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All About Merlot

8/17/2022

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In this edition of Out of the Barrel, It's all about Merlot. Why Merlot? This classic and often misunderstood grape is grown more than you think, in fact, it is the second most planted red grape around the globe.
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Speaking of this misunderstood and underrated grape, ever see the movie Sideways? Remember the restaurant scene where Paul Giamatti’s character, Miles, states “if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I’m not drinking any Merlot”. Miles despises Merlot and isn’t shy about expressing that in the movie. While he raves about how wonderful Pinot Noir is, it is an extremely difficult grape to grow. It has to have specific growing conditions in order to thrive.
 
Merlot on the other hand can be grown in many different climates and can make a wonderful wine on its own or be used as a blending grape. Some of the more common places to find Merlot are the Right Bank of Bordeaux (France), Tuscany (Italy), Chile, Argentina and Australia. In the U.S. California and Washington are also known for their Merlot. You can have the same grape, grown in completely different places and they will taste very different from each other. In warmer climates Merlot can produce medium to full bodied wines with big fruit flavors and chocolate notes, whereas in cooler climates, Merlot produces medium bodied wines with more earthy characteristics. Since it can vary quite a bit, it also makes a great food pairing wine for a variety of foods. An article from Wine Folly suggests that lighter and fruitier Merlot generally pair well with pizza, pasta with red sauces and bbq chicken. Merlots that have earthier notes, such as those from Bordeaux, roasted turkey, beef short rib or even ratatouille would pair nicely.
 
Fun fact about Merlot, did you know it is a sibling to Cabernet Sauvignon?  One of the parent grapes to Merlot is Cabernet Franc, which is also a parent grape of Cabernet Sauvignon. The other parent grape to Merlot is a rare variety called Magdeleine Noire de Charentes. Since Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are sibling grapes, it makes sense that oftentimes in blind tastings they can be confused with one another. When I was studying for my sommelier exams, those two I often got mixed up, especially if they were from cooler climates.
 
Here at Bluestone we make Merlot not only as a single variety, but in a few of our blends as well. Current blends that are available in the tasting room with Merlot are the 2016 Bridgewater Crimson, 2015 Houndstooth and 2017 Valley Red (which received a gold medal in the 2022 Governor’s Cup).
 
There’s a lot more to Merlot than I can put in writing, but you know who knows a ton about Merlot and has worked with it for many years? Our winemaker, Lee. It just so happens that Lee will be hosting a Merlot wine seminar on Sunday August 21st from 2-4 p.m. in the Meeting House. He has hand selected Merlot from different parts of the globe and will also be sharing our newest vintage of Merlot. I’ve even heard that there will be an older vintage brought out of the library just for the event for attendees to do a comparison tasting with our newest vintage.
 
Tickets are available online or call in to the tasting room to reserve your spot. Each ticket is $35 per person, Press Club members $30 (limit 2 tickets per membership). Don’t delay, reserve your spot today!
 
Thanks for reading this edition of Out of the Barrel, cheers!     
 
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Wine Pairings for 2022 Valentine's Winemaker's Dinner

1/25/2022

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​Happy New Year everyone! 2021 was another whirlwind of a year and one of my resolutions for 2022 here at the vineyard is getting back to the “Out of the Barrel'' blog providing insider content from Bluestone. I’ve missed writing about different things going on at the vineyard and what better way to get back to it than tell you all about our upcoming winemaker’s dinner.

Over the years guests have asked, “how do you come up with these food and wine pairings?” Which is why I’ve decided to focus this blog post around that question and give guests an inside look at how we come up with our dinner pairings.
​Deciding on what wines to pair with our winemaker’s dinners is a team effort. Usually there are a handful of us at Bluestone who come together and get a sneak peak of the menu for each dinner. The table usually looks something like the picture to the right, including wine glasses, notebooks and a wide variety of wines. It’s a hard job, but somebody has to do the research!

So where do you begin? Well, as I have mentioned before in a previous post about pairings, it comes down to two main things: personal preference and balance. Just so it doesn’t get too overwhelming on what to focus on, for me, I look at the main part of the dish and then look at sauces, seasonings, how it was prepared, etc. to see what might work well. With each course we can narrow down the choices, but it's hard to pair something and have a final conclusion until you actually try the food and wine together.
Picture of table with wine
For the first course Chef Brian Gooch chose a farro, apple, beet and spiced walnut salad with a tarragon peppercorn dressing. Salads are an exciting course to pair because they can vary so much between the greens that are used in addition to any fruits, grains and vegetables plus the various styles of dressings. With this course we looked at some of our crisp white wines as well as barrel fermented ones. Salads are a lighter dish in general and you don’t want to have an overly complex wine otherwise it may make the salad bitter.  After going through a few options, we decided on our 2020 Odd Bird. Odd Bird is one of our Vineyard Sites Series wines that is made with mostly red grapes (40% Cabernet Franc, 31% Petit Verdot, 22% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Manseng). Yes, you did read that correctly. It is a white wine made with red grapes and yes, that is possible to do.  I don’t want to spoil all the details, so I’ll leave the rest for Lee to talk about the night of the dinner. 

