Closing Out 2023

What’s Been Going On. 

Well, 2023 is coming to end, dear readers. It's tme to summarize what we've been up to.

We began 2023 by checking-in with Annette Boyd for our second annual interview.  We hope we’ll have another conversation with her next year.  Over the course of  2023, we also interviewed Gabriele Rausse (May), Dr. Mizuho Nita (July), and Kirk Wiles (October).  These are in addition to informal chats with at least 17 winery and vineyard owners who unfailingly offered unique insights on their passion of growing and making wine in Virginia’s challenging environment.  We expanded our Facebook reach through the Sabin Wine Journeys page and regularly post to the Virginia Wine Mafia Facebook group.

I also was privileged to attend the upper-level undergraduate/graduate-level “Introduction to Wine and Beer” course at George Mason University (March – May).  My sincere compliments to Professor Kerri LaCharite who must be the hardest working faculty member at GMU.  Every week, she not only produced insightful lectures but scouted wine shops and liquor stores for the best representatives of wines and beers for guided tastings in class.  It was Professor LaCharite who hauled industrial-sized buckets full sanitizing solution around the classroom, organized all of the tools and gathered the raw materials to insure that our beer-making project was a success.  She deserves a medal.

We have in mind a couple of trips already for 2024 including our long awaited trip to the Rhone Valley.  Also we are planning some interviews with prominent folks in the trade.  And as always we are keeping up with general developments in our background pages.  Please stay tuned and continue to check us out.

Our Top Wines for 2023.

As you know, we don’t buy wine at every venue we visit, but when we do, it’s generally a sign that we like the wine for the price.  Over the course of 2023, we captured our impressions of 44 wineries, vineyards, and cellars on this blog, and sampled 262 different wines.  Below are the wines we bought or rated very highly.  It is a mix of established varietals and experiments that keep Virginia wine interesting and vital: 

Whites

  • 2020 Verdi.  Lake Anna Winery 
  • 2020 Sauvignon Blanc.  Crimson Lane Vineyards.  A rare A- rating, but did not buy bottle
  • 2021 Roussanne.  Gabriele Rausse Winery
  • 2019 Chardonnay.  Blenheim Vineyards
  • 2021 Chardonnay Reserve.  Jefferson Vineyards
  • 2019 Chardonnay.  Rockbridge Vineyard
  • 2021 St. Mary’s Blanc.  Rockbridge Vineyard
  • 2022 Vidal Blanc.  Barren Ridge Vineyards
  • 2020 White Brix.  Brix and Columns Vineyards
  • 2018 Steamship White.  Zephaniah Farm Vineyards
  • 2022 Viognier.  The Vineyard and Winery at Lost Creek
  • 2022 Albarniño.  October One Vineyards
  • 2021 Chardonnay.  King Family Vineyards
  • 2021 Viognier.  Woodbrook Farm Vineyard
  • 2022 Sauvignon Blanc.  Boxwood Estate Winery

Blush/Rosé and Sparkling Wines

  • 2021 Rosé.  Brix and Columns Vineyards
  • 2019 Possibilities Sparkling White.  Zephaniah Farm Vineyard

Reds

  • 2019 Petit Verdot.  Potomac Point Vineyard and Winery
  • 2021 Cabernet Franc Reserve.  Mountain and Vine Vineyard and Winery
  • 2022 Cabernet Franc.  Vino dal Bosco Project - Gabriele Rausse Winery
  • 2021 Malbec.  Gabriele Rausse Winery
  • NV Collaboration Red.  Blenheim Vineyard
  • 2017 DeChiel Reserve Cabernet Franc.  Rockbridge Vineyard
  • 2020 Touriga.  Barren Ridge Vineyards
  • 2017 Three Captains Red.  Zephaniah Farm Vineyards
  • 2019 Rouge d’Été.  The Vineyard and Winery at Lost Creek
  • 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon.  October One Vineyard.
  • 2022 Goat Tower Merlot.  Hampton Roads Vineyard
  • 2020 Meritage.  King Family Vineyards
  • 2022 Barbera.  Burnley Vineyards
  • 2019 Vino di San Pietro.  Quattro Goombas Winery
  • 2020 Trellis.  Boxwood Estate Winery

Fortified Wines.

  • 2008 Penteli.  Mediterranean Cellars and Winery.  Rated A- but did not buy a bottle
  • 2019 Seven.  King Family Vineyards 

 

That’s it for 2023!  This is an ideal time to get some Virginia wine.  Bubbly or still, red, white, rosé, or Port-style for the cold nights.  I’ll leave you with some poetry to go with the liquid poetry I hope you’ll find in Virginia wine.  

All the Best From Roger and Kim Sabin                                  SEE YOU IN 2024!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Vindication   by Li Po

If heaven loved not the wine,
A Wine Star would not be in heaven;
If earth loved not the wine,
The Wine Spring would not be on the earth.
Since heaven and earth love the wine,
Need a tippling mortal be ashamed?
The transparent wine, I hear,
Has the soothing virtue of a sage,
While the turgid is rich, they say,
As the fertile mind of the wise.
Both the sage and the wise were drinkers,
Why seek for peers among gods and goblins?
Three cups open the grand door to bliss;
Take a jugful, the universe is yours.
Such is the rapture of the wine,
That the sober shall never inherit.

                                             trans. Shigeyoshi Obata

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