Wannabe Wino

The first stop we made on our visit to Virginia Wine Country last weekend was to Swedenburg Vineyards. You drive up a one lane road to the tasting room(so be careful, you need to pull over if you meet anyone else). The tasting room is not too big and it looks new, though the woman in the tasting room (I think she was the owner?) said they had been there for 25 years, but I think she might have misunderstood my question!

A tasting at Swedenburg costs $3, which is not too bad of a fee, though they don't refund with purchase either. They were tasting five wines on Monday, all of which were very well done in my opinion, and all of which were excellent values, with the most expensive being $20. This is the 7th vineyard we have visited in Virginia and overall, I was most impressed with the consistent quality of the wines here.

Here's the run-down of wines tasted:
Reisling- Very reserved fruit on this, but good apple tones. Not too sweet at all and would be an easy wine to start an evening with. Good structure, and quite a value at $15 a bottle.

Chantilly- This was an excellent off-dry bottle of wine. Very aromatic, with a floral nose. Pear in the mouth. Easy to drink and would go well either on it's own or with a light white fish. A bargain at $12 a bottle. We took home two.

C'est La Vie (Rose)- Easily the star of the show here. We really liked this bottle of wine. A very dry rose with a good strawberry and raspberry character. We took home 3 botttles and will hopefully be sipping this one on our own porch come this summer! Fantastic value at $12.

Pinot Noir- Pepper and spices on the nose of this of this one with a hint of oak. Reserved berry flavor in the mouth. One of the best done reds I've tasted in Virginia to date. Not a bad deal at $18 a bottle, we took home one.

Cabernet Sauvignon-This would be good with a steak. It was a bigger bodied wine and could easily stand up to a nice pepper grilled steak.

We were the only visitors in the tasting room on Monday morning. The owner was quite quiet at first, but she warmed up to us after she saw that I was really taking notes on the wines. I then explained, as best I could, how I was going to do a write-up of the vineyard for my website. Then she was eager to tell me more about the vineyard and she even gave me her recipe for mulled wine. It was quite cold in the tasting room, which was odd because it was so warm out!! I recommend a visit to Swedenburg highly.