These days, newcomers joining the industry who say they want to make pinot noir in Virginia (or most anywhere in the East) can expect to get laughed at, since so many have failed (and are still failing) in that quixotic quest. In Virginia, the high humidity, thin skins, and tight clusters of the pinot noir combine to make an uphill battle for those struggling to make a well-ripened pinot that is free from rot, damaged grapes, and will make a wine worth the effort.

However, the new, small, Burgundian-style winery Ankida Ridge high in Amherst County is not only focused and passionate, but has done their homework from the ground up, hiring viticulturist Lucie Morton and paying attention to every detail in the process. The result is the most remarkable pinot noir I’ve had from the Eastern U.S. (Le Clos Jordanne in Ontario’s Niagara Bench makes an equally impressive one). This wine was tasted at the multi-winery tasting hosted by Boxwood Vineyards at TasteCamp.

Ankida Ridge Pinot Noir 2010 Virginia: The color was translucent but a healthy dark hue of red/violet, with no hint of orange. The nose was a brilliant mix of red and black cherry with some exotic spices; cardamom and anise with a hint of pepper. A sexy combination! On the palate, intensely bright and vivid flavors of cherry mixed with the spice elements, and a vibrant crisp acidity, crucial to any successful Burgundian-style pinot. The fruit and palate dimension were full (13.5% alcohol) but the finish was fresh and long. Stylistically, this was close to the Marlborough style of pinot noir from New Zealand, i.e. fully ripe but with lots of vibrant acidity to balance. Ankida Ridge also knew what not to do, i.e. they let the wine be fruit-forward with oak tastefully in the background.

So, as they say, you CAN successfully make pinot noir in Virginia, only you can’t afford to make any mistakes. Ankida Ridge has taken the trouble to avoid the mistakes, and made fine wine instead! (Note: I expect to be impressed by the 2011 Ox Eye pinot noir from the Shenandoah Valley; despite the wretched track record of reds from that vintage in Virginia, I tasted it in the barrel, and it was harvested BEFORE the September rains started).

Boxwood Vineyards “Boxwood” 2010: This is Boxwood’s “right bank” style blend dominated by cabernet sauvignon, merlot and petit verdot. This was the best vintage in a decade for Virginia reds. The nose was a complex blend of ripe cassis, clean earth, cedar and cigar box. On the palate, ripe full fruit flavors are followed by deep rich texture of smooth tannins, earth tones and mocha chocolate.

Developing early, this will drink best starting in the fall and evolve well over the next decade.

This author distributed autographed copies of Beyond Jefferson’s Vines to attendees and enjoyed a fine lunch accompanied by 2007 and 2010 vintage wines from Boxwood Vineyards, and a post-lunch tasting of wineries from around the state.

Frank Morgan, co-organizer, has posted remarks from participating wineries (“from the other side of the punt”) on his blog; readers can visit http://drinkwhatyoulike.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/view-from-the-punt-perspectives-on-tastecamp-from-the-other-side-of-the-bottle-part-i/.

Boxwood Winery will welcome wine-touring and tasting visitors Fridays through Sunday from 11 am until 6 pm.
Tasting flights of current Boxwood vintages will be available in the Tasting Room. Guests to Boxwood will be
encouraged to enjoy Boxwood wines by the glass or bottle in courtyard seating with sweeping views of the
vineyard. Boxwood wines will also be available for regular retails sales by the bottle and case in the Winery’s
Tasting Room.

Groups of six or larger are asked to reserve space in advance of arrival. Touring limousines are welcome;
buses will not be permitted.

Boxwood Winery looks forward to welcoming the public to view the architecturally renowned winery building
and enjoy Boxwood’s award-wining estate bottled wines: Boxwood, Topiary, Trellis, and Rose.

Boxwood Estate Winery
2042 Burrland Road
1/2 mile south of Middleburg on State Highway 626, The Plains Road
Middleburg, Virginia
540-687-8778 x1

Public business hours beginning June 8 through September 15, 2012:
Friday through Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm
Business hours will adjust seasonally.

