Horton Vineyards. July 6, 2021

 

Horton Vineyards.    July 6, 2021

The night before our visit to Horton Vineyards, we stayed in Charlottesville.  We drove up to the Barboursville/Gordonsville area on the beautiful Stony Point Road – Route 20.  I highly recommend this approach to put you in a wine tasting mood, compared to the hectic Route 29.  Horton Vineyards has been around since 1989 and is a well-respected brand.  The vineyard and facilities sit on flat land outside of Gordonsville, a short distance from Barboursville Vineyards and Burnley.  The view is not remarkable.  The winery occupies a faux-chateau complete with turret.  The tasting room had few places to actually sit, as COVID-19 restrictions were still in effect here.  To consume our flights, with the cheese and crackers we brought with us, we had to go upstairs to a poorly appointed somewhat dingy loft room that overlooked the tasting room – folding chairs and old stuffed furniture.  It was not clear whether the fireplace in the tasting room worked. 

We each bought tasting flights of three wines each. 

Blanco XOCO.  White chocolate dessert wine.  Kim says this would be good with dark chocolate.

Nebbiolo Rose Private Reserve.  Some residual sugar.  Best served chilled.

Stonecastle White.  Kim gave this a B grade as a not-so-dry white wine.

Malbec.  Not much aroma for a Malbec.  No residual sugar.  Not too sophisticated for a $30.00 bottle.

Rkatsiteli.  An unusual option.  Rkatsiteli (pronounced r-kat-si-teli) from the Republic of Georgia has only been introduced at Horton since 1996 when cold temperatures killed a number of vines.  It is a very light white wine but not much taste.  Rkatsiteli is produced in several other Virginia wineries.  It would be good to sample widely.

Titfortat.  This is a very light red blend that could do with some chilling.  It has some tannin.  I liked it better than the Malbec.

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