 Governor‘s Cup Gala in Richmond, Virginia, USA
Behind the group of established wine producers in the USA - California, Oregon and Washington State - is a group of emerging wine producers, including Virginia. 30 years ago, there was very little wine made in Virginia. Today, the Virginia wine industry is thriving with around 300 producers. Very little (only 5 percent) of the Virginia wines are consumed outside the State of Virginia. The wines of Virginia are virtually unknown in Germany.
Against this background, I was sent the 2017 Virginia Governor's Cup Case to Frankfurt/ Germany. Put on by the Virginia Wineries Association, the Governor's Cup is the commonwealth's premier wine competition that rates hundreds of Virginia wines. Of the gold medal winning wines, the 12 highest scoring red and white wines comprise the Governor’s Cup Case to showcase the state’s top wines.
By accident, I received 2 cases in Frankfurt. As a result, we decided not to have the tasting at our residence in Frankfurt with a limited group of tasters, as in the year before, but to have it in a restaurant in Frankfurt with a larger group, charge an entrance fee and offer a meal. We capped the attendance at 36, inluding Annette and me.
The tasting was led by Annette Schiller, ombiasy WineTours, with a power-point presentation.
Jürgen Lüttges, President of the Weinfreundeskreis Hochheim, gave a most interesting talk about President Jefferson's wine tours in Europe, when he was Ambassador in Paris.
Paula Sidore of Weinstory (Providing German-English language logistics for and from the wine industry: translation, tasting notes, and copywriting) shared with us her experience from Horton Vineyards, where she worked earlier in her career.
Invitation
Annette and I would like to invite you to a tasting of premium wines of Virginia/ USA in Frankfurt/ Germany. These wines are close to our heart since Virginia has been our US home since 1983.
On March 1, 2019, we will taste the 2017 Virginia Governor's Cup Case, comprising the 12 best wines of the 2017 competition. Annette Schiller will lead through the evening. She will do a power-point presentation to showcase the beautiful Virginia wine country and the amazing development there through the last 30 years.
Although this invitation is in English the event will be in German.
The tasting will take place at Restaurant Mainlust Desche Otto Hegarstraße 1, 60529 Frankfurt am Main. We will start at 19:30. The costs of the event is Euro 35 per person for the wines, water and food.
Please join us to what promisses to be an interesting and fun event.
RSVP to Annette Schiller aschiller@ombiasypr.com
Wine Producer Virginia
Virginia is the 5th largest wine industry in the US, with about 300 wineries and over 3,500 acres of vineyards. In the original charter of the thirteen colonies was a royal commission to pursue three luxury items that England was unable to provide for itself: wine, silk, and olive oil. Every colony made attempts to satisfy the requirements of its charter. Despite many years of failure, the early Americans persisted in their efforts. A big step forward was made in 1740 when a natural cross pollination occurred between a native American grape and a European vitis vinifera. Other successful crossings followed.
In 1762, John Carter, who had 1,800 vines growing at Cleve Plantation, sent 12 bottles to the Royal Society of Encouragement of the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce in London for their evaluation. Minutes of their meeting on the 20th of October 1762 declared Carter’s wines to be “excellent” and a decision was taken to reward Carter’s efforts with a gold medal for his wines. These were the first internationally recognized fine wines produced in America.
Over the past 30 years or so, Virginia wines have experienced a tremendous development - to elegant and balanced, mostly European vinifera-based wines. Recently, Donald Trump as well as AOL founder Steve Case bought a Virginia winery.
Today, the vitis vinifera grapes Chardonnay and Viognier are the leading white varieties. Increasingly they are made without any or with neutral oak, to retain natural acidity and freshness. It appears Viognier is on its way to becoming Virginia’s official “signature grape”.
For French-American hybrid varieties, Seyval Blanc is still popular, but resembles now the fresh and crisp wines from France’s South West. Vidal has become the backbone of the artificially frozen (cryoextraction), ice wine which I am not a great fan of. Cryoextraction is an approach, developed by the French, which kind of simulates the frost in the vineyard in the wine cellar.
As far as red wines are concerned, there has been a shift from straight varietal wines to blends, with the blends now being dominated by Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Mirroring the Virginia white wines, there is an increasing focus on neutral oak and clean, vibrant fruit.
