Vineyard update from Virginia’s own, Glen Manor Vineyards

I emailed Jeff White of Glen Manor Vineyards the other day and asked how his year was shaping up with the wetter than normal spring, and below is his response.

“Yes it was a cool wet spring. It now appears that summer is here, sunny, dry and a little cooler than normal. The vineyard came through fine, no disease. We are letting the grasses grow long and we’re putting off hedging as late as possible, trying to retard lateral shoot growth and of course lots and lots of leaf removal around the clusters. Looks like a lite crop, some set issues as there was rain during flowering. Means we will not have to drop fruit on some vines but most others still will require some green harvesting. We start green harvesting in a couple of weeks. Way too early to predict quality….think sun. Bright side of all the wet weather, our 2008 and 2009 plantings are flourishing on their un-irrigated slopes.”

Make sure to check out Glen Manor, fabulous wines and beautiful views!

Cheers!

Nothing small about this Petit Verdot!

Petit Verdot, one of the five red Bordeaux varietals is rarely produced as a single varietal. It is most often used in blends, to add color, and structure as well as some of its natural dark fruity notes. Here in Virginia there is a producer that is making it as a single varietal and doing a damn good job of it. I wrote about Glen Manor vineyards a while back after I visited their brand new tasting room and met Jeff White, the winemaker and owner.  For those who didn’t know, Jeff’s grapes were behind the excellent vineyard designated wines (Glen Manor Red) that were produced by Jim Law at Linden Vineyards for several years. Jeff is on his own now, and of his first bottlings the 2005 Petit Verdot is stellar. Petit Verdot is generally a late ripening grape, which makes it even more amazing that a Virginia vineyard can produce it so well.

 

Megan and I sat down last night with some of our homemade veggie pizza and opened one of the bottles we picked up back in May.  The color is simply amazing, dark purple that fades to magenta at the edges, reminding you of a young Zinfandel. Jeff provides some great info on the vintage as well as the winemaking process for this wine, so rather than paraphrase, I just throw it all in.

 

Vineyard: Located on the west slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains, around 1,100 feet above sea level.  This planting consists of .6 acre of 8 year old vines growing in deep and well drained soils, (Myersville/Catoctin).  The vines are cordon trained and spur pruned to the Geneva Double Curtain trellising system.

Vintage: This was a classic Virginia vintage with normal rainfall, sunshine and temperatures.  Spring began cool which delayed bud break and summer also started rather cool but gradually warmed to normal Virginia summertime temperatures.  Just in time for verasion and ripening, August was hot and dry, followed by a dry September and near dry October.  In early October the remnants of hurricane Tammy left 4.5 inches of rain. After about two weeks, the vineyard dried, the grapes were harvested on October 21, 2005. 

Winemaking: The grapes were hand picked and then double sorted, (pre-destemming and post-destemming), to remove unripe pink berries and stem fragments.  Fermentation began naturally in small one ton bins and punch downs occurred one to two times per day.  Pressing took place about 7 to 10 days later, before fermentation had finished.  This wine aged in new and old French, Hungarian and Virginia oak barrels for 28 months.   Unfined and unfiltered, it is 100% Petit Verdot.  73 cases produced.  Best, 2010 through 2015.

My Tasting Notes –

 

Nose – Blackberry, pine, tar, blueberry pie, hint of prune

Taste – Sweet cedar, black currant, leather, smoke

Mouthfeel – Medium to fuller bodied, smooth in the middle but the tannins were nice and fuzzy and the acid levels were perfect with all the rich fruit flavors

Finish – dry and long, with the tannins leaving a nice peach fuzz feeling on the tounge and cheeks. Notes of pine and blackberry lingered on for a while.

 

My wife made the comment, “wow, I can’t believe this came from Virginia.”  Not that we both haven’t had wines we loved from Virginia, there are many, this was just truly great. Excellent rich and full mouthfeel, loads of dark fruit, and structure that shows the aging potential of the wine.  This was great with our pizza, but you meet lovers could put this with some nice lamb or roast beef and I think it would pair beautifully. 

 

Personally I can’t wait for Glen Manor to release their next wines, I believe a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are up for their next vintage.

 

Cheers!

Playing Hooky Enjoying Virginia Wine Country

Friday, Megan and I had the day off from work so we decided to take advantage and visit some wineries that we had been talking about for a while. We visited 5 wineries on the day, 3 of which were new visits for us.  Today’s post will talk about one of the new (to us) wineries which also happened to be one of our top picks for the day. 

 

Glen Manor Vineyards is just a few miles from skyline drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. You can actually see the thin line of Skyline Drive tracing across the mountain tops that surround the estate forming a natural glen that envelop the vineyards.  For fans of Virginia wines you may recognize the name Glen Manor, as vineyard manager and now winemaker Jeff White has been supplying grapes to Linden Vineyards since the vineyard was planted in 1995.  Jeff worked side by side with Jim Law for many years and Jim’s style of winemaking is evident in the wines that Jeff is producing now. But great wines come from great vineyards and Jeff’s passion for the land is evident, and you can hear it in his voice when he describes the different vineyards that are surround the newly constructed winery and tasting room.

 

There have been two major plantings of vineyards since Jeff has been managing Glen Manor Vineyards. The first six acres in 1995, at an elevation between 1000 and 1100 feet is comprised of Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.  In 2008 an additional 4 acres was planted on 25 acres of land that has been cleared with Petit Manseng, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.  This site is at a slightly higher elevation and will utilize a VSP trellis system versus the Open Lyre system that the original vineyard uses.  In 2009 another 4 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc will be planted on the 25 acre site.

 

Currently in the tasting room Jeff only has two offerings, both of which were fabulous.

 

The first we tasted was the 2007 GMV Sauvignon Blanc coming from primarily 12 year old vines with about ½ an acre of 5 year old wines as well.  The grapes were whole cluster pressed and primarily the free run juice was used for the final bottling after fermenting and aging in stainless steel tanks.  On the nose were luscious citrus, apple, pear, and grapefruit notes with honey, spice, mineral and a hint of jalapeno on the finish. It was very Marlborough – esque in flavor and acidic profile but had much more minerality most likely coming from the rocky content of the vineyard soil.

 

The second was the 2005 GMV Petit Verdot coming from 8 year old vines from an elevation of 1100 feet. Double sorted both pre and post destemming before heading into French, Hungarian and Virginian Oak for 28 months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. On the nose were notes of raspberry, cherry and smokey/leathery notes followed up by blackberry and cinnamon spice flavors that lead into a long finish with leathery tannins.

 

 

 

Before we left with our purchases of both wines, we decided to enjoy a glass Petit Verdot on the back patio of the winery and look over at the mountains that had finally peeked out from the clouds of a rather gray day.  Definitely give Jeff a visit, he is great to talk to and you will not be disappointed by the wines or the views.

 

Cheers