It is time for Virginia and its wines

This blog is about a wine tasting I didn’t attend. If this sounds a bit perverse please bear with me while I explain.

Prompted by Wink Lorch’s (@winetravel on Twitter) post about the Circle of Wine Writers Christmas tasting which was hosted by the Virginia Wine Board and the Virginia Tourism Corporation it set me thinking about my own experiences of Virginia and its wines. As a result I’ve come to the conclusion that now is just the right time for wine producers and the tourist authorities to capitalise on the connections between Virginia and the UK. Although my own experiences of wine and Virginia are somewhat limited I’ve probably got more experience than 98% of wine drinkers in the UK.

In addition to a summer working in Baltimore when I made regular trips into Virginia, I spent time on business in Williamsburg several years ago. At that time the meetings I was attending were at the College of William and Mary, one of the top Colleges in the US. Our host who was the President of the College was a real wine enthusiast. I can still picture his cellar and hear his voice enthusiastically talking about his recent imports from Italy. At that time I guess Virginian wine did not have the profile it does now.

I think one of the reasons he imported wine from Italy (and many other Old World countries) could be loosely attributed to what has become very fashionable these days and that is the wines had  a “sense of place”. Whilst wine professionals often attribute a “sense of place” to the specific terrain where the vineyard is, I am sure he as a regular wine consumer associated it with Italian culture – the people, the food, the sights, the history and so on.

I would argue that Virginia has the same to offer. There is a huge amount of history and culture with strong links back to the UK. It was in Virginia that the English founded America’s first permanent colony over 400 years ago in Jamestowne. The Loyalists then fought for our King in America during the American Revolution.  Williamsburg is the location for the second oldest college in America founded by our King William III and Queen Mary II. Wherever you go, and especially in Colonial Williamsburg, you are reminded of the strong ties between Virginia and the UK. Heavens, even Pocahontas (pictured) the Indian princess made famous by the Disney film is buried in Gravesend in Kent!

“Wine tourism” is also on the increase. You can visit South African vineyards whilst on holiday. Sonoma and Napa are within easy reach of many tourist sites in California. Why not Virginia as a place to visit and taste wine at the same time? Given the beauty of Virginia and countless sights of interest dotted around the state there is much for the tourism authorities to promote. There’s Colonial Williamsburg which is the restored 18th-century capital of Britain’s largest, wealthiest, and most populous outpost of empire in the New World, the Blue Ridge Parkway one of America’s scenic driveways or Mount Vernon which is George Washington’s home and burial site to name but a few.

In addition there is the good old fashioned “welcome” that Americans are so good at. Americans are naturally friendly people and are good at making visitors feel welcome.

My own experience of Virginian Wines is mainly limited to those from Williamsburg Winery. I brought a few bottles back from one of my trips and recall thinking the Chardonnay being particularly good. UK wine consumers are familiar with American wine even if much of it is Blossom Hill. There are however many other well known names – Ravenswood for its Zinfandels, Mondavi for its Cabernets.

There is absolutely no reason why Virginia wines should not begin to feature or become as well known. I feel the time has come for Virginia and its wines to make their mark in the UK.

Hardys wine

So what springs to mind when you think of Hardys wine? It is probably Hardys Crest which seems to be available from every supermarket to every corner shop/off licence. The reality is that Hardys make a range of wines from the everyday to the something special as I found out at a event organised by them and held at the Waitrose Cookery School. The event certainly opened my eyes.

I had been at two events the previous week where I had done vertical tastings of multi award winning Semillons going back to 1997 and also Zinfandels back to to 1999. When you are exposed to wines such as these it is very easy to ignore the types of wines that people are exposed to every day, the sort that line the supermarket shelves and always seems to be on some kind of offer - "3 for £12" or "£9.99 down to £4.99". These offers beg the question as to whether these wines ever sell at the full price..........

Now I'm not going to pretend that the entry level Hardys wines are wonderful with lots of character but they are all very drinkable and taste as you would expect a Chardonnay or a Cabernet Shiraz to taste. And importantly they offer a good price point and entry into Australian wine for many people and a good accompaniment to pizza. What Hardys also offers though is the a roadmap for the more curious wine lover to try something else. To explore the same grape variety with a different label and costing more so they can answer the question themselves - does paying more mean getting a better wine? (The answer is of course probably although it doesn't necessarily follow that the drinker will like every more expensive wine they try).

So they can move from Hardys Stamp Chardonnay/Semillon blend to Nottage Hill Chardonnay or Nottage Hill Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz blend to the Waitrose labelled Anniversary Shiraz. Having (probably) seen that they enjoyed the experiment they may then try the Oomoo range although I consider it unlikely that the average consumer will then trade up to the Eileen Hardy wines which retail for between £35 to £45.

It was the Reynella and Eileen Hardy wines that convinced me however that Hardys deserve to be better known as not just a high volume, pile 'em high and sell em' cheap producer but as the organisation behind some real quality wine. Both the Eileen Hardy 2006 Chardonnay and 2004 Shiraz were real stunning wines.

Is it Semillon Blanc or Sauvignon Blanc?

