Bare Feet Sipping

So I had my first virtual tasting through Twitter last Wednesday.  Needless to say, I couldn't find the correct wines, but found some comparable, my old machine couldn't keep up with the volume of tweets (I swear it groaned at one point), waking at 5am and staying awake for a 7-9pm tasting wasn't working out too well, so by 8:30 my contacts were sticking to my eyeballs and I lost interest.  (Not with the wines, mind you.)

Nonetheless, it was fun to be a small part of a larger picture, and, best of all, I didn't have to get dressed up--bare feet ya'll--awesome!!!  I jotted down my overall perceptions of each wine below.  what the? (so I'm sitting here minding my own business and I start hearing this eerie, high-pitched "music" and damnit if it isn't a little bastard of a mosquito! I hate these damn things.  And by the way, I'm still on my quest to find wines that when consumed regularly, will repel the little monsters, not unlike vampires and garlic.)

Very quick as to why Viognier does well here:  the grapes are thick-skinned with loose clusters, which means that works in the humidor we call the Virginia countryside.  Anyhell, my wines, from my own Virginia Viognier private dancer tasting:

Horton Vineyards, 2010 Viognier Orange County
Bright, pale gold.  The wine doesn't jump out of the glass and shout “hello” like most Viogniers, rather its scents lure your beak into the glass, gently, with fragrances of sage blossom honey, lightly roasted pineapple and a touch of lime.  Palate structure is racy, with lemon/lime notes and honeyed spice.  The Horton finishes with a tang of gasoline (not petrol), which, I gotta say, I'm digging.  I've heard only good things about winemakers Dennis and Sharon Horton.  A fabulous Viognier. (And as a side note, I didn’t finish the entire bottle—ha! So I corked it, placed it back in the fridge and I opened it last night, just to see, and it held up alright.  I used the rest for a pasta dish.) Verra nice.

Keswick Vineyards, 2005 Viognier Monticello
I thought trying a 2005 against all the young studs would be enlightening to the possible longevity of Virginia Viognier, so here goes:
Yellow-gold in the glass, which generally means the wine has some age.  But is she wearing it well?  Nose is definitely honeyed mangoes and peaches, acids are present, taking a supporting role, but there is an older vanilla scent, not bad, could just be the inevitable approaching.  The finish lingered well, with the taste of peaches on my tongue.  So quite an interesting older wine from Al and Cindy Schornberg, and at 6 years, I think the 2005 could have a few more years left in her.  Nicely done.

All in all a fun evening, although I did lurk on the Twitter.  (is that correct terminology?)  So this upcoming weekend is the Wine Bloggers Conference in Charlottesville and I must say I'm quite excited.  No more lurking! This will be a live blogging and tweeting event.  I also plan to get some feedback on a paper my geologist friend and I have been tooling around, concerning Virginia's burgeoning wine evolution and if its terroir can support it.  We'll see what happens.

later gator,
Tina