FIVE-STAR PAIRINGS
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VIRGINIA WINES IN A DAY…OR TWO Visit this year's Virginia Wine Festival at the Morven Park Equestrian Center in Leesburg on September 30 and October 1 to kick off the state's official Wine Month (October). The event features a tasting from many Vinifera Wine Growers Association award-winning wineries, gourmet pairing cuisine, seminars and cooking demonstrations, entertainment and more, all in Loudoun County. To purchase tickets directly, visit www. virginiawinefestival.org or contact the ticket office at (703) 823-1868. |
WINE OMNI-BUS Award-winning wines featured in this country daytrip Imagine a detailed tour of Virginia's best known wineries complete with chauffeured transportation, gourmet bites and a VIP wine tasting. Now open your eyes and live it with the Omni Shoreham Hotel country daytrip. Whether you're an expert on viticulture or don't even know what it means, you will drink and learn with a knowledgeable driver who explains the various wines made at Virginia's 100 wineries, including Italian, Greek and Rhone wines. The first stop on the tour is Pearmund Cellars in Broad Run, Va., renowned for beautiful chardonnay. Rappahannock Cellars, in Huntley, Va., is your next stop. Seeing the great potential of Virginia wines, the owners moved here from California's Santa Cruz Mountains to make Rhone varietals. Finally, you'll visit Oasis Winery, to enjoy a VIP wine tasting - either overlooking the vineyards and Blue Ridge Mountains or indoors by the fireplace - featuring an elaborate tasting with cheeses and light hors d'oeuvres. The full Virginia Wine Package (advance reservation required) includes two nights double accommodation, full American breakfast in Robert's Restaurant at the Omni Shoreham, a picnic lunch on the day of the tour and complimentary self or valet parking for one car. The basic package starts at $500 per person including room and tour taxes, and runs through December 31, 2006. For more information, call (202) 756-5112 or e-mail dgerdes@omnihotels.com |
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Virginia wine country map
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ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD
Keep your eyes peeled for the new Albemarle Viognier 2005, produced by Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard, located at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. These native French grapes have found an accommodating home in Virginia, and produce a wine there that is described by winemaker Charles Gendrot as "a beautiful sphere of complex aromas and flavors - floral and mature exotic fruits that are intoxicating on the nose and palate." If you can't make it to the vineyard, you can still enjoy this new wine, which is available online through Kluge's Farm Shop, at www.klugeestateonline.com. |
What is a "perfect" wine? In my personal opinion, it is a wine that - in the moment you are drinking it - makes you think, "It doesn't get any better than this." Think back. Recall a special occasion. There was the lovely setting, maybe in Provence, or a favorite restaurant in Washington, or your house at the beach. There was the delicious food, whether it was a great chef 's tasting menu or a steak grilled in your back yard. Even more important was the company: someone you were falling in love with, or someone you had loved for a long, long time. Finally, there was the wine. What was it? Maybe it was a world benchmark like Château Latour 1961. Or maybe it was a light, fruity rosé. You might not even remember the producer, or the vintage. It's just that at that moment, in that setting, the wine was perfect, because it was part of a perfect experience. But there are also objective standards of quality that factor into a judgment of "perfection" in wine. Wine Spectator judges all wines "blind," that is, without knowing the producer or price, under neutral conditions that allow for fair comparative analysis. This forces the taster to focus on the wine itself, rather than the subjective variables introduced by food, company and setting. In general, fine wines must have structure and balance; perfect wines display these attributes flawlessly. In the case of reds, that means extraordinary richness of fruit and superb tannin structure. Whites too must be well-built, whether dry or sweet, and display impressive layers of fruit and a complementary balance of acidity. Moreover, great wines, regardless of color, must have the fruit and backbone to improve in thebottle while they age. Beyond this, a perfect wine must communicate something specific and exciting about its terrier, its growing season and its producer. These wines are unique expressions of a certain place (the vineyard) at a certain time (the vintage). They are benchmarks for their region or wine type. Like great works of art, they reflect the talent of the artist as well as the moment they were created. Because of this rigorous analytic judging process, Wine Spectator has given relatively few wines perfect ratings (100 points on our 100-point scale). In fact, of the more than 155,000 wines we've scored in our 30 years of publication, fewer than three dozen have received perfect ratings in blind tastings on their initial release. Another three dozen or so have been awarded 100 points in nonblind or later tastings, such as a horizontal flight of 1982 Bordeaux, or a vertical tasting of Bryant Family Vineyards. At the dinner benefiting CharityWorks, eight 100-point wines were served (along with two 99- point Champagnes, Wine Spectator's highest-rated sparkling wines). The wines were organized in pairs, in order to focus on interesting contrasts - young and old, New World and Old World, and so forth. All the wines performed brilliantly, exhibiting rich fruit, balanced structure and distinctive character. Judging from the crowd's reaction, I would say that Masseto, the Merlot from Tuscany, and the Bryant Family Cabernet Sauvignon were the favorites. But exquisite dishes from a group of renowned and accomplished chefs showed each of the wines to their best advantage. It was a delightful evening, and an honor for Wine Spectator to support such a worthy cause. In fact, you might even call it a perfect night. |