Tannat, Uruguay’ signature grape from the South West of France, is showing up in more Virginia wines, usually as a blend. The only red French American hybrid which has performed consistently well in Virginia is Chambourcin, which resembles the Gamay grape of Beaujolais.
Finally, Claude Thibault, a native from France, has taken Virginia sparkling wines to a new level. His NV Thibault-Janisson Brut, made from 100 percent Chardonnay, is as close as you can get to Champagne outside of France.
Tasting the 2017 Virginia Govenor's Cup Case in Frankurt, Germany
The 2017 Virginia Governor's Cup Case contains the following 12 wines, which we will taste:
Ingleside Vineyards, 2014 Petit Verdot
Jefferson Vineyards, 2014 Petit Verdot
King Family Vineyards, 2014 Petit Verdot
Valley Road Vineyards, 2014 Petit Verdot
Veritas Vineyard and Winery, 2014 Petit Verdot Paul Shaffer 6th Edition
The Barns at Hamilton Station Vineyards 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon
Breaux Vineyards 2012 Meritage
Michael Shaps Wineworks, 2014 Meritage
Horton Vineyards 2015 Viognier
Veritas Vineyard and Winery, 2014 Petit Manseng
King Family Vineyards, 2014 Loreley
Barboursville Vineyards 2013 Paxxito
Ingleside Vineyards, 2014 Petit Verdot
Jefferson Vineyards, 2014 Petit Verdot
King Family Vineyards, 2014 Petit Verdot
Valley Road Vineyards, 2014 Petit Verdot
Veritas Vineyard and Winery, 2014 Petit Verdot Paul Shaffer 6th Edition
The Barns at Hamilton Station Vineyards 2014, Cabernet Sauvignon
Michael Shaps Wineworks, 2014 Meritage
Breaux Vineyards 2012, Meritage
Horton Vineyards 2015 Viognier
Veritas Vineyard and Winery, 2014 Petit Manseng
King Family Vineyards, 2014 Loreley
Barboursville Vineyards 2013 Paxxito
Barboursville Vineyards on facebook: The Virginia Wineries Association’s Governor’s Cup wine awards were announced this week, and again one of our leading wines - Paxxito 2013 - was selected for the Governor’s Case of the 12 wines the judges awarded their highest rating, and another longtime favorite, Cabernet Franc Reserve 2014, was also awarded the Gold Medal, matching its success at the San Francisco Chronicle competition, the Beverage Testing Institute, and in The Wine Advocate. Overall, the vineyards and wineries of the Monticello Wine Trail drew especially strong recognition among this year’s entries, and we extend our congratulations to all who participated.
Thomas Jefferson is Proven Right as Virginia Wine Comes of Age
Stuart Pigott on JamesSuckling.com, April 28, 2017
Arguably the world's greatest #Riesling expert, Stuart Pigott, spent a week or so in Virginia recently. His in-depth report was released in April 2017 on JamesSuckling.com. He provides an introduction to his massive Virginia report on his blog. Here is the link to the full report.
How did a slew of wines from the state of Virginia on the Eastern seaboard of the United States score 90+ points (a handful even got 95+ points) during a recent tasting? Didn’t winemaking in Virginia fail in spite of the efforts of talented oenophiles like Thomas Jefferson? Doesn’t Virginia suffer from crippling summer humidity that can cause massive rot that can destroy the grape vines’ fruit and foliage?
It’s true that Thomas Jefferson’s efforts were thwarted by mildew and phylloxera and that Virginia certainly doesn’t enjoy the reliably dry sunny summers of, say, California, but times have changed. Just 30 miles as the crow flies from the U.S. capitol in Washington D.C., Virginia winemakers have leapt forward with wines of finesse and originality since the turn of the last century. After a week of intensive blind tasting and visits to a dozen producers, I can say confidently that sophisticated Virginia wines are no longer a rarity. Distinctive styles and striking regional differences (what the French call terroir) have emerged, and the many world-class wines we tasted point to an even brighter future.
