Virginia Wine Festival 2008

There's no better place to learn about Virginia's burgeoning wine industry than at the Virginia Wine Festival. This year's festival was held September 27-28 at the Prince William County Fairgrounds in Manassas, Virginia.

We departed our Dupont Circle condo amid gray skies, cool air, and a light rain -- fortunately we were dressed for such weather, and I was rather happy about the opportunity to wear some new fall clothes. Yet by the time we reached our destination it was sunny, hot, and oppressively humid. The dramatic change of weather had not occurred to me -- nor to most members of our group, many of whom did not even bring sunglasses. Oh well, we decided to literally sweat it out and enjoy white wine throughout the day.

The various wineries were spread out around the Fairgrounds in tents, and there was a large open area in the middle with tables for enjoying food and wine purchased on site. The $20 ticket price included a wine glass and free tastings at all of the wineries.

Each winery had at least 5 or 6 bottles of wine to sample. Many wineries had their own special blends of wine, though two varietals were showcased at every winery we visited: Viogner and Cabernet Franc.

Our group's favorite winery was Cardinal Point. They had an excellent - and award winning - 2006 Viogner, though many in our group preferred the "2007 A6," a blend of Viogner and Chardonnay. We enjoyed several bottles (there were 10 of us) of the A6 while we ate lunch and listened to the live music (the "Original" Rhondelles).

Another group favorite was the Chrysalis winery. They had an excellent and easy drinking Norton varietal called "Sarah's Patio Red." This is a light, fruity red wine served chilled. It tasted especially refreshing on such a hot day -- we all asked for a second taste of this wine! We learned that Norton is a red grape that is unique to Virginia and that Chrysalis has the largest single planting of Norton in the state.

There were too many disappointing wines and wineries to name, and on the whole Virginia wines are priced higher than their taste would suggest. Most of the wines we tasted were priced in the $15 - $30 range, yet their quality and taste were comparable to $8-$15 bottles from California and other well-established regions. We understand that that these are small wineries who need to keep prices high enough to stay in business, so we were happy to buy several bottles at the Festival. But I don't think I will seek out Virginia wines the next time I am at the store -- there are simply much better wines available for the price.