Recap: Charleston Wine and Food Festival

I was pleasantly proven wrong, both about my perceptions of the Deep South and of Southern food, especially grits, when Caitlin and I traveled down to Charleston for their annual Wine and Food Festival. Both are worthy of praise, but the festival’s offerings were the main reason for our trip. Neither of the Carolinas have become great wine-growing states yet. North Carolina has a few notable vineyards, like Biltmore Estates, which was at the festival, but I still haven’t had too many Carolina wines that have impressed me.

Although Biltmore had a presence at the festival, this was not just a regional festival in terms of the wines that were available. There were plenty of importers, wineries and regional distributors on hand pouring samples. Many wineries from California made the trip across the country to participate…had I known that there would have been so many good Lodi zins, I probably would have paced myself on the shrimp and grits front…But I didn’t, and I don’t really have any regrets about it.

There were many great wine options to choose from – including some fantastic wines that are usually out of my price range. I can’t tell you how many times I went back to get another sample of the thick, jammy, fruity deliciousness that is Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon. Sonoma-Cutrer’s light, crisp, sweet, pear-heavy chardonnay was a great white wine standout. Same for Kim Crawford’s slate and citrus-laden, almost tart Sauvignon Blanc. Mr. Crawford is one the best winemakers in New Zealand, and I was happy to suggest that everybody I was with try some of his wines, especially the Sauvignon Blanc, which has done so much to put New Zealand wines on the map.

What I did notice was surprisingly absent from the Charleston Wine and Food Festival were wines from Virginia. I tend to look for Virginia wines whenever I am at such an event. I noticed that they were glaringly absent from the moment we entered the tent…Actually, I noticed it after we each were treated to a breakfast brownie as our first food sample of the day. I thought that Virginia wines would want to take full advantage of a major food and wine festival to expand its regional reputation, but I didn’t see any wines, wine organizations, or wineries from the Old Dominion.

While wines from Virginia were themselves noticeably and unfortunately absent, I was happy to talk to some people from other wineries about Virginia wines and was shocked at how strong the state’s wine reputation is becoming. While Caitlin, her brother and his wife were getting their sample of grilled antelope – I am still upset I never got any – I spoke to Andy Wilcox from Lambert Bridge Winery in Dry Creek Valley, CA. After trying Lambert Bridge’s wines, where the peppery zinfandel which had a nice kick, plenty of tannins and a rich, molasses-like body was the standout (I do use “molasses-like” primarily because I was in the South) I asked Andy about Virginia wines. Andy was a good sport when I asked him to say, again, what he thought about Virginia wines when my iPhone camera didn’t record his statement the first time. The key takeaway is that Virginia wines are good, are getting better, and people in California are taking notice.

So often, I compare wines from Virginia and New York – where Caitlin and I do most of our tastings – to wines from more well-known wine-growing regions in California and overseas. Because of that comparison, I tend to find a lot of the wine we try flat and one-dimensional, especially reds (save for some really good Cab Francs from Virginia). So I say with no disrespect or ill will to Lambert Bridge that the Viognier I tried from their winery was less impressive than some of the Viogniers from Virginia I have discussed in the past. Virginia just seems to do Viogniers very well, and the state’s wine reputation continues to grow. Now if only Virginia wines would show up at festivals, such as Charleston’s Wine and Food Festival, even more people could learn about wines from Virginia.

Beltway Bacchus Book Club

Occasionally when we have people over, Caitlin and I will decant a bottle of wine. We have done this with nice bottles that need to breath, and we have done it with cheap bottles that we have been too embarrassed to serve otherwise. Regardless of the price-point of the wine, with the label hidden, our guests have enjoyed both. The reason I bring it up at all is because similar blind taste tests make up concept behind the book The Wine Trials. Very often, if the label is hidden and the wine is judged on taste alone, the less expensive bottles often are favored. I mentioned the book The Wine Trials, along with some of the wines reviewed, in a previous post. I did not, however, dive as deeply into the book as I would have liked. It is, to say the least, a fascinating book that reviews and highlights some great, budget-conscious wines.

One example used by the authors is the comparison of a $13 Domaine Ste. Michelle with a $150 bottle of Dom Perignon. Surprisingly enough, the Domaine Ste. Michelle was favored. Caitlin and I have since tasted the Domaine Ste. Michelle and it has become a regular in our champagne rotation. There were many other examples of inexpensive wines that scored higher than expensive wines in the $50 - $150 range. All of the price-performers are reviewed and indexed in the back of the book, which serves as a great guide to delicious budget red, white and sparkling wines. I would suggest picking up a copy of the book and going through their recommendations. Many of the wines are fantastic values and are more readily available than the exclusive, high-end wines with the exceptional reputations.

Using The Wine Trials as inspiration, Caitlin and I recently performed our own blind taste test.

The high-end wine was a favorite of ours, the Cakebread Cellars’ 2005 Reserve Chardonnay ($55). The budget brand was Vendange California Chardonnay ($4). Needless to say, we split the results. Caitlin liked the Cakebread more – and was able to identify it as such almost immediately. I picked the Vendange, which does have a nice buttery, sweetness to it. If you are looking for a traditional, heavy, California-style Chardonnay, the Vendange does the job nicely. The Cakebread is a light, refreshing and very smooth chardonnay. We chose to stick with the Cakebread throughout dinner, and I am sure that I will be hearing about my unsophisticated palate for a good while to come.