The second course of the dinner is an Arancini Mozzarella. Arancini is a scrumptious Sicilian snack prepared by rolling cooked rice around a delicious filling (in this case mozzarella) then breading and frying these rice balls until delectably crispy and golden. The mozzarella adds an ooey-gooey and delicious center. With the focus on the mozzarella, this was a great course to test out matching flavor profiles or trying to pair opposite flavors that balance each other out. For this course we decided on matching flavor profiles. The mozzarella matches the lightly oaked and creaminess of our 2017 Chardonnay. This wine uses all estate grown fruit and was a gold medal winner in the 2021 Virginia Governor’s cup. 

Picture of Arancini Mozzarella
Arancini Mozzarella
​Our third course of the Valentine’s Winemaker’s Dinner is Beef Wellington with a demi-glace and sides of duchess potatoes and roasted tri-colored carrots. For that course I started with the main portion of the dish, which is beef. Typically with beef I go straight to red, but what kind of red? With this dish there were a few reds that came to mind and each for different reasons. I looked at the vintage, age, and/or structure of my choices and then tasted through each one to get a better idea of how the food and wine did or didn’t work together. Ultimately, it was decided among the group to go with our 2017 Houndstooth. Houndstooth is a blend of 38% Cabernet Franc, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Petit Verdot, 12% Merlot.  This particular vintage has hearty tannins, but not too overpowering. The wine also has a good balance of acidity that cuts through the fat of the beef. Acidity is often a main component to consider when pairing wine with food. Not to mention this wine did recently win the Shenandoah Cup as judges voted it the top wine in the Shenandoah Valley wine region. 
Picture of Beef Willington
Beef Wellington with a demi-glace and sides of duchess potatoes and roasted tri-colored carrots
​Now what is a Valentine’s meal without dessert? Not only with one deliciously paired wine option, but two! The best part is that guests get to choose which wine they would prefer to enjoy their dessert with. The flourless chocolate torte is a satisfying ending to this meal that is rich in taste and texture and is accompanied with chocolate ganache and raspberry coulis. While this dessert may be rich, it is not overly sweet, which is why it is a great opportunity to offer two different wines to choose from. 

Let's start with our 2015 Dry Dock, an estate grown Port-style wine made with Norton grapes aged in whiskey barrels. This is a dry Port-style with a higher ABV (alcohol by volume) of 16.1%. Since this wine has some age to it, the tannins and acidity are beginning to soften and age is a good thing for wines made with Norton grapes. This combination, especially with the chocolate ganache, balances the intensity of Dry Dock. The second wine option, which is quite opposite of Dry Dock, is Crooked & Weedy, our semi-sweet red. In the case with Crooked & Weedy, even though it has sweetness, it plays off the fruitiness of the raspberry coulis. Both are delicious options and you can’t go wrong with either, it's just a matter of your personal preference.  
Picture of Flourless Chocolate Torte
Flourless Chocolate Torte accompanied with Chocolate Ganache & Raspberry Coulis
Having said all of that, you can just take my word for these pairings or you can come taste for yourself. Tickets may be purchased online or over the phone by calling 540-828-0099. Tickets are $79.50 (plus tax) per person. Press Club members' price is $71.55 (plus tax). *Limited 2 at this price per membership.* Don’t delay! Tickets are selling fast and we have a limited amount of seats available for this event, especially for tables of 2. Tickets will be available until February 8th at 6 pm. 

Thanks for reading this edition of Out of the Barrel! Cheers!
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Petit Manseng

3/15/2021

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In this edition of Out of the Barrel, we are going to explore the grape Petit Manseng. Why Petit Manseng? Well, for many reasons. Aside from being one of my all time favorites, it has also done quite well for us in recent competitions. Before I go into all the shiny medals it has brought home recently, let’s talk about the grape itself.
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Many of the grapes that are commonly grown in Virginia are originally from France and Petit Manseng is no different. It is primarily grown in southwest France between the province of Gascony and the Pyrenees mountains bordering Spain. In more recent years it has found another home in Virginia and is gaining popularity around the state.​
Map of South West France
Petit Manseng Grapes
Pouring a glass of Petit Manseng
Petit Manseng a Governor's Case Winner
The grapes themselves are very small, thick skinned and have loose clusters. This is helpful, especially during growing seasons that see a lot of rain. Petit Manseng is also known for being an aromatic grape like Viognier or Traminette. What’s unique about Petit Manseng though is that it doesn’t have similarities to any other commonly used grape grown in Virginia.