Best Wine and Best of Category Winners are as follows:

• Best wine (sole double gold): Abbey at Holy Cross cabernet franc 2010, Canyon City
• Best red: Garfield syrah Grand Valley 2009
• Best white: Plum Creek Palisade white NV
• Best rose: Boulder Creek dry rose 2010
• Best fruit wine: Colorado Cellars peach

I judged at the competition following the annual Drink Local Wine conference, hosted by the Colorado Wine board in Denver, and a day of visiting wineries on Colorado’s Front Range between Boulder and Denver.

Reviewing My 2012 Visit to Colorado and the Drink Local Wine Conference

Since I first visited Colorado’s wine industry in 2006, I’ve been a firm believer in the potential of world-class wine quality here. I was pleased to taste a wide range of excellent wines in the Twitter Taste-Off, and some in the competition and on the tour. I was also pleased to see the improvement of quality in some classes, like chardonnay and viognier, and the advent of some exciting new wineries like Ruby Trust.

Colorado has some unique industry dynamics that give its wine industry a bright future in some ways: high altitude vineyards with high ultra violet light, virtually no disease pressure, grape chemistry that yields wines with bright fruit flavors and firm acids, and an impressive and even astonishing spirit of experimentation, innovation and rugged individualism which results in one of the most diverse range of local products in the country.

At the same time, there are challenges. Two thirds of the winegrapes are located in the Grand ValleyAVA  in the Western Slope region. While vinifera viticulture is possible here, a massive winter event in 2009 brought freezing temperatures which devasted the vineyards and demonstrated that cold air drainage is a critical part of sustainable site selection in the state. For the last two years Colorado has been losing winegrape acreage, and some growers are leaving the business or switching to peach trees in the best sites.

I lead a seminar at the Drink Local Wine conference, hosted last Saturday at Metro State University in Denver, titled “Colorado Terroir and the Challenges of High Altitude Viticulture”, with state viticulturist Host Caspari, state enologist Stephen Menke, and commercial grower Bruce Talbott as speakers.  All three agreed that with the risk of freezes or winter kill, very limited room for growth of vinifera vineyards in the Grand Valley, and marginal prospects for vinifera sustainability elsewhere, the Colorado wine industry will have to consider more cold-hardy varieties including hybrids, in other parts of the state, for it to continue and expand.

The Twitter Taste-Off brought a hundred conference attendees the chance to taste and tweet on dozens of Colorado wines, ranging from vinifera varietals to hybrid varietals to meritage-style blends to meads.  As announced in a previous post, the winners of the Best Red and White awards were Guy Drew Vineyards Pinot Gris (grown in the Cortez area of Montezuma Co. in Four Corners) and “The Smuggler”, a 90% cabernet franc-dominated blend from the new and very promising Ruby Trust winery.

My favorite wines from the twitter taste-off were: for whites,

• Guy Drew unoaked chardonnay 2011, Montezuma Co. Bright and zesty, this had the lemony intensity of a true Chablis, instead of the boring ersatz pinot grigio that most unoaked chardonnay turns out to be. On the palate the wine was just as bright and lively lemony as on the nose, with long firm acid; a perfect food wine, and a category changer for this overworked variety.
• Infinite Monkey Theorum Riesling 2011, Grand Valley It takes a lot to impress this riesling maven, but this wine did. A Mosel/Saar dry style wine, it’s still very young and not very evolved but the mouth feel is an amazing combination of dense, lush white peach fruit and lively, tart green apple acidity. Complex and perfectly balanced, it needs a few more months to come together but will reward patient cellaring in the near, and long term (Stelvin cap finished).
• Snowy Peaks Elevee Blanc 2010 (60% viognier, 40% roussanne) Few vintners dare to make a white Rhone blend due to their obscurity in the U.S. (just look how few white meritage wines are made), but this is a skillful blend that does homage to the grapes. The nose is subtle with prickly-pear aromas tinged with cinnamon. Like flavors on the palate are rounded out by a rich unctous texture that ends with fresh acidity. An excellent food wine especially with Southwest cuisine.