As The Wine Trials confirms, it is beneficial, and fun, to test expensive wines against inexpensive ones. It will help you become more honest about the types of wines that you enjoy, and might help you save money.

Our Anniversary with Water and Wine

Caitlin and I celebrated our two-year anniversary over the weekend. To mark the occasion, I made us a reservation at the Tides Inn in Irvington, VA. It is a kitchen sink luxury resort in the best possible way.

Aside from well-appointed rooms, all of which have views of the Chesapeake Bay, there is a golf course, spa, marina, water sports, pools and two restaurants that have a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence wine list with 340 selections. It should be noted that The Tides is pet friendly, so Kopek got to get away for the weekend with us.

Of the Tides two main restaurants, the Chesapeake Club is the more informal and the East Room is the more formal of the two. For dinner, we selected a Rosenblum Cellars Vintner's Cuvée XXXI Zinfandel. Zinfandels traditionally are considered good wines to pair with BBQ, pizza and pasta dishes, and are not known to go well with seafood, though it did go fairly well with the crab cakes that I ordered. It was not an overly-powerful zinfandel, which I was nervous may have been the case. Instead, it was more medium-bodied that balanced fruit and berry flavors with the characteristic spice of a zinfandel well.

While the weekend was very relaxing and romantic – the perfect way to spend an anniversary, a couple of nit-picky details deserve some attention. First, we were on the Chesapeake, which is where the world’s best crabs come from. True, Deadliest Catch makes Alaskan crab fishing sexier, but blue crabs taste better. I hate when places try to gussy up their crab cakes too much by adding filler peppers, or anything much other than crabmeat. The crab cakes at dinner had peppers in them, which gets points deducted in my book. That said, the crab cake we ordered from room service earlier in the day was pretty much all lump crabmeat and was delicious.

Since the Tides has an award-winning wine list, I was confident that whatever we ordered would be good, and what we ordered would be labeled properly. The zinfandel that we ordered was listed as a Sonoma appellation, but the bottle labeled it as a California wine. I know that it is a small detail, but for a distinguished wine list, I would have expected a bit more truth in advertising. In any event, neither the peppers in the crab cake or ordering a Sonoma wine that was actually a California took away from the overall enjoyment of the weekend.

If Caitlin and I make it back to the Tides, we will make sure that we arrive after the room is ready so we can drop off Kopek right away and explore the grounds on our own. Ideally with a glass of wine in hand.

Welcome to a New Wine Blog!

Welcome to my new blog. The title of it is "Beltway Bacchus" because a) I live inside the Beltway of our Nation's Capital and b) Bacchus was the Roman god of wine (among other things, many of which will not be covered in this blog) and this blog will focus primarily on wine, as well as anything else I want. But mostly wine. 

Why wine? Because my fiancée and I love wine. “Love” might not be exactly the right word. We love each other, and we can still get into arguments from time to time. We love our dog, but she can occasionally be a pain. So maybe it's not "love." I have never argued with wine before. It has never argued with me, though it has caused me to argue with others. Nor have I ever felt like wine was being a pain. I have never had to walk wine at 3.30 in the morning, or relegate wine to the balcony, though being on the balcony with a glass of wine, my fiancée and my dog is perhaps the best place in the world to be.

With that all said, welcome, again to this blog and thank you for reading this far. Since you have made it this far, permit me to tell you a little bit more about what this blog is about. In a word, the blog is about wine.

In a paragraph, this blog aims to be a place for people to learn about wine, share their stories about wine, and take advantage to the culture of wine that exists both within the Beltway at the numerous restaurants, wine shops and markets, and beyond the Beltway in one of the most diverse and interesting wine-growing regions in the country in Virginia. Caitlin (my aforementioned beautiful fiancée) and Kopek (my aforementioned dog) will also be participating if I can persuade them to.

My qualifications for discussing wine are rather limited. I am not an expert. I am not someone who berates people for swirling their glass improperly. I do, however, make up my own wine terms (along with bouquet, my glasses tend to have haircuts…This is only the first post, there is plenty of time to learn.) And Caitlin and I never shy away from a wine tasting. We try a lot, sip a lot and enjoy a lot of different wines. We have been to many of the wineries in the DC region and are not shy about going back. We have spent some time in Napa and Sonoma where we learned to be snooty, yet sophisticated and honest about what like when it comes to wine. We have also had the privilege of spending time at New York wineries in the Finger Lakes region. Once, we even attended a wine tasting in the middle of the Caribbean while we were on a cruise.

So basically, Caitlin and I are like you. We like wine, we want to discuss it, learn more about it and enjoy it. It is with that in mind, and a glass of Corcoran Malbec in my hand, that I am writing this post and invite you to join us, comment and add your thoughts about being a vinophile in the Nation’s Capital. Bacchus, after all, would have wanted it that way.

Check back often for updates!