Another interesting fact about Petit Manseng is that not only does it have the highest brix (sugar level at time of harvest) of any grape we bring to the winery, but also has one of the highest acidity levels. For most grapes when the sugars begin to increase, the acidity then starts to decrease, not so much for this grape. Higher brix also means higher alcohol potential during fermentation when the sugar converts into alcohol. Petit Manseng is also a versatile wine that can be made into delightful dessert/late harvest wines or, like ours, which is dry.

Let’s talk about Bluestone’s Petit Manseng. Currently we are on our 2019 vintage and the fruit came from several vineyards in Nelson County, Virginia: Silver Creek and Lovingston. Once the fruit arrived at the vineyard the grapes were whole cluster pressed, then fermented cool in 30% new French oak and aged sur lie (on the lees) for 10 months. The weight of the wine is offset by the acidity and aromatics, such as orange blossom, honey and baking spices. On the palate it has notes of grilled pineapple and honeysuckle with a long finish. 

So what does one pair with a wine like this? That’s a great question, I’m glad you asked! A wine like this that has a good amount of acidity and is also full bodied is a natural pairing for a variety of foods year round. To match the acidity and weight, fresh combinations like Caprese salad, oysters on the half shell or swordfish in lemon sauce are a natural pair.

Now for the shiny medals we’ve recently won with this beautiful wine. On the west coast we were awarded Double Gold and Best in Class at the International Eastern Wine Competition (East Meets West) and scored a 96/100 points! Closer to home we were awarded not only Gold for our Petit Manseng, but we were one of twelve wines featured in the 2021 Governor’s Case! We also brought home two other golds from the Governor’s Cup as well this year: our 2017 Chardonnay and 2014 Merlot.
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Thanks for reading this edition of Out of the Barrel! If you would like to come by and try our award winning Petit Manseng or any of our other wines, come by during our tasting room hours Monday-Saturday 11-6 and Sunday 1-6. Hope everyone is safe and well and we look forward to seeing you soon! Cheers!
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Hindsight is 2020

12/31/2020

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How many of you have wished we could have seen into the future and would have known what 2020 had in store? Well that would have just been too easy. Instead we were all stuck on the roller coaster of 2020 together using a whole new vocabulary with phrases like “social distancing,” “out of an abundance of caution,” “flatten the curve,” “the new normal,” and so many more. While it would be easy to skip over the mess of 2020, we do think it is important to reflect on all that happened in 2020 including the good and the bad. Let’s just take it month by month to try and digest what happened in 2020.
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January - Wine Actually Amongst Friends
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​Starting in 2019, we hosted events called Wine Amongst Friends, and looking back it should have been called Wine Actually Amongst Friends. We welcomed other highly respected Virginia winemakers to our Tasting Room to share their stories about how their wines were made. There were many conversations at the bar and guests tasted our wines and the guest winemaker’s together. In January we started off the year welcoming Jake Busching, who is the winemaker for Hark Vineyards in Earlysville, VA. This event also led to a partnership with Jake where our winemaker, Lee, and him would produce an exceptional wine talked about later in this post. 

January hosted other successful events like our annual wine and chocolate pairing party and packed trivia nights. Now it is hard to imagine a time where you sit with strangers and share food and having to add tables to the Tasting Room instead of taking them away.
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Jake Busching at Bluestone
Photo by Daniel Lin / DN-R
February - We didn’t know how much we actually needed wine and chocolate

​In February, we hosted another Wine Amongst Friends with winemaker Joy Ting and another Trivia Night. Throughout the week of Valentine’s we offered our wine and chocolate pairings to guests and on Valentine’s Day we hosted what was our first and only winemaker’s dinner of 2020. If we had known what March had coming we probably would have sold even more wine and chocolate.
Photo of guests at wine and chocolate pairing
March - Shutdown 

March was when things started to get real crazy real quick. We were able to host our Press Club pickup party which little did we know would be the only “normal one” we would have this year. Shortly after that schools started to close down, businesses were limited in capacity and for a few weeks it seemed like updated information came on a daily basis. By the end of March planners were starting to be filled with white out and no longer had any purpose. In the tasting room we first stopped doing tastings, then glasses and bottles until finally we had to close the tasting room and were only open for curbside pickup and shipping. To say those last few weeks of March were pure chaos is an understatement. 
Picture of entrance of Tasting Room
April - Curbside Pickup and Virtual Happy Hour

The end of March and during the entire month of April, our focus shifted to curbside pickup, deliveries, shipping, and virtual tasting events. If you wanted wine, we were going to find a way to get it to you. Every Friday we hosted “Bluestone at Home” on our social media channels and were able to feature all our wines in a tasting. While different then interacting with customers at the bar, we were grateful for the technology to try something new and still be able to interact with customers despite the quiet tasting room. 

