by Jimmy Cocktail
12. April 2012 15:01
The Players
We thought it would be a good idea to limit the possible field of wines for this event right at the beginning. After all, Cabernet Franc may be the single most widely planted grape in the state of Virginia. After all, at last count over half of the wineries in Virginia, 122 of them, make a Cabernet Franc varietal. (Side note: Variety is a specific vine, varietal is a wine produced from a variety. It does not have to be 100% of that variety to be labeled as a varietal. I should make this a topic of another post though.) So we limited the field to the 2010 vintage of Cabernet Franc wines that won a medal in the 2012 Virginia Governor’s Cup wine competition.
There were 18 wines that won medals in that competition of which 16 wineries agreed to enter this competition. We were genuinely pleased by the camaraderie displayed by these wineries and I would personally like to thank each and every one that did take part in this exercise. So for one beautiful afternoon I wandered the back roads of this state collecting wines from some truly amazing places. I kid you not, there are some absolutely beautiful wineries with views to match here in Virginia, you all should make more of an effort to go and visit them.
Ok, so without further ado, here is the list of wineries that were included in this competition.
The cool thing about this list is that it represents just about every type of winery to be found here in Virginia, from the large and well publicized to the small mom and pop variety.
The Judges
The judges turned out to be a touch more problematic than the wines. We originally had 18 people lined up to be judges but with last minute commitments and just plain no-shows, we ended up with 12 judges for the evening. As anyone who has ever been in the U.S. Marine Corps will tell you, adapt and overcome is a way of life. So we found a way to make it work. Even with some of the judges missing, both the wine writers and the wine industry were well represented this evening. Our list of judges were:
- Alan Liska – Writer, Cellar Blog
- Chris McGurn – Writer, Beltway Bacchus
- Frank Morgan – Writer, Drink What YOU Like
- Kurt Jensen – Writer, Wine About Virginia
- James F. Koennicke – Writer, At Least I’m Enjoying the Ride – Wine Educator, Fabbioli Cellars and Piedmont Epicurean Arts Center
- Meaghan Tardif – Tasting Room Manager, Fabbioli Cellars
- Melanie Natoli – Assistant Winemaker, Fabbioli Cellars
- Kenny Grandon – Front of the House Manager and Sommelier, One Block West
- Ben Sedlins – Vineyard Manager, Fabbioli Cellars
- Sarah (will someday be Sedlins, she just doesn’t know it yet)
- Lucinda Smith – Owner, A Perfect Pour – Wine Educator, Piedmont Epicurean Arts Center
- Rob Haines – IT Security Specialist and all around good guy
I’d also like to thank Ms Cocktail for stepping up and handling the logistics of a blind tasting and making sure that each judge got the correct wine at the correct time without knowing what it was. During our next installment, we’ll get to see how the wines fared.
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