The invitation was for lunch with Neil McGuigan.

I had been at a dinner earlier in the year when he had launched The Shortlist range to Majestic staff plus a few bloggers like me. As he’s an entertaining and witty man I jumped at the chance to get to meet him again, this time to taste through the Semillons he makes. As it turned out the lunch took place the day after he had been announced IWSC Winemaker of the Year for a second time. To win it once is amazing but twice is unheard of. 

The focus on the Semillons was because of the launch of McGuigan’s Semillon Blanc, a bit of a play on Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc. It’s an attempt to woo drinkers away from Kiwi savvy and, having tasted the wine, I think it will work. Soft and easy drinking, it's like a glass of tropical fruit and at £6.99 or thereabouts it's great value for money. There is also a non vintage Sparkling Brut which is an easy drinking and fruity glass of bubbles which willl really give Prosecco a run for its money when people taste the flavour to it.

We also got a chance to taste through the Bin 9000 Semillons ranging in age from the 2011 to the 1997, perfectly illustrating the development of Semillon from a fresh and zesty youngster to a gorgeous aged wine with toast, hay and marmalade flavours. The medals these wines have won at the IWSC including several "Best in Class" show what an amazing and consistent job McGuigan do in producing world class wines. Detailed tasting notes can be found over at my fellow taster's site David Lowe.

However the following day it was back to reality when I saw a poster outside my local Sainsburys advertising the McGuigan Bin Series for £4.99 down from £9.99. It got me thinking what kind of producer McGuigan are.

McGuigan may produce some amazing Semillons but they are better known amongst regular supermarket wine drinkers for their everyday Black Label wines. However although they may be better known as a large producer making mass market wines for the supermarket,  as I have found out they perfectly balance that with the production of small batch, award winning, best in class wines.

Now I don't think there are that many producers who can claim to do both ends of the market place that well.

Say no to wimpy wines

A selection of the zins

It was a coincidence that at the recent Three Wine Men event in London the Ravenswood Teldeschi Zinfandel was voted by DoILikeIt participants as the joint best wine of the show. Coincidental as I it had been my favourite Zin at a dinner hosted by Joel  Petersen known as Mr Zin and the man behind Ravenswood.

Now Joe is quite a storyteller so he kept a small group of us engaged throughout the whole dinner. Whether he was talking about the Oz Clarke and James May's visit as part of their BBC series or how he started up in a business producing the Vintner's Blend the biggest selling Zinfandel in the world, it was fascinating listening to him

Ravenswood Zinfandels ready for tasting

The evening started with a taste through the range from the Vintner's Blend '09 to the Teldeschi single vineyard from 1999. The 1999 was my favourite but the '06 which used to be available from Majestic at around £25 was pretty good also with lots of lovely red and plum fruit, great balance and structure with well integrated oak. By comparison the Vintner's Blend was fairly straightforward but what else do you expect for a "supermarket" wine selling at anything from £6 to £8.

He talked about the 3 Zin sins of "too much oak, too much sugar and too much alcohol". He was asked about the parentage of Zinfandel as its often thought it came from Primitivo brought over by Italian immigrants to the New World. He reckons that current research proves it is a closer family member to Plavac Mali from Croatia.

 A fascinating evening.

Cono Sur wines and the environment

I got sent a couple of Cono Sur wines by their PR agency recently. Seeing the labels took me back some years when I worked part time for Oddbins. It was the graphic of the bicycle on the pinot noir label that always stood out on the shelves. I can even remember the name of the winemaker (Adolfo Hurtado) who it was said used the bike to cycle around the vineyards forsaking anything mechanical as it did not fit in with Cono Sur’s environmental credentials. Whether this was just clever marketing or not, the name and the idea stuck in my mind.

Roll forward 5 years or so and of course much more is being made of the environment and man’s effect on it and every wine business is expected to have a “green” policy with several wineries pronouncing themselves as “carbon neutral”. It's interesting then to think that all these years ago Cono Sur saw it as something they could use to make themselves stand out from the crowd. Others are now catching up it seems.

Their web site says the following:

"Since 1998, our commitment to the environment has been growing and assuming new challenges. Sustainable agriculture, integrated vineyard management and several carbon footprint reduction projects have taken us to the forefront of environmentally friendly winemaking around the world."



In fact as early as July 2007 Cono Sur became the first winery in the world to obtain CarbonNeutral® delivery status and now in 2011 the magazine The Drinks Business has named Cono Sur "Green Company of the Year"

So does all this make a difference to how the wine tastes? That's a tough one to assess or even measure but  but I enjoyed them as much as I used to enjoy their wines in Oddbins' days. They are consistent, fruit forward and well made with examples such as the 20 barrels pinot noir showing the complexity and elegance you would expect from a more expensive wine. My tasting notes for the samples I was sent are available on Adegga.

Do all these environmental claims make a difference as to whether consumers buy or not? Well, a recent article in Harpers confirms that as more wine companies jump on the environmentally friendly bandwagon, achieving full organic or biodynamic certification gives producers greater credibility with the consumer.

This must work in Cono Sur's favour given its long history on the matter.