Early Fall Fresh, Bright, 2020 VA White Wines

by Richard Leahy | Sep 8, 2021 | Tastings/Evaluations, Varietals, Virginia Wine

Virginia wineries are now releasing their 2020 white wines and rosés. I recommend seeking them out and enjoying them as long as hot summer weather lasts in September into October. I enthusiastically reviewed the early-released 2019 red wines, and some whites, back in...

Wine of the Week: Childress Cabernet Franc 2004

by Richard Leahy | May 14, 2021 | Regions & Terroir, Tastings/Evaluations, Varietals

    In 2004 I had the pleasure of traveling to Lexington, NC and interviewing Richard Childress, the famous NASCAR legend and then the owner of a new, eponymous winery in the Yadkin Valley AVA. The resulting story made the cover of a national wine trade...

Blind Tasting Report: Red Virginia Wines from 2019

by Richard Leahy | Feb 14, 2021 | Tastings/Evaluations, Varietals, Virginia Wine

This is part two (red wines) for my blind tasting report on the very good 2019 vintage now being bottled and sent to market. Whites, rosés, and light to medium-bodied reds like Cabernet Franc and some Meritage blends have been bottled and will be released soon. This...

Gabrielle Rausse Merlot ’19 “Unsulfited”: Review

by Richard Leahy | Aug 22, 2020 | Tastings/Evaluations, Varietals, Virginia Wine

Part of the natural wine movement is seeing wines labeled as “unsulfited”. Why doesn’t everyone do this? Because potassium metabisulfite, when added to wine, reacts with oxygen and binds it to sulfur molecules to create SO2, which helps preserve the...

Wine of the Week: Veritas Petit Verdot 2010, Paul Shaffer 4th Ed.

by Richard Leahy | Apr 13, 2020 | Tastings/Evaluations, Varietals, Virginia Wine

Emily Pelton, winemaker at Veritas Vineyards, has earned a reputation for top Petit Verdot. Regular readers may recall that Veritas won the Monticello Cup almost 2 years ago for their 2015 Petit Verdot. I had tasted the Veritas Vineyards Petit Verdot 2010 Paul Shaffer...

Wine of the Week: Horton Vineyards Pinotage Rose 2018

by Richard Leahy | Sep 30, 2019 | Tastings/Evaluations, Varietals, Virginia Wine

As we know, 2018 was a very difficult vintage for Virginia vintners, but despite that, the industry has been through bad vintages before and I’ve never seen such a bad vintage that people worked so hard through to get such surprisingly good wines from. One of...