While the Tasting Room was quiet, April was a time where behind the scenes was loud. Vines took new life in the vineyard as our crew planted new Traminette vines and prepared to plant new vines of Cabernet Franc and our first estate Petit Manseng. The most exciting part was our first time canning wines. We canned Moscato, Beau, Vidal Blanc, and Rosé. It was really interesting watching the blank cans come down the assembly line, be filled with wine, get a dash of Co2, snap on the lid, and winding down the machine for it’s new label. It is exciting to offer a new product for customers to enjoy. 
Picture of winery during canning
May - Phase 1 
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May 15th was a happy day! Under Phase 1 guidelines we were able to have guests come back to the vineyard and enjoy wine outdoors. The tasting room staff had to completely adjust the way we did things and we ran on more of a restaurant model doing tableside service. We definitely got our steps in during that time! There was a lot of preparation for spacing and many of you have probably seen our “Bluestone road” marked with blue painters tape to keep guests traveling from one place to the other spaced apart from other guests. Even though March 25th to May 15th was a very long time to be closed we are happy to report we kept all of our full time staff full time during the shutdown. 

Picture of Meeting House Patio
​June and July - Phase 2 and Phase 3

June continued to move in a better direction as we moved into Phase 2, which allowed us to have guests back indoors for wine orders and well as seating, which also took a lot of preparation, as we had to take down quite a few tables to accommodate spacing as well as an entry/exit way.

​The main highlight of July was being able to host music again at the vineyard as we welcomed Everyday People and Mike Davis back to Bluestone. Earlier we made the heartbreaking decision to cancel our Toast the Weekend concert series and the summer was not the same without the bustling wine tent, the Reflex rocking out on stage, and people surrounded by their friends at the end of the work week. It was refreshing to hear music at the vineyard again this month. 
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August - Mini bottles to the rescue
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August we once again put on our thinking caps and came up with a more efficient way of offering flights since we are not able to do traditional tastings. We launched our mini bottle flight program that will probably continue to the foreseeable future. That way we could offer a wider range of wines for guests to try rather than a select few from bottles we chose to have open for poured flights. 
Picture of mini bottles
September - At least it will be a good year in the vineyard, right? Harvest 2020 kicked off in September. 

From Lee Hartman, Winemaker: 
2020 was one of the toughest growing seasons we've ever had. Frost is not an all or nothing event that will either leave you with 100% of your crop or take it all away, but after our initial hit of frost on April 17 we experienced frost 3 more times, the worst being on Mother's Day and the last on May 13. For a lot of shoots, this shortened our growing season by two months (out of about 6).

A relatively cool and wet growing season also presented challenges. While we normally crush and ferment about 40 or more tons of reds, we opted to make more rose, and also sold red grapes to other wineries who also wanted to make reds and rose (Hark Vineyards will be bottling our Malbec and Merlot as a rose this week). We only fermented 5 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon as our only red. This difficult growing season coupled with a drastically reduced crop made us thankful when the season finished in October, and simultaneously grateful that our season hadn't ended in May, as it did for some.
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And after my 11th vintage in this building, I gotta say, I'm pretty pumped about these wines. Our Cabernet Sauvignon and Viognier are standouts, but even our early bottling in a few weeks of Vidal, Beau and Moscato are tasting great. And after making Orphan #3 with Jake Bushing, I am continuing making white wine out of red fruit. I've got the coolest blend of barrel fermented Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot, but if you can't wait for their release next Summer we still have a few cases of the 2019 Orphan #3 in the tasting room, so grab them before I do!
Picture of harvesting Vidal Blanc
​October and November - Embracing the Beauty of Fall
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By the time that October and November came around, we were used to the changes at Bluestone. October we were able to celebrate Virginia Wine Month and showcase what Virginia wine really has to offer. This fall was also one of the most beautiful ones we have had in awhile. We continued to promote our first sparkling Chardonnay made from estate grown grapes on the north side of the property. We released our first estate grown Cabernet Franc grown at our highest elevation block that is all free run juice leaving any bitterness behind with the skins in the tank. October and November are the perfect time to sit back, relax, and reflect with some wine and soak in the fall views. 
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Picture of view from Meeting House Patio
​December - Cheers to 2021 

We finally made it to December! The biggest thing that has not changed prior to or during this time and won’t change after all of this is past us, is our appreciation for the continued support of our customers and community. This has been a challenging year for everyone and without our customers, we don’t know where we would be without you all. There are never enough thank yous for your support and from all of us here at Bluestone, we thank each and every one of you. The phrase “hindsight is 2020” is often talking about negatives and that if we would have known what was coming we would have done things different but that isn’t the case this time. We are grateful for what 2020 has taught us and how it led to so much creativity in the Tasting Room, in the vineyard, in the cellar and through our marketing. It led to many new ways of connecting with one another. 
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Thanks for reading the final 2020 edition of Out of the Barrel! Cheers! And Happy New Year to you all!

Picture of 2018 Blanc de Blancs
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Getting Nerdy about Tasting Wine

3/6/2020

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Have you ever been at a wine tasting and heard people beside you describing their wine? They might smell the wine and describe what they are tasting. I just got back from my trip to Philadelphia where I spent an entire day learning from Master Sommeliers about tasting wine. I had the opportunity to analyze over two dozen wines with other industry members who are also studying for the certified sommelier exam. So guess what we’re going to be talking about? Tasting wine! 

