I realized shortly after heading to Sonoma that I had far too many posts left to make from the DC International Wine and Food Festival and the trip to Sonoma was only going to make me further behind on those. I was entirely right and found it more interesting to talk to you all about our actual experiences in Sonoma, so the posts about the Festival took a backseat. I still have plenty of vineyard visits from Sonoma to tell you about, but I'm going to throw one in now from the Festival.
Though to be honest, we actually visited Alexander Valley Vineyards on our very first trip to Sonoma in 2006. I've reviewed some of their wines here before, most recently the delicious Cyrus for Open That Bottle Night. When I saw the vineyard at the Festival I was very interested to taste the new line-up, especially since OTBN had only been a few days before.
2006 Estate Chardonnay: 70% Stainless Steel, 30% Neutral barrel with no maloactic. Pineapple, pear, nicely done.
2005 Temptation Zin: 92% Zin, 8% Sangiovese. Strawberry, spice, dark berries, fruity. Well done, I liked this one.
2006 Sin Zin: Berry, spice, cherry, raspberry.
2005 Redemption Zin: Spicier than the others, with darker fruit, some leather. This one was all from Dry Creek Valley, where the Temptation is Dry Creek and Alexander Valley fruit and the Sin is all Alexander Valley fruit.
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon: Blended with Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Leather, red berries, funk, spicy, layered berries, fruitier as I swirled.
I've quickly learned that if you actually pay attention and are interested in what the wineries have to offer, they like to talk to you and offer to let you taste special wines. With that in mind, I got to taste a special one from Alexander Valley Vineyards!
2004 Top of Crop Cabernet Sauvignon: 200 cases made, aged 18 months in oak, picked specially for the great fruit. This was a big wine with lots of dark fruit, spice, smoke, dark berries and chocolate. Very good.
Showing posts with label DC International Wine and Food Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DC International Wine and Food Festival. Show all posts
Jessie's Grove
Note: This will be the first in a series of posts on the wineries I discovered at the D.C. International Wine and Food Festival.
On my second day at the festival, I stopped by the booth for Jessie's Grove Winery, a family owned winery located in Lodi, CA. I had 3 hours of trade tasting ahead of me, and this was my second stop for the day. Since I was at the festival the moment the doors opened, I felt like I had more leeway on the second day to stop and chat and learn more about the vineyards.
The owner was at the festival by himself pouring the wines and was kind enough to spend quite a while talking with me about his winery, though he told me that his mother is the family historian and has actually written a book about the family and the winery. The family has owned the property since 1858 and has some of the oldest vineyards in the US, with the oldest vines sill producing having been planted in 1889. Talk about a winery that might actually make a claim on "Old Vine" for their labels! They have been farming their land continuously for 5 generations, though they did not begin making their own wine for commercial sale until 1997. In total, Jessie's Grove boasts 250 acres of grapes and produces 12,000 cases of wine per year. I was able to taste 4 wines at the festival:
2006 Earth Zin and Fire: Retails for $12.99. I got vanilla, cream, berries, blackberries and an aftertaste of maple syrup, the kind you get from Vermont.
2005 Westwind Old Vine Zinfandel: Retails for $24.50 and is made from grapes from 65 year old vines. I found the wine to be spicy, with cherry and raspberry.
2005 Ancient Vine Carignane: Retails for $18.00. The label for this wine was designed by the owner's mother, and was the original label for all the winery's products. The wine is made from the vineyards planted in 1889! I found the wine to be smoky, with vanilla toast, currants, and dark red fruit.
2004 Petite Sirah: Retails for $24.50. Creamy, dark fruit, blueberry, smooth and ready to drink.
Two other points of interest: Jessie's Grove practices sustainable farming and their tasting room is housed in a building constructed in 1890! A very nice family operation, and some of my favorite wines tasted at the festival.
