Tag Archive | Blue Ridge Oyster Festival

2nd Annual Blue Ridge Oyster Festival

Mar29

Press Release!

The Blue Ridge Oyster Festival is very proud that the food, wine and beer all come from Virginia and one of the many ways we celebrate this is to debut two wines from 2 vineyards, from 2 counties. This year, Blenheim Vineyards will debut their House Red at the Oyster Festival and Cardinal Point Vineyards will debut their Chardonnay. This year the festival will be held on April 21st with a rain date of the 22nd.

From Cardinal Point –Nelson County

2011 Chardonnay: Featured Release – clean,round, nice vanilla and cream, but not heavy. Our chardonnay escaped  any ill effects of the 2011 harvest rains. Aged in 100% American oak, mostly fromPennsylvania.

2011 Rockfish Red: 100% Cab Franc, aged for four months in French oak. The steady rains during the 2011 harvest account for its lighter than usual color, but the great ripening weather before the rains account for the great flavor. This wine has great berry fruit aromas and flavors, which have a nice dry and crisp finish. A perfect warm-weather red wine!

From Blenheim Vineyards –Albemarle County

2011 Red Table Wine – Featured release

The latest version of red table wine is fruit forward and packed full of juicy berry flavors.

Butterscotch and caramel notes that come from some barrel aging support the ripe plum and red cherry. 50% aged in French and American oak for 5 months. 352 cases produced. 46% Cabernet Franc, 36% Merlot,18% Cabernet Sauvignon

2011 White Table Wine

A crisp and refreshing warm weather white, perfect for pairing with oysters and picnic fare. 100% stainless steel fermented and aged, 33% Viognier, 66% Chardonnay. 331 cases produced.

2011 Rosé

A delightfully fruity but dry rosé made fromMourvedre, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. Extended skin contact helped create a vibrant and flavorful wine that pairs well with a variety of seafood dishes as well as grilled chicken and vegetable dishes. 280 cases produced.

Featured beer will includes:

Devil’s Backbone Brewery

Starr Hill Brewery

ViennaLager StarrPils (German Style Pilsner)

EightPoint IPA NorthernLights (IPA

Reilly’sRed Ale

BelgianCongo Pale Ale

WintergreenWeiss

Blue Ridge Oyster Festival Pairing with Blenheim Vineyards

Feb12

 Last weekend my husband Bob and I met at Dave Matthews‘ Blenheim Vineyards with Nick Attaway, VP of Artist Development for Vagrant Records, formerly employed by RED LIGHT MANAGEMENT/ATO RECORDS, ARISTA.  Nick and his partner, Justin Billcheck are coordinating the 2nd Annual Blue Ridge Oyster Festival, along with Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company and Cerberus Productions , benefitting the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The event will be held in Nelson County, VA on the 21st of April, 2012. Looking forward to this since I missed it last year.

Our mission was to select a wine to be released in conjunction with the festival that pairs well with oysters.  Accompanying Nick was his wife, Dominique Attaway, a professional photographer and oenophile.  Nick arranged for us to do a barrel tasting with Blenheims’ winemaker, Kirsty Harmon.

I had visited Blenheim several times without prior notice, but never had the opportunity to meet Kirsty personally. Gracious and serious about her wines