How does someone get better at tasting wine and know how to talk about what they’ve just tasted? It's rather simple, you do just that, taste more wine! If you are new to wine you need to be able to decide between one of two things: do you like the wine or not? From that you can build on some general themes, such as do you like more red or white, dry or sweet, oaked or unoaked, etc.  

Some guests that come into the tasting room  have never tried wine before or know very little about wine, and that’s ok! We all start somewhere! Now for those of you who have been tasting wine for a while and know generally what you do and don’t like , as servers, we can talk about the wines more in depth and focus more specifically on what the guest is looking for.

The following bits of information can apply to anyone from the newest wine drinker to the more seasoned one. Again you can go as basic or detailed as you want, but these are general things you can think about as you’re going through different wines.   
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Where do you start? Let’s go through 4 basic steps when tasting wine. 
  1. Look: What do you see? Is there anything about the color that is interesting to you? Do you notice any difference in colors between different wines you try?
  2. Smell: What do you smell when you put your nose in the glass? Do you smell any intense aromas or are they vague? 
  3. Taste: What do you taste? Fruit? Baking spices? Herbs? Etc. 
  4. Think: How do you feel overall about the wine? How does it compare to other wines that you’ve had? Do you like it? (That’s the most important question) If you do like it, why?

With all of the above mentioned the next thing you can think about are 5 wine traits that will help you dive a little deeper into what you are tasting.
  1. Sweetness
    1. Do you taste any sweetness? Or maybe somewhere in the middle? Sweetness varys from bone dry to dessert wine sweet and everywhere in between. There are a lot of different factors when it comes to sweetness of a wine and I’ll save that topic for another time.
  2. Tannin(red wines)/Phenolic Bitterness (white wines)
    1. If it is a red wine do you feel a drying sensation when you taste it? Red wines with higher tannins will leave your mouth feeling dry. Think about the difference between Chambourcin and Petit Verdot. Chambourcin is less tannic and therefore won’t make your mouth feel as dry; whereas,Petit Verdot  is very tannic. After only a couple sips, you can start to feel a drying sensation on your palate. Next time you come to the vineyard, try those two to get a better idea of the difference between the tannin levels.  
    2. If it is a white, do you get any phenolic bitterness? Wait, what is phenolic bitterness? Let’s go on a rabbit trail for a second. If you’re not familiar with phenolic bitterness, think of eating a sour candy, the same tartness and bitter sensation you get in your cheeks, that’s the similar feeling you get when you drink a wine that has phenolic bitterness.
  3. Acid
    1. Does this wine make your mouth water? If a wine makes your mouth water, that’s a good indication that it has a fair amount of acidity. Different wines will have varying levels of acidity. Acid also has another role other than making a taster’s mouth water; acidity is essential when it comes to the wine’s structure.
  4. Alcohol
    1. When you look at a bottle of wine, it will generally have a percentage of alcohol on the label. Think about Chardonnay for example. In a cooler climate, like Burgundy, France, the alcohol is going to be lower because the grapes don’t have as long of a growing season and the sugars aren’t as high at harvest. Whereas California is a hotter climate and the grapes ripen very well, therefore having more sugars in the grapes at harvest. With that in mind, if you are drinking a wine and feel a warming feeling in the back of your throat, that’s a good indication the wine has higher alcohol. 
  5. Body
    1. How much weight the wine has on your palate. Wines like Vidal Blanc and Traminette are not going to be nearly as heavy on the palate as an oaked Chardonnay or Viognier would be. This is one reason why most tasting lists that have dry wines will go from lighter body to fuller body both for white and red wines.

I hope this helps,  and try thinking about some of these things the next time you are either in a tasting room or at home. As an added bonus, anytime you are at a tasting room or wine shop and you have a question, ASK! You don’t know something until you ask, and if the person you ask doesn’t know, hopefully they will try to find the answer for you. That’s how you learn, by asking questions.

Thanks for reading this week’s edition of Out of the Barrel! Cheers!
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Insider's Look at Winter Wine Weekend

2/20/2020

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Winter Wine Weekend 2020 at Hotel Madison in Harrisonburg is this weekend, February 21-23. It is a full weekend filled with a variety of wine-themed events including wine dinners, a winery tour of Bluestone, seminars, and tastings. I wanted to give you an inside look at the event last year in order to get you excited for 2020. 
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Last year my husband, Matt and I attended the inaugural Winter Wine Weekend event held at Hotel Madison in downtown Harrisonburg. The event ran Friday-Sunday with a wide range of seminars, wine dinners/brunch and tastings. We decided to attend just the events on Saturday due to our schedules, but there were a lot of great seminars and tastings packed into one day!

