2008 Mountfair Inaugural, Virginia

A couple things to start off.  I'm trying desperately to keep up with my tasting notes every Wednesday, please excuse my tardiness.  I don't know why, days now, just seem to fly by (man I love when I rhyme)!  Between planning the trip to France, learning to cook, learning French, researching starting a business, drinking wine, eating at restaurants, working in the tasting room at the winery, I am barely keeping my head above water, I think I need a shallower pool. Whoa is me, haha, not really, life is great!     

I was looking back through my tasting book and I stumbled on some early tasting notes, while I will admit I am certainly still an amateur (hence the Wine Immersion at CIA) this tasting note is one of my earliest and around when I decided to pursue wine full on.

There seems to be a lot going on in the world of viticulture in the United States.  As we are a fairly young nation compared to the rest of the world, so is our viticulture.  Yes, we have California, and have Oregon and Washington State however there seems to be new plantings and vines coming to age in places like Virginia (tasted), Arizona (tasted), Texas Hill Country (haven't tasted) to name a few.  The wine I am about to talk about is from Virginia, specifically just west of Charlottesville.  Thomas Jefferson had struggled to grow vines at his Monticello estate (which is beautiful).  There seems to be a new lease on the wine coming from Virginia.  If I recall this Mountfair that I tried was the wineries first efforts hence the name Inaugural I suppose.

2008 Mountfair Inaugural, Cabernet Franc/Merlot, Monticello, Virginia
consumed sometime in 2009, $20.00

If I recall this wine was pretty good for the price and I probably drank it way too young.  A blend of 66% Cabernet Franc and 34% Merlot sweet, plum, vegetative (from the Cab Franc), spice, a little damp earth.  A nice ripe fruit blast in the front palate, mid and finish were lacking.  I wrote down that it was quite oakey, possibly too much oak? For the price of $20.00, I called it a good buy.

For all of you east coasters near Virginia, here are a couple wineries I remember liking and that I'd love to revisit so send me some!!  Barboursville winery (Barboursville Wine), Virginia, try their Octagon, I remember it being pretty dang good back then.  Also, try Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard, Maryland, west of Washington, D.C. maybe two hours (Sugarloaf Winery).   Happy tasting and Happy Friday!

Sugarloaf Mountain Winery

Sugarloaf Mountain Winery