Drinking VA Wines

We opened one of the bottles we picked up at Chrysalis Vineyards this weekend. I made Leah from DC Gastronome‘s salmon and roasted potatoes and with our recent heat wave, we were in the mood for a nice light white.

The wine was a 2005 Sarah’s Patio White. It cost $13, doesn’t appear to have an alcohol content on the label (I thought that was required by law?) and had a real cork closure. On the nose this wine was very floral with a hint of sweet pear.

This is a blend of vidal blanc, chardonnay and viognier. In the mouth it was sweet with pear and apricots, but with enough structure and acidity to hold it together. It makes a very good sipping wine and was easy to drink and enjoy.

The blend worked well for me, and in some ways reminded me of the flavor of a muscat grape. Overall, it paired okay with dinner, though with the corn, bbq sauce and chicken stock falvoring the salmon I think I would have really liked a nice crisp white with it (perhaps the sauvignon blanc we had at Butterfield 9 the other night) because the flavors seemed creamy to me.

A good value, and we picked up two more bottles, so I’ll be drinking those this summer!

Visited Two Virginia Vineyards Today

I went with our original plan and we stopped by Swedenburg Winery and Chrysalis Vineyards. I was going to check out Dezel from Virginia Vinespot‘s suggestions, but only one of them was open today. So we will have to save that trip for a weekend! We had a very nice day, though I’m exhausted since we started early with a trip to see some more houses with our real estate agent (I think we found one!!). The weather here is unseasonably warm, high 60s to low 70s, but sadly not too sunny. Here’s a picture from Chrysalis, I’ll post reviews tomorrow!