Our day started out with a Wine 101 seminar and even for someone who has been working in the wine industry for a number of years now, I still got a lot of great information out of the seminar. Hearing the wine educator go through the basics of smelling and tasting wine was a nice refresher because it took me back to when I first started my wine journey and how those basic things gave me information on which to build as I continue to learn about wine. The other thing that I found interesting was that she suggested bringing a notebook or journal with you when you are tasting wines. That way  you can go back to those notes later on to see how your palate or what you think about when tasting wines has changed. 

In the afternoon we attended a seminar all about rosé. During this seminar we had a small group activity where we would talk with others around us about the flavors and aromas of the different wines we were trying. Since rosés don’t always use the same grapes, each wine had different aromas and tastes. The rosé made from Cinsault, Grenache and Syrah was much different from the rosé made from Cabernet Franc and Chambourcin. There was also a seminar that was all about wine and history, but that could be an entire blog post itself.

The most hands on event was the blending seminar that Bluestone’s winemaker, Lee, hosted. Lee explained some of the basics of what a winemaker thinks about when putting wines together, especially blends. In this seminar, we not only got to learn about key things on how to blend, but we got to put that information to good use and make a growler of our own blend! Blending wine is not as easy as it looks and takes a lot of math figuring out percentages and conversions. Thankfully, my husband is an engineer and loved all the “ nerdiness” that was involved with this seminar and helped me out when I was working on my blend. I really enjoyed this hands on learning experience, and it gave me more appreciation for what winemakers do. ​
​To finish out our day, we went to the ballroom to the Grand Tastings where wineries from throughout the Valley brought their wines for attendees to try. We didn’t get a chance to go to all of them but were able to visit wineries that we either had not been to before or ones we had not been to for a while. It was a great opportunity to talk with many of the winery owners and/or their winemakers. 

All of that sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it? Don’t just take my word for it. Come check it out yourself! This year Saturday’s events have different presenters and seminars, but there are two events that are coming back: the Grand Tasting (which has 12 participating wineries from Shenandoah Valley and Charlottesville) and Lee’s blending seminar! The participating wineries include Barren Ridge Vineyards, Brix and Columns Vineyards, Shenandoah Vineyards, Rockbridge Vineyard, Keswick Vineyards, Barboursville Vineyards, Cardinal Point Winery, Bluestone Vineyard, Muse Vineyards, Crosskeys Vineyards, and Cave Ridge Vineyard. Tickets for the Grand Tasting are available for purchase in our Tasting Room for $40 or $35 for Press Club. 

For the entire list of workshops and to purchase tickets for those, please visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hotel-madisons-winter-wine-weekend-tickets-87166997837?aff=BlueStoneVineyards. 

While I won’t be attending Winter Wine Weekend as a guest, I will still be there. I’ll be pouring Bluestone wine at the Grand Tasting along with several other members of the Bluestone crew. Lee has already told me what wines we are pouring at the event and one of them is not even released yet, not even to Press Club members and you don’t want to miss it!
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Thanks for reading this week’s edition of Out of the Barrel! I hope to see many of you at the Grand Tasting on Saturday! Cheers!
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Will you be my valen-wine?

2/6/2020

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Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. But what to do on this day for that special someone that isn’t over the top or cheesy, like the title of this blog? Let’s look at a few different ways you can treat that special someone and also support local businesses. ​
Give the gift that keeps on giving (at least until they open the bottle).
There are a couple different things you can do. Come by the tasting room and pick out a bottle of their favorite wine (or two), or if you don’t know their favorite, purchase a gift certificate so they can pick out something they like and the pressure is off you! If you decide to do a gift certificate, you can choose any dollar amount and it can be used towards bottles of wine, wine tastings, merchandise or Bluestone events (i.e. winemaker’s dinners, educational seminars, etc). 
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​Surprise them with a special dinner.
Bluestone will be hosting the annual Valentine’s Day Winemaker’s Dinner on Friday, February 14th in the banquet hall of the Meeting House starting at 7 p.m. A four-course meal will be prepared by Ben Miller with Parkhurst Catering, and each course features a specially paired wine. Tickets are available for purchase until Monday, February 10th. Tickets are $79.50 plus tax/$71.55 for Press Club members.
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Sweet tastings for you and your sweetie. 
Another option for treating your sweetie (or as a bonus) is to visit the tasting room February 7-16 during our normal business hours to do a wine and chocolate tasting! There are 8 Bluestone wines paired with 8 chocolates  provided by Warfel’s Chocolate Shoppe in Dayton. Wine and chocolate tastings are $15 per person/$7.50 for Press Club members. These tastings are while supplies last, so don’t delay! As a side note, groups are always welcome, but please keep in mind that any groups of 8 or more (this includes the wine and chocolate tasting), must call in advance and have paid reservations. That way we can accommodate your group properly. We also have additional chocolate from Warfel’s available for purchase in the tasting room.
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An entire weekend focused on wine.
Hotel Madison is hosting the Second Annual Winter Wine Weekend from February 21-23. In addition to a Grand Tasting, there will be a wine-centric welcome reception, wine workshops, a wine-paired dinner, wine tours, a champagne brunch and more. If you are feeling extra special, you can stay at the hotel for a special overnight rate as a Winter Wine Weekend participant. The main event of this weekend is the Grand Tasting sponsored by Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance. This event features over 10 Virginia wineries and will provide an opportunity to taste and compare wines from distinct regions of Virginia. Participating vineyard include Barren Ridge Vineyards, Brix and Columns Vineyards, Shenandoah Vineyards, Rockbridge Vineyard, Keswick Vineyards, Barboursville Vineyards, Cardinal Point Winery, Bluestone Vineyard, Muse Vineyards, Crosskeys Vineyards, and Cave Ridge Vineyard. Tickets are for sale in the Bluestone tasting room for $40. 
​I hope this helps narrow down some of the options for your Valentine. Thanks for reading this week’s edition of Out of the Barrel! Cheers!
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Uncorking Cabernet Sauvignon

