Our started with a 10 minute video explaining the tradition of wine making and the history of the winery. Patrick Duffler and his wife traveled from Belgium to Virginia with plans to start a European style winery. The vineyard was first planted in 1983, but the first harvest to produce wine was not until 1988. The video also featured the winemakers Matt Meyer and Mary West who exclaimed their passion for wine and the wine making process. They discussed how the grape vines are pruned in the winter before the plants start to bud in the spring. In late spring a canopy will form and cluster of fruit will start to grow. In early summer, the plants will be thinned before the harvest in late summer or early fall.
After the video, our tour began my traveling down into the cellar. The day of our visit the cellar, was 59 degrees and had a distint smell of yeast and musty, wet wood. The Williamsburg Winery actually has the largest cellar in Virginia and uses three different types of Oak barrels for different style of wine. American oak barrels with cost $300, Hungarian $500, and French which can cost over $1000. The oak barrels are used 3 to 4 years or about 10 years before they are donated are sold to different establishments across historical Williamsburg. Each barrel can hold 60 gallons of wine or 300 bottles, but each year the wine sits in the barrel, a gallon of wine in lost.
The Williamsburg Winery is one of the few wineries in Virginia that has their own bottling facilities. This bottling facility can fill 1200 in an hour. Although the winery is the largest in Virginia, they still only produce about 65 thousand cases of wine a year, a much smaller production when compared to a California winery. Therefore, the bottling facilities does not run everyday, and unfortunately was not operating the day we visited.
Next we traveled to the smaller of the 3 stainless steal vats. These vats hold 1500 gallons and are used ferment chardonnay, spice, and dessert wines. We traveled upstairs to see the larger stainless vats. Here our guide explained the fermentation of red vs. white wines. White wines are destemed before being pressed into big bags and pressed. The juice is fermented at 55 degrees. Red wine is crushed with skins and put into large vats outside at 88 degrees. This adds tanins that characterize many red wines. The majority of their red wines will age in oak barrels.
The owner of the Williamsburg winery wanted to preserve the history of wine making and the farm at the winery. He has a huge collection of old bottles of wine. The oldest were the onion bottle from Brazil. It was interesting to see the evolution of bottling over the last 300 years.
Finally we made it to the tasting room. We tasted a total of 7 wines, 3 white, 3 red, and 1 dessert wine. Overall, I was not a fan of most of their wines. They are known for a European style of wine, but mostly I thought the balance was just not quite right between the acidity and the dryness.
2008 Samuel Argall Dry Riesling- 100% Riesling
This was a dry Riesling aged in stainless steel and made in the Alsace style. It had a nice deep golden hue with citrus and green apple tones. I thought this wine was slightly closed and was not as expressive as I would have liked, and it was one of the driest Riesling I have had with nearly no sugars left. Non the less, it was an easy sipping wine and could be enjoyed with a light seafood dish.
2009 Acte 12 Chardonnay- 100% Chardonnay
I was excited to try this wine as half was aged in French, American, and Hungarian oak barrels while the other half was unoaked. Unfortunately, the oak monster hit this wine hard, and it tasted like I was eating butter popcorn full on. This wine had a slightly lighter color than the previously Riesling. Overall the wine was smooth and soft with a nice mouthfeel, but it was just too with the strong malic acid.
2010 Estate Grown Traminette- 100% traminette
I was exciting to try this wine as well, as I had never had a traminette. The wine smelled exactly like a Muscatto wine with fruity sweet smells. The noise could not have been more misleading. The wine had fruity flavors of strawberries, but the acidity and dryness was very overpowering it was hard to detect many of the fruit flavors. The wine also had a slightly spicy taste which just made this a strange wine. It was one of my least favorites of the day.
2006 Hening's Statute Virginia Claret- 38% Cab Sauvignon, 24% Cab Franc, 24% Petit Verdot, 14% Merlot
This was my husband's favorite wine and was described as a Bordoux style wine. Although it was aged it was extremely tannic. The tannins were so strong I had a difficult time finding the actual flavors in the wine; although there were slight flavors of blackberry and raspberry. To cut the tannins, this wine was also served with a smoked Gouda. With the cheese, I actually really enjoyed this wine! It was creamy, lush, smooth, and the berry tones were very much available. This was incredible case of how fatty foods can change the wine, and in this case, this wine would pair perfectly with some steaks.
2006 Merlot Reserve- 80% Merlot, 20% Cab Sauvignon
The merlot grapes were all hand picked and aged in new oak. I had a difficult time tasting or smelling the blueberry and black cherries that were used to describe this wine; instead all I could taste was the oak and the overall round mouth-feel of the Tannins. The more I drank this wine the more acidic the aftertaste became, which was different than the round smooth aftertaste of many reds. Overall I didn't hate this wine, but I didn't love it either. I would probably give this a pass in most circumstances.
2006 Gabriel Archer Reserve- 34% Cab Franc, 31% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot
This was my favorite of the red wines. Overall it had a nice round body nice berry tones, and an amazing smooth and creamy finish. The wine was still relativly closed and there was much more mouth-feel sensation than actual flavor, but I would have loved to try this wine again after it had been open for a few hours. This wine was aged in French, American, and Hungarian oak for 18 months.
Vin Licoreux de Framboise- dessert wine
This wine was like drinking a Raspberry skittle that punches you in the face. To make this wine they add Merlot to Raspberry juice and let them ferment together. At first I wasn't a fan of this wine, as the majority of the tasters did not like it including my husband. Luckily, this wine was not like drinking syrup; although sweet the acid from the fruit cuts the perception of the sugar, blending nicely to make a sweet and sour decadent dessert. This would pair nicely with a non-sugary dessert such as panacotta or fatty desserts like dark chocolate.
Overall I really enjoyed my trip to the Williamsburg winery and would definitively go again. I have already seen their wine sold in retail stores and have tried several that were not included in the tasting. The tour guide was great and I look forward to using the information I learned in future wine tastings.
