Whiskey and Wine

Winery Visit: King Family Vineyards

I went to the King Family Vineyard in Crozet, VA on Saturday. We chose to go there not only because of their delicious white wines, but my mom has been to all the vineyards in the Charlottesville area except King. I also used to spend a week in Crozet every summer during high school for xc camp, so I loved making the trip back to the beautiful mountain area. The King Family Vineyard was gorgeous and the weather was perfect, so we immediately did the wine tastings then bought our favorite bottle so we could enjoy the outdoor patio and our Chardonnay-Viognier blend.

We tasted 6 wines and the first 3 were everyone’s favorite. Here’s the list and tasting notes:

Roseland 2011 – 60% Chardonnay, 40% Viognier

40% of the volume is aged in oak

Sniff: peach, honeysuckle, lemongrass

Sip: bright and fresh with good acidity, suggestive of a pear crumble, the finish is long and creamy

This was my mom’s favorite and my second, it was the perfect mix of fruity and creamy for the type of day it was. We decided to have a bottle of this after the tasting in the brisk spring-like weather. 

Chardonnay 2010

25% of the volume is fermented and aged in new French oak, the rest in older barrels.

Sniff: white flowers, lemon and pear

Sip: peach, pear, and lemon with touches of oak in a smooth, creamy finish.

This Chardonnay was very good also, I still enjoyed the blend more but also a nice light wine for a spring day.

Crose – 100% Merlot dry rose

Sniff: mostly cranberry and grapefruit with a hint of redcurrant

Sip: crisp is my favorite word to describe this wine, it is refreshing with a pleasant tart finish. This rose was my favorite from the tasting and I thought the name was clever because it’s pronounced the same as where this is made!

This was clearly the most popular wine of the day because every table on the patio was enjoying a bottle of this dry rose. 

Cabernet Franc 2010

Sniff: strawberries and oak

Sip: vanilla, strawberry, raspberries and spice with soft tannins and a hint of black pepper

I didn’t care for this Cab Franc very much and neither did my mom who loves red wines. She suggested that White Hall’s (another vineyard in Charlottesville) red wines are more her taste. But this wine did have a tough crowd to follow considering the first 3 were so good.

Seven 2009

“named for the 7^th chukker in polo – like the 19^th hole in golf”

Sniff: fig, banana and orange peel

Sip: vanilla and nutmeg with dark fruits, raspberry and toffee

made in the traditional porto style with an American twist this red wine with 18% alcohol wasn’t my favorite because of the strong toffee flavor. It was just too sweet/rich and alcoholic. The bottle was very cool though.

Lorely 2010 – 50% Viognier, 50% Petit Manseng

Dessert wine made in the vin de paille style

The sniff and sip blend well together with tangerine peel, peach cobbler and gingerbread with a creamy finish. It is definitely a dessert wine but I wouldn’t be able to have seconds of this.

After the tasting and our bottle of Roseland, we took a tour of the winery. Our tour guide sat with us on the patio for a brief history lesson on how the land was turned into a vineyard. The story he told us was really interesting because before they had plans to turn it into a vineyard, a Virginia Tech graduate had proposed to plant grapes along their land and the mountains. He and other VT researched had tested the soil and knew where each type of grape would be most successful. After he left, the family never got his name or saw him again. So they proceeded to plant grapes and the rest is history.

(click pictures for captions)

After the history lesson, we walked through the winemaking process. The tour guide showed our group the harvested petit verdot vines. The wires in the picture help the vines grow. The fruit vines only grow between the bottom two but the vines may extend and canopy over the top wires. He also said that when they are growing the grapes in June, it has to be sunny, not mucky, during the fruit wine for the harvest to be thriving. In July, they hand pick the white first, then red later in the season when the seeds are a dark brown. The order was roughly, chardonnay, viognier, cabernet, verdot, merlot and petit verdot last around October.

After the grapes are harvested, they go into the bladder press (in picture above) where they are pressed and pumped into tanks for fermentation. The giant tanks in the pictures above are used for fermentation, the closed tops are for white and the open ones are used for a mix. The oak barrels used are all French oak and only used about 6 times. They paint the center with wine to indicate how many time it has been used along with the writing on it indicating other characteristics about the contents inside. The also have a small number of American oak barrels which were used to age whiskey first. The winemaker at King was there while we were touring, he is a very experienced wine maker from France and has worked in Rhone Valley, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Provence, Italy and South Africa before settling in Virginia. He is also experimenting with fermentation in the concrete egg in the picture above. The concrete allows more oxygen to the process and increases the viscosity.

This concludes my experience at the King Family Vineyards, it was a lovely day for a trip to a winery and I’m very excited for my next visit to another Virginia vineyard.  

this is how industrial designers uncork wine

Name Church Creek

Variety Chardonnay

Region Eastern Shore Virginia

Country US

Year 2009

Price $20? I can’t remember, sorry I’m lucky and never have to buy the wine!

This wine is from the eastern shore of Virginia. My mom went to Chatham Vineyards this summer and toured the vineyard on kayaks.. a really cool trip. I’d post pictures but I can’t find them! Chatham Vineyards website says “Our vineyards benefit from well-drained sandy loam soils, a maritime climate allowing for a long growing season, a nearly constant breeze and favorable temperatures during the grape harvest season in September and October.”

This chardonnay is aged in steel barrels. It is possibly my favorite unoaked Chardonnay right now. Obviously it goes well with oysters and seafood so we had it with our dinner which was parmesan crusted tilapia, garlic butter scallops and green beans! This was a delicious pairing. This wine was thirst quenching as well which is what I liked a lot. It was crisp with hints of melon, apples and pears.