2006 Chrysalis Tannat

I love to go to wineries. It is a really enjoyable pastime for Ms Cocktail and myself. Especially here in Northern Virginia where the daily pace of life can be hectic on the best of days. Trips to the wineries are like little mini vacations where we can go out to the countryside and escape the insanity that is the greater metropolitan Washington D.C. area.

The other nice thing about the wineries are the little gems that you come across every once in a while. Personally, I never would have given the 2006 Tannat from Chrysalis Vineyards a second look had I come across the bottle in a store. Having visited previously, I was well aware that they were a young vineyard and that they were still getting their legs underneath them. They had a couple of fun selections, you know, easy drinking on the back deck on a hot afternoon kind of wines, but nothing serious. That all changed during my last visit there. That is when I tasted this Tannat.

First, let me say that I was totally unaware of the Tannat grape. It is a grape from Southwestern France, principally the Madiran AOC that has also found an enthusiastic audience in Uruguay. There are small plantings in California and Virginia in the United States, but it is not a very widely grown or used grape here yet. This is yet another reason that I wouldn't have thought twice about this wine, I just didn't know anything about it. I'm just as big a creature of habit as anyone else and I tend towards things I already know. I'd be willing to bet that you're the same way, gravitating towards the known and safe choice versus the unknown and potentially bad.

This is a wine that benefits from breathing a couple of hours before drinking. It is pretty tight and the tannins are very pronounced when the bottle is first opened. Once it starts to open up though, you can immediately tell that you have something special on your hands. The nose is all smoke and leather riding upon a wave of fruity plum and black cherry. On the pallate you get a strong taste of leather which quickly fades to black cherry and it leaves a light spicyness behind as part of its very long finish. It is a big wine at 13.4% but you don't notice the alcohol in the slightest.

This wine is clearly a step up for the Chrysalis winery, one that I'm very happy to see them make. It is a tad pricey at $35 per bottle, but given the small production on this wine, this is one flaw that can be forgiven.