1/16/2020

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In this week’s edition of Out of the Barrel, I’ve decided to make things a bit more interesting and have added a few trivia questions throughout the blog. 

1. What is the most popular and most planted grape variety in the world?

​I’ll give you a hint, it’s red. If you guessed Cabernet Sauvignon, you’re right! According to a study completed in 2011, Cabernet Sauvignon has over 700,00 acres planted worldwide! That’s a lot of Cabernet Sauvignon!

Cabernet Sauvignon is believed to have originated in the Bordeaux region of France and is a natural cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. Yay for happy accidents!

​There are numerous regions throughout the world that are known for growing Cabernet. In the Old World, France is the key country for growing Cabernet. Spain and Italy also grow a good bit of Cabernet, but not nearly the acreage of France. Cabernet has also made a name for itself widely throughout the New World, which is any country outside of Europe such as the United States, Chile, Australia, and Argentina, etc. When most people think of New World Cabernet, typically the first place they think of is the Napa Valley in California.

Speaking of Napa Valley, here is the second trivia question.

2. What was the vintage and producer of the Cabernet Sauvignon that won the red category in the 1976 Judgement of Paris? (Hint, if you need a refresher, you can find the answer is in my blog post from July 4th.) 

While you’re thinking,  let’s talk more about what you can expect from Cabernet and a few food pairing options. 

Cabernet is known for being a full bodied and tannic wine. It is also a late ripening grape, which is why warmer climates are best suited for the grape. Have you ever gone into a tasting room in Virginia that has a Cabernet Sauvignon, tried it and thought to yourself (or possibly out loud) that this wine isn’t as full bodied as you thought it would be? You were expecting more of a Napa Cabernet, but got a lighter, less intense version of it? This change is because the climate differences. Virginia’s climate is considered a humid, subtropical region. In the Shenandoah Valley we average 10 degrees cooler than the coast, but we still get the humidity in the summer. Napa Valley, on the other hand, has more of a Mediterranean climate where they experience hot, dry summers and mild winters, and their growing season lasts longer than ours.

Onto food, because honestly, who doesn’t love food? First thing that typically comes to mind for most people when pairing Cabernet Sauvignon is steak. As mentioned earlier, Cabernet Sauvignon is generally a very tannic wine and when paired with a meat that is a little fattier and juicier, such as a ribeye, the wine will balance out nicely. “What if I don’t eat meat?” Don’t worry, there are options for those who prefer meatless dishes and still love Cabernet! Meatless lasagne is a great option because the combination of pasta, cheese and sauce will stand up to the tannins in the wine. 
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On Bluestone's main property, Cabernet Sauvignon is grown right behind the tasting room patio and is the last block on the hill closest to The Meadow.
To wrap up this week’s blog, I have the answer to question two and one final question. The answer to question two is the 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. Now, the final question.

3. What event is happening on Sunday, January 26th, 2020?

If you guessed the Cabernet Sauvignon seminar, you’re right! Our winemaker, Lee, will be leading a seminar all about Cabernet! This is one you don’t want to miss, especially if you want an opportunity to try a variety of wines from regions you may not have known make Cabernet. The event will take place in the banquet hall of the Meeting House from 2-4 p.m. The cost is $20 per person. Press Club is $15 (with max of 2 tickets). Purchase tickets by calling the Tasting Room at (540) 828-0099 or online. Reservations are required for this event.

Thanks for reading this week’s edition of Out of the Barrel and for playing along with the trivia questions! Cheers!
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Tips and Tricks for Chocolate and Wine Pairings

1/2/2020

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Happy New Year everyone! As we begin this new year, I was thinking about the different topics I could start the year out on and the first thing that came to mind was chocolate! Probably because as I’m writing this, I’m snacking on chocolate truffles that were in my stocking from Christmas.