How does a great Virginia wine taste? The easiest way to find out is to try Octagon, the red Bordeaux blend from Barboursville Vineyards, just north of Charlottesville that was founded in 1976 by Gianni Zonin of the Italian wine dynasty. Since 1990 Luca Paschina from Piemonte in Italy has been making the Barboursville wines. Every recent vintage of Octagon we tasted was a concentrated, beautifully balanced wine with years of life ahead of it. They are closer to modern Bordeaux than Napa Valley in style and all rated over 90. Octagon is the best distributed wine of this type, but you might also be able to find one of the seriously impressive Bordeaux blends from RdV, Boxwood, or Michael Shaps.
Oddly enough, almost every winemaker in the state struggles to ripen Cabernet Sauvignon, even though many sites are warmer than the grape’s homeland in Bordeaux. This problem often seems to result from the combination of water-retentive soils and high rainfall which delay the ripening of the tannins so crucial to making top Cabernet. In contrast, Petit Verdot, a Bordeaux variety that often has trouble ripening there, does very well in Virginia. When combined with Merlot and/or Cabernet Franc, the results are impressive. These two Bordeaux grapes provide the base for most of the high-end red blends in Virginia.
Tannat is another grape from Southwestern France that flourishes in Virginia, giving wines with enormous fruit, tannins and color that extend the range of blending possibilities still further. The Papillon from Chrysalis Vineyards in northern Virginia combines Tannat with Petit Verdot showing that it’s possible to break the Bordeaux mold with stunning effect. Michael Shaps has done something similar with his L. Scott, a Tannat, Merlot and Malbec blend. A handful of successful wines even from the Nebbiolo grape of Piemonte in Italy suggest that it may have found a second home in Virginia.
Possibly even more important for the future of the state’s wine industry is the indigenous Norton grape variety, a hybrid bred by Dr. Daniel Norton in Richmond, Virginia during the 1820s. In 1873 a Norton red wine from Hermann, Missouri won a gold medal at the Vienna World Exposition. Jennifer McCloud of Chrysalis not only has the largest planting of this grape in the world but also produces the most remarkable wines from it. Her 2001 Locksley Reserve proves that with bottle age, well-made Norton can blossom into a sophisticated world-class red. However, the grape remains controversial amongst winemakers.
Norton has high acidity, but it’s at the other end of that scale where things sometimes get dicey for Virginia winemakers. For low-acidity grapes like the aromatic white Viognier, relatively early picking is essential to retain bright aromas and freshness. The Viogniers from Barboursville, Michael Shaps and Veritas show that if this is done and care is taken to avoid malolactic fermentation (which converts tart malic acid into softer lactic acid), then it’s possible to achieve aromatic and succulent wines. They tend to be lighter and fresher than Viogniers from California or most other New World winegrowing regions.
In spite of his success with Viognier, Michael Shaps, who sources grapes in many parts of the state, insists, “We need high acidity grape varieties that can handle the heat and humidity.” His impressive dry Petit Manseng and those from Horton Vineyards suggests this high-acidity, thick-skinned grape from Southwestern France has a great future in the state. The Rieslings and Pinot Noirs from Ox-Eye’s cooler and drier Shenandoah Valley sites suggest that with some further work these grapes could also gain important niches.
We are enthusiastic about today’s Virginia wines, but there are some areas where producers are struggling. Most of Virginia is just too warm for elegant Chardonnays, though Jim Law of Linden is the clear leader in this field thanks to his high-altitude vineyards in the north of the state. Full-bodied Chardonnays with tropical fruit aromas and vanilla oak that taste like imitation California wines are much easier to produce. No wonder this is one of the four most widely planted grapes in the state alongside Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Viognier. None of the lusher style Virginia Chardonnays blew our mind. In contrast, some of the successful sparkling wines based on Chardonnay seriously impressed us, most notably those from Thibaut-Janisson and Trump.
To put all this in perspective Virginia has the fifth largest wine industry of the American states, but that means only about 3,000 acres of vines. But unlike the much larger wine industry of New York State (the third largest in the US), Virginia’s focus is overwhelmingly on Vitis vinifera grape varieties from which the great wines of Europe, California and many other New World countries are made, rather than native and hybrid grapes.
In a region like Virginia where the climate makes grape growing a time-consuming and challenging business, wine cannot be cheap. “It costs so much to grow grapes in Virginia that we can’t make good wines for much under $15 per bottle,” observed Matthieu Finot of King Family Vineyards. Prices in tasting rooms climb to near $150 for the stunning Lost Mountain Bordeaux blend from RdV.
In some parts of the U.S. these prices would be a major impediment to the development of the wine industry. However, there’s a large pool of disposable income, especially in the affluent north of Virginia, that’s a double-edged sword for the state’s wine industry. On the one hand, it has funded the development of the wines we rated most highly, many of which are bargains in an international context. On the other hand, since many mediocre Virginia wines sell for $20 or more without any trouble, producers don’t have much incentive to make better wine. Weak distribution out of state — almost 95% of Virginia wines are sold in-state — and scant international media coverage further limit the recognition of Virginia wine in the global market. During the next years, we’ll see whether the region is able to up its game and take its wines to the next level. The leading producers are certainly determined to do that, and on the basis of these wines, my guess is that it’s only a matter of time before the first Virginia wine pushes 100 points. —Stuart Pigott, Contributing Editor
Previous Virginia Governor's Cup Competitions
Virginia's Best Wines: 2018 Virginia Governor's Cup Competition, USA
Virginia's Best Wines: 2017 Governor‘s Cup Gala in Richmond, Virginia, USA
Virginia's Best Wines: 2016 Virginia Governor's Cup, USA
Virginia's Best Wines: 2015 Virginia Governor's Cup, USA
Virginia's Best Wines: 2014 Virginia Wineries Governor’s Cup, USA
Governor’s Cup Competition 2013, Virginia, USA
schiller-wine: Related Posting
Northern Virginia Magazine October 2012: Wine Recs from Local Winos
Jim Law and Linden Vineyards in Virginia – A Profile, USA
Boxwood Winery in Virginia: Lunch with Wine Makers Rachel Martin and Adam McTaggert in the Chai between the Tanks – TasteCamp 2012 East Kick-Off, USA
An Afternoon with Jordan Harris, Winemaker of Tarara, Virginia, USA
Vineyard Walk, Wine Tasting in the Vineyard and Lunch in the Tarara Tank Cellar with Wine Maker Jordan Harris, Tarara Winery, USA
Visiting Jennifer Breaux Blosser and Breaux Vineyards in Virginia, USA
Bordeaux Meets Virginia: Visiting Rutger de Vink and his RdV Vineyards with Anne Cuvelier from Chateau Leoville Poyferre in St. Julien, Bordeaux
Judging Virginia Wines in Suffolk, Virginia - Virginia Wine Lover Magazine Wine Classic 2012
A New Winery in Virginia - The Barns at Hamilton Station Vineyards, USA
Boxwood Winery in Virginia: Lunch with Wine Makers Rachel Martin and Adam McTaggert in the Chai between the Tanks – TasteCamp 2012 East Kick-Off, USA
Book Review: "Beyond Jefferson's Vines - The Evolution of Quality Wine in Virginia" by Richard Leahy, USA
TasteCamp 2012 in Virginia, USA – A Tour d’Horizont
As Close as You Can Get to (French) Champagne at the US East Coast – Claude Thibaut and His Virginia Thibaut Janisson Sparklers at screwtop Wine Bar
American Wines with French Roots: The Wines President Obama Served at the State Dinner for President Hollande, USA/France
Visiting Wine Maker Doug Fabbioli and his Fabbioli Cellars in Virginia, USA
North Gate Vineyard in Virginia, USA – A Profile
Virginia Wine Chat “Live” with Frank Morgan at Breaux Vineyards, Virginia, USA
Tasting the Best of Virginia Wines in Frankfurt, Germany, with Stuart Pigott - Virginia Governor's Cup Case 2016
Mainlust Desche Otto in Frankfurt meets Bordeaux - Bordeaux Tasting led by Annette Schiller, Germany
Anniversary Dinner at North Gate Vineyards with Owners/ Winemakers Mark and Vicki Fedor and Chef Sebastian Oveysi from Amoo’s Restaurant in McLean, Virginia/ USA
Mainlust “Desche Otto” – an Ultra Traditional Apple Wine Tavern, with an Innovative Twist, off the Beaten Track in Schwanheim, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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