The August giveaway:
| Colorado/Virginia wine smackdown ends up a draw |
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| Written by Jacob Harkins | ||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, 18 March 2010 06:07 | ||||||||||||||||
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If only the bottle of Virginia petit verdot hadn’t shattered when Frank Morgan was packing his bags for a business trip to the Denver area. Then there may have been some sort of conclusion as to which wine region has better juice: Colorado or Virginia. Instead we were left to wonder—and drink a Canyon Wind Cellars petit verdot all by itself—after the two states split the red blend and cabernet franc categories in a blind tasting of the No. 5 wine producer in the U.S. and Colorado (which is about half the size and falls just out of the top 10). Morgan of drinkwhatyoulike.com brought the Virginia juice, and we invited some friends including winemakers Ben Parsons of Infinite Monkey Theorem and Paul Bonacquisiti, who graciously hosted in his namesake Denver winery, Bonacquisti Wine Co. This tasting came to fruition during the course of emails between Morgan and myself—luckily he travels here often, and we are already planning a battle of whites and roses come summer. We tasted in two heats, and ate plenty of meats and cheeses in between from one of our new favorite spots, The Truffle Cheese Shop. Wave one featured blends: 2008 Consensus from Keswick Vineyards and 2006 Inaugural from Mountfair represented Virginia; the 2007 Collage from Alfred Eames and D Red from Bonacquisti were the Colorado selections. The top two in this category were close, but there was a clear winner. Imagine my shock, and disappointment, when both Frank and I agreed that the wine in bag No. 8 was the tops—and it was the Keswick from Charlottesville, which, if you have a map handy, is not in Colorado.
It was a good wine but certainly hurt my Colorado pride to pick it blindly—half the room voted the Keswick tops, too. So there was consensus. The second best in this category also received a unified pick from both of us and the others in the room. This blend was another obvious example of classic Bordeaux grapes. It had pepper and black berries on the nose and a tannic, fruit-forward taste with a dash of oak on the tongue. I was relieved to see it was none other than Alfred Eames Collage. Eames is a Paonia-based winemaker who follows the Old World philosophies to a T. See more photos from the night So pride still somewhat intact—who knows how I would’ve responded if the other Virginia wine snuck into the No. 2 slot—we moved onto the cabernet franc round. Both Colorado and Virginia claim cab franc as a top varietal, and for good reason. In this wave we featured five wines: Infinite Monkey Theorem (2008) and Bonacquisti Wine Co. (2008) from Colorado, and Pollak Vineyards (2007), Keswick (2008) and Blenheim Vineyards (2003) from Virginia. When the cards where flipped, Frank and I disagreed. And the so did five of the six friends in attendance. He picked the bottle in bag No. 5. I took the one in bag No. 6. Five others opted for No. 1. When we lifted the cover of the bottles, it turned into Colorado victory. No. 6 was none other than Bonacquisti’s version, which is still the highest rated cab franc on ColoradoWino.com. Crowd favorite No. 1 was Parson’s Infinite Monkey Theorem, which has been sold out for months. Morgan did pick the Pollak as his top with admitted bias since he was able to identify it as the wine he has enjoyed so many times. Infinite and Bonacquisti were his next two. Infinite was my No. 2 with all the others in the distance. So it would appear we had the upper hand in cab francs. We were also in unanimous agreement that Blenheim, which is owned by rock star Dave Matthews, made the least favorite wine of the night. Although Frank was quick to point out that his vineyard produces some winners. Note: Both Ben Parsons and Paul Bonacquisti successfully noted their own wines in the tasting, for what that is worth. So there you have it, a virtual draw without a third category to move onto. So we did what any self-respecting winos would: We cracked the Canyon Wind Cellars 2007 petit verdot anyway. It’s saw dust and chili pepper nose, spice-forward taste and long mocha finish received the praise of many in the room. But when asked bluntly if this would have beaten his Virginia offering, Morgan smugly dodged the question and inferred some confidence in his local wine that shattered on the ground just like our hopes of us picking a better wine region. Funny, I offered that same confidence in Colorado winning the petit verdot throwdown. Guess we’ll have to wait until the summer to settle this score. Related articles
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Comments (4)
Karin Lawler
said:
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This Consensus blend had strong raspberry on a fruity nose with some hints of grass and earth tones. It had a nice balance of oak, fruits and tannins in the mouth. It’s an interesting wine in the fact that the vineyard’s wine club members get to vote on a number of different blending proportions to help decide what winds up in the bottle, hence the name.
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... Not surprised Colorado did so well. Thanks for the support, Jake. Looking forward to having you in the shop to do some tasting! -Karin at The Truffle Cheese Shop |
Frank Morgan
said:
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... Jake - great recap! Thanks for putting this together... had a great time. I look forward to the CO- VA White wine taste off in a few months. Virginia brings it with the Viognier! I finished off the Alfred Eames Collage tonight with lamb chops, even better tonight. |
Jacob Harkins
said:
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... We would have too. Our cab francs did well against theirs and I suspect the PV would have been a nice match, too. |
Canyon Wind
said:
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... Glad to see that we held our own! I would love to have seen the PV match up! Thanks for putting this together guys! Jay |