How does one go about deciding which type of chocolates go with different types of wine? That’s the theme of this week’s blog. For those of you who are reading this, it may just come in handy for an annual event that we host each January. More on those details later, but for now, let’s talk about pairings. 

Wine and chocolate pairings aren’t much different than other food and wine pairings, it’s about two main things: personal preference and balance. When working with pairings there are overall tips and tricks to help narrow down overall options. With the different kinds of chocolate (white, milk, dark) and flavors (fruits, nuts, spices, etc) that can be added, where to begin? For me, I look at the main component of the chocolate in front of me and work from there.
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Let’s say in front of me is a dark chocolate espresso truffle. I love coffee as much as I love wine, so I thought this would be a fun example. The first thing I think about is that this is dark chocolate, which for me, narrows down my choices to red. The next thing I look at is finding a red that isn’t too tannic. A red wine with heavy tannins paired with dark chocolate will generally make it taste bitter. Which narrows my choices even more to say a medium-bodied red because I still want a wine that has structure, but not overpowering. Now, let’s look at the espresso part of the chocolate. Are there any wines available that have similar coffee or espresso characteristics? You can also think about other chocolate in the same way and if it has fruit or nuts and see what wines available have those similar characteristics. 

With all that being said for this particular chocolate (and also thinking about the wines we have at Bluestone), I’m going to be looking for a medium-bodied, dry red wine that has coffee or even chocolate notes to it. Final conclusion, Merlot. 

This was actually one of the pairings from a few years ago (and also one of my favorites) that I thought would be fun to share with you guys. We paired our 2013 Merlot with a dark chocolate espresso truffle and it was amazing! The 2013 had beautiful coffee notes on the nose and the fruitiness on the end of the palate helped to balance with the dark chocolate.

Moral of the story, start with the main focus of what the chocolate is; white, milk or dark and work your way from there. This can also apply to food pairings as well, by looking at the main dish (pork, beef, chicken, etc) and then look at sauces, seasonings, how it was prepared, etc to narrow down your choices.
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Now, about the annual event I was referring to earlier. Each January we hold our annual wine and chocolate pairing party! Attendees get to spend a couple hours trying an assortment of Bluestone wines and local chocolates from Warfel’s Sweet Shoppe in Dayton. This event does require reservations and spots are limited! The event this year takes place on Sunday, January 12th from 2-4 p.m. in the banquet hall of the Meeting House. Tickets are $25 per person. Press Club tickets are $20 per person (with a max of 2 tickets).  At the end of the event, attendees will be given a gift certificate good for one wine and chocolate tasting during our tastings in February. More details to come on that soon. 

Whether you’ve done this event before or this is your first time, I hope these tips will help you with your pairing options and also have fun with figuring out what wines go with what chocolates. 

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s edition of Out of the Barrel! Cheers!
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Prohibition Ends!

12/5/2019

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Anyone know what the significance of December 5th is? I’ll give you a hint, it was on this day 86 years ago that a very important event took place. 

Today is Repeal Day, which marked the end of Prohibition. The 18th amendment was ratified in January 1919 and went into affect a year later and lasted until December 5, 1933 when the 21st amendment was officially ratified. During this time, the making, selling and transportation of alcohol was illegal. Fun fact that I learned during some of my research, consuming alcohol was not illegal during Prohibition, just all of the other stuff stated previously, which doesn’t quite make sense to me, but we’ll roll with it.

With all of that being said, how did Prohibition affect the wine industry? Quite a bit come to find out. The wine industry pre-Prohibition era was on the rise and once the law went into effect, many wineries shut their doors, poured out their barrels and ripped out their vineyards. There was one loophole that some wineries were able to take advantage of during Prohibition, and that was getting a permit for the purpose of producing sacramental wine for Catholic church services. Among the wineries that remained open during this time according to winefolly.com were Beaulieu Vineyards, Pope Valley Winery, Concannon Winery, Beringer Winery, Louis M. Martini, San Antonio Winery (Los Angeles), Bernardo Winery (San Diego). There were also a hand full of  distilleries that were also able to get a special permit to keep their doors open during this time by selling liquor for medicinal purposes.

So how does one celebrate Repeal Day? By drinking of course! Swing by the vineyard and pick up a bottle or two and celebrate with friends and family! While you’re at it, don’t forget Christmas gifts! We have a wide selection of wines ranging from white, red, dry and sweets to choose from as well as accessories to add that little something extra.
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Thanks for tuning into to this week’s edition of Out of the Barrel! Cheers! 
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    Raneé Bartley 
    Tasting Room Manager 

    ​Raneé started at Bluestone Vineyard in August 2015.  She thinks writing a blog about wine will be a fun and educational addition to Bluestone Vineyard. Her passion for wine has grown over the years and she is currently in pursuit to become a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers. While at Bluestone, she enjoys sharing about wine with guests in the tasting room. 

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Bridgewater, VA 22812
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