Catoctin Breeze Vineyars Wins 2019 MD Comptroller’s Cup With 2017 Estate Cabernet Franc

by Richard Leahy | May 30, 2019 | Competitions, News/Announcements, Regions & Terroir

– Following the success of the their 2016 Cabernet Franc, Catoctin Breeze Vineyard in Thurmont has won the 2019 Comptroller’s Cup with their 2017 Estate Cabernet Franc. Standing out from 165 competing wines from 31 wineries, this Cabernet Franc took top honors...

King Family Vineyards’ 2016 Mountain Plain Red Blend Wins 2019 Monticello Cup

by Richard Leahy | Apr 29, 2019 | Competitions, News/Announcements, Regions & Terroir, Tastings/Evaluations, Virginia Wine

From a field of 60 entries, all from grapes grown in the Monticello AVA, and from a final field of six (three white wines and three red wines), the top wine of the 2019 Monticello Cup competition was the Mountain Plains 2016 from King Family Vineyards in Crozet. This...

Karl Hambsch of Loving Cup Winery is 2019 VVA “Grower of the Year”

by Richard Leahy | Feb 22, 2019 | News/Announcements, Regions & Terroir

At the annual technical meeting of the Virginia Vineyards Association meeting at the Omni in February, Karl Hampsch, proprietor of Loving Cup Winery in North Garden was named “Grower of the Year” for 2019. The award was presented by Bettina Ring, Virginia...

My First Taste of 2017 and 2018 Virginia Wines

by Richard Leahy | Dec 27, 2018 | Regions & Terroir, Tastings/Evaluations, Virginia Wine, Winery Visits

So first, let me take back the complete and total write-off I made of the 2018 vintage in Virginia recently. Nobody will dispute that as far back as we can remember, this vintage was the pits, for the inches of rain and crop loss either due to poor fruit set in May or...

Finger Lakes Tasting Tour #2: The Light, Lovely Wines of the 2017 Vintage

by Richard Leahy | Nov 12, 2018 | Regions & Terroir, Winery Review

Part 1: Keuka Lake As I explained in my previous blog post, these are notes on my second trip this year to the Finger Lakes of central New York. It gave me a chance to visit wineries I’d missed on my previous trip, and also to taste the early releases of the lovely,...

VA and MD Wines on the Way North, 10/18

by Richard Leahy | Nov 3, 2018 | Regions & Terroir, Tastings/Evaluations, Winery Visits

Regular readers may remember I did a marathon tasting tour of the Finger Lakes of New York last June. Since the region has about 200 wineries, I couldn’t get to each one. In mid-October, I returned and visited places I had missed on the previous trip, and I’m pleased...