On my second day at the festival, I stopped by the booth for Jessie's Grove Winery, a family owned winery located in Lodi, CA. I had 3 hours of trade tasting ahead of me, and this was my second stop for the day. Since I was at the festival the moment the doors opened, I felt like I had more leeway on the second day to stop and chat and learn more about the vineyards.
The owner was at the festival by himself pouring the wines and was kind enough to spend quite a while talking with me about his winery, though he told me that his mother is the family historian and has actually written a book about the family and the winery. The family has owned the property since 1858 and has some of the oldest vineyards in the US, with the oldest vines sill producing having been planted in 1889. Talk about a winery that might actually make a claim on "Old Vine" for their labels! They have been farming their land continuously for 5 generations, though they did not begin making their own wine for commercial sale until 1997. In total, Jessie's Grove boasts 250 acres of grapes and produces 12,000 cases of wine per year. I was able to taste 4 wines at the festival:
2006 Earth Zin and Fire: Retails for $12.99. I got vanilla, cream, berries, blackberries and an aftertaste of maple syrup, the kind you get from Vermont.
2005 Westwind Old Vine Zinfandel: Retails for $24.50 and is made from grapes from 65 year old vines. I found the wine to be spicy, with cherry and raspberry.
2005 Ancient Vine Carignane: Retails for $18.00. The label for this wine was designed by the owner's mother, and was the original label for all the winery's products. The wine is made from the vineyards planted in 1889! I found the wine to be smoky, with vanilla toast, currants, and dark red fruit.
2004 Petite Sirah: Retails for $24.50. Creamy, dark fruit, blueberry, smooth and ready to drink.
Two other points of interest: Jessie's Grove practices sustainable farming and their tasting room is housed in a building constructed in 1890! A very nice family operation, and some of my favorite wines tasted at the festival.
DC Wine and Food Festival
I am back from 2 days spent at the DC International Wine and Food Festival! My lips are stained purple, my feet are killing me, and my hand is cramped from taking so many notes.
I went on day one from 1 until about 5. One to two were the trade hours, and I would say I got the most done that day during that time. Once it opened up to the public it was much harder to get around, the aisles filled up and it was sometimes 4 to 5 people deep to get near the tables. I spent day one with John from Anything Wine which was great, it was fun to have someone to go around with and talk to as we were waiting or tasting! I was also psyched to meet John, I've been a long time reader of his blog and he is a frequent commentor here!
Today I went by myself and pretty much only stayed for the trade hours from 11-2. Let me tell you, that was quite enough! I was going to stick around since it was open until 6, but I had visited a ton of booths, tasted many wines, and it got crowded the second they opened the doors.
Some initial thoughts: Seating somewhere would have been nice. Especially today. After a full day yesterday my feet were killing me today, and after about an hour I really would have appreciated a bench. People are not very careful (or polite) when tasting in such a mass setting. On day one, a woman decided that the floor was her dump bucket, and without even a glance down she turned her glass over, and tipped it out. On my foot. Today I got spit on. Apparently someone was practicing their spitting technique? Or else was new to the concept of spitting....the same fellow also had a penchant to tip his glass in the direction of the dump bucket and just fling the wine....uh, yeah, that doesn't work so well.
Now, I'm all about getting out of the way as soon as I am done tasting, and once the public came in, I tasted quickly and moved out of the way. Sadly, that apparently wasn't fast enough for some people who liked to shove and push their way to the front. I loved the trade hours since often I got to be the only person at a booth and could really talk to the person running it (some winemakers, some owners, some family members) and ask questions.
I tasted through a ton of wines. I tried to focus on importers and vineyards that I hadn't been to before, though I must admit, I dragged John to Rodney Strong yesterday, and I'm glad I did, since they weren't there today! I skipped the VA Vineyards since I was familiar with many of them, and have visited a ton of them.
Oddly enough, some of the places, both wineries and importers/distributors, just didn't show up. There were tables for them, and signs up, and they were on the list, but they weren't there. Notable on the first day to me was that Four Vines and Trentadue didn't show. I didn't have time to check if they were there today, but I did not notice them. Also, several of the wineries didn't come back for the second day.
I'm still figuring out how I want to break down the tastings I did for posts here, but I hope to start putting them up this week.
I went on day one from 1 until about 5. One to two were the trade hours, and I would say I got the most done that day during that time. Once it opened up to the public it was much harder to get around, the aisles filled up and it was sometimes 4 to 5 people deep to get near the tables. I spent day one with John from Anything Wine which was great, it was fun to have someone to go around with and talk to as we were waiting or tasting! I was also psyched to meet John, I've been a long time reader of his blog and he is a frequent commentor here!
Today I went by myself and pretty much only stayed for the trade hours from 11-2. Let me tell you, that was quite enough! I was going to stick around since it was open until 6, but I had visited a ton of booths, tasted many wines, and it got crowded the second they opened the doors.
Some initial thoughts: Seating somewhere would have been nice. Especially today. After a full day yesterday my feet were killing me today, and after about an hour I really would have appreciated a bench. People are not very careful (or polite) when tasting in such a mass setting. On day one, a woman decided that the floor was her dump bucket, and without even a glance down she turned her glass over, and tipped it out. On my foot. Today I got spit on. Apparently someone was practicing their spitting technique? Or else was new to the concept of spitting....the same fellow also had a penchant to tip his glass in the direction of the dump bucket and just fling the wine....uh, yeah, that doesn't work so well.
Now, I'm all about getting out of the way as soon as I am done tasting, and once the public came in, I tasted quickly and moved out of the way. Sadly, that apparently wasn't fast enough for some people who liked to shove and push their way to the front. I loved the trade hours since often I got to be the only person at a booth and could really talk to the person running it (some winemakers, some owners, some family members) and ask questions.
I tasted through a ton of wines. I tried to focus on importers and vineyards that I hadn't been to before, though I must admit, I dragged John to Rodney Strong yesterday, and I'm glad I did, since they weren't there today! I skipped the VA Vineyards since I was familiar with many of them, and have visited a ton of them.
Oddly enough, some of the places, both wineries and importers/distributors, just didn't show up. There were tables for them, and signs up, and they were on the list, but they weren't there. Notable on the first day to me was that Four Vines and Trentadue didn't show. I didn't have time to check if they were there today, but I did not notice them. Also, several of the wineries didn't come back for the second day.
I'm still figuring out how I want to break down the tastings I did for posts here, but I hope to start putting them up this week.
D.C International Wine and Food Festival
Thanks to Craig Camp of The Wine Camp Blog for his assistance in getting me a press pass for this event!I will be attending both days of the festival, and look forward to visiting many of the over 200 wineries and vineyards that will be pouring their wines. I'm also hoping that John of Anything Wine will be able to attend as well, he was also granted press credentials, and it would be exciting to meet more Virginia Wine Bloggers! By the way, if you haven't been checking out John's blog, it's definitely one to add to your list.
The D.C. International Wine and Food Festival is scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday at the Reagan Building in D.C. The festival features around 240 exhibitors, both of wine, spirits, food, and other related items. I found this short list of featured Wineries/Vineyards/Distributors but cannot find a full list. Anyone have any suggestions of places not to miss based off the short list?
Also, anyone have any thoughts on strategies for tackling such a large festival? I have not attended anything of this magnitude in the past! I'm thinking backpack instead of purse so I can have a hand free for my notebook and another for my wine glass, probably sneakers since I'll be on my feet most of the day, dark clothes because I'm bound to spill on myself or be spilled on, I'm considering attaching my Nalgene to my backpack via my Carabiner Hook so I don't have to be concerned about having a 3rd hand to carry a water bottle....Anything else anyone thinks I must do (besides the obvious of eating a solid breakfast/lunch and making sure to spit/dump and continue to eat while there!)?
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