My favorite red wines from the twitter taste-off were

• Ruby Trust “Smuggler” 2009: This cabernet franc-dominated blend was incredibly smooth, with aromas of red and black fruits with baking spices and a cherry/chocolate finish. With an alcohol level of 14.5%, it’s easy to understand why this smooth and elegant yet spicy and intriguing wine won out over more tannic competitors. It also shows the potential for cabernet franc as a proud leading grape in a state where some are calling it “Colorado’s cabernet”.
• Snowy Peaks Winery Petite Sirah 2009: As with another fine example from Bookcliff winery, Snowy Peaks’ petite sirah shows how elegant this grape can be in the higher altitude terroir of Colorado. This wine is violet tinged, with a rich and spicy mix of briar fruits on the nose dominated by blueberry, and hints of oak. On the palate, the wine is rich, with deeply concentrated fruit but smooth tannins. This is a fruitier less tannic style than seen in California but also has better balanced acidity. STylish.
  
• Ruby Trust “Gunslinger” 2009: This spicy bold and rich blend is syrah-dominated, and is more punchy than the Smuggler, but I still enjoyed it. On the nose, I was intrigued by dusty cocoa powder with cola and nutmeg hints. On the palate, the wine was huge, spicy and peppery, with black cherry fruit and a long finish. This wine is big but balanced and has years of life ahead.

Best white wine: Guy Drew Pinot Gris

People’s choice awards: Brightstone Meadery’s “Nectar of the House”

Media’s favorite wine: Guy Drew Vineyards Pinot Gris

The WE said of Barrel Oak, “Little ones are greeted with juice boxes, and fun photographs of dogs adorn the tasting room walls,” and pointed out that being dog-friendly was a natural complement to being family-friendly.

Two of the six wineries mentioned by WE were in California, one was on Long Island (Pindar), one in Western Australia, and only one was in Europe (France).

Kudos to Brian Roeder and the BOW team on this fine achievement! You can read the full article online at http://www.winemag.com/Wine-Enthusiast-Magazine/Web-2012/6-Top-Family-Friendly-Wineries/index.php#.T5cZcq-VQT0.facebook

Speaking of Facebook, Barrel Oak Winery is asking for your help; they want to reach 2000 Friends on Facebook so visit them on Facebook as well as at the winery.

This writer will moderate a seminar on “Colorado terroir and the challenges of high altitude viticulture”. Other seminars will explore the disconnect between the locavore food movement and the local wine scene nationwide and what can be done about it; consumer perceptions of Colorado wine, a blind taste challenge with Colorado wines, and the Nomacorc Twitter Taste-Off starting at 2PM, during which attendees can “taste and tweet” about their favorite Colorado wines.

A retail tasting of Colorado wines in Denver last night, where attendees could meet Drink Local Wine co-founders Jeff Siegel and Dave McIntyre, drew about 100 attendees according to Siegel.

Information on the conference including maps, schedules and other details can be found online at www.drinklocalwine.com.

Hagarty interviewed me about the book which is on his blog, Hagarty on Wine, at http://www.hagarty-on-wine.com/OnWineBlog/?p=6035. Siegel read and reviewed the book on his “wine curmudgeon” blog, at http://www.winecurmudgeon.com/my_weblog/2012/04/book-review-beyond-jeffersons-vines-the-evolution-of-quality-wine-in-virginia.html.

I’ve also just learned that you can order Beyond Jefferson’s Vines direct from Amazon.com at less than full retail price ($19.95); if your order is large enough (total, not just of one book), you can get free shipping! Also, the book should arrive in less than a week; a couple told me while I was selling the books at the Monticello Wine Trail Festival that they had ordered the book online and had already gotten it.