Caressa Cameron is not the only comely Virginia product to win a prize in recent weeks, though it’s fair to say that the new Miss America (who calls Fredericksburg home) will probably garner more national attention this year than other Commonwealth award winners. We speak, of course, of Virginia wines. Many of them have recently taken home medals at competitions.
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Luca Paschina can add a San Francisco bronze medal to the groaning collection of prizes that he’s racked up at Barboursville Vineyards. |
Keep in mind, however, that just as many a lovely woman never enters a beauty pageant nor wins a crown, so do many enjoyable wines never earn a medal. (And yes, we know that some insist the converse is true too, namely that many not-so-enjoyable wines capture awards, but we are a friend to the local industry here at the Working Pour so we will let you reserve that notion—and we’re not judging its merits—for tasting hour gossip…)
With the Governor’s Cup, the Virginia industry’s top annual commendation, to be announced on February 26, let’s recognize some other recent prize winners from our region:
At the first-ever Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition, Kluge Estate Winery took home six medals—three silver and three bronze—for various 2004 sparkling wines (the last vintage to be produced at Kluge by Claude Thibaut, the local master of the bubbly). As owner Patricia Kluge has recently announced her intentions to penetrate the growing Chinese wine market, this was surely a welcome development on Blenheim Road.
As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Pollak Vineyards took home a gold from the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition for its 2007 Cabernet Franc. Ditto for Doukenie Winery in Loudon County.
Other Cab Franc winners include Sugarleaf Vineyards and Veramar Vineyard (Silver for the 2008 vintages) and Barboursville Vineyards and Rappahannock Cellars (Bronze for the 2007 vintages).
Getting thirsty? There’s more.
Also at the San Francisco event, White Hall took home a silver for its 2008 Viognier, which was also a winner for Chrysalis Vineyards and Sugarleaf Vineyards.
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The list goes on.
Though we can all agree that wine is a party in a bottle, not every aspect of the industry is a celebration. There is real work to be done. Governor McDonnell, for instance, looking for ways to soften the blow of a $4 billion deficit without losing his no-new-taxes cred, has proposed a wine liter fee that would go back to the Wine Promotion Fund of the Virginia Wine Board to spread the word about the state’s grapey goodness (see above).
Also coming out of the Guv’s office: possible privatization of ABC stores. As Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum (and also of the Trellis Group, a wine marketing operation) explained to Working Pour, putting ABC stores into private hands would both raise revenues through the selling of licenses and would reduce the state payroll. Depending on how privatization is pursued, either the so-called Pennsylvania model or the California model, that might mean increased competition for the private gourmet wine shops currently in operation. Stay tuned.
Finally, on a purely local note, the Albemarle County Planning Commission work session on zoning amendments affecting farm wineries has been rescheduled for Tuesday, February 16. At issue: hours of operation; numbers of people that can attend winery events without a zoning variance; and, the definition of farm wineries and agritourism. We are eager to see what impact the new “pro-business” line-up in county government will have on Albemarle wineries’ freedom to operate.
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And this just in on Tuesday, February 9, from the Virginia Wine Board Marketing Office: Medal winners in the Governor’s Cup competition. Reds only were announced this time, with whites to be judged later this month and revealed in October. Not surprisingly, local wineries did well. King Family Vineyards scored a gold medal for the 2007 Meritage, a Bordeaux-style blend from winemaker Matthieu Finot and Sugarleaf Vineyards captured a gold for its 2008 Petit Verdot.
The Silver Medal category was ripe with local wineries, including two for Pollak Vineyards (including its 2007 Cabernet Franc, which garnered a gold in San Francisco—go figure) and four for Barboursville. Keswick Vineyards, last year’s Governor’s Cup winner—the top prize that is kept secret until opening night of the Wine Expo—took a bronze for its Meritage. Michael Shaps, Wintergreen Winery, Delfosse Vineyards, Afton Mountain, Cardinal Point and Jefferson Vineyards were among the local medal winners, too. Read the complete list here.
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Wait, there’s more, local wine lovers! It’s like a magnum of good news. DrinkLocalWine.com will hold its second annual conference April 24- 26 at Leesburg’s Landsdowne Resort in Loudoun County. Dedicated to exactly the cause described by its name, drinklocalwine.com is an insistent voice in the vino-blogosphere, calling for more regional appreciation and less wine-snobbery b.s. Word up.
The conference, in the planners’ own words (and they include Dave McIntyre of Washington Post fame), "will include three panel discussions focusing on issues unique to Virginia and regional wine–its grapes and terroir, how the state’s winemakers have used social media to advance their cause, and why local wine should be part of the local food movement. There will also be a Virginia Twitter Taste-off, where participants will be able to blog or Twitter about the wines they’re tasting." Your $65 admission buys you three panel discussions, lunch, and the Twitter Taste-off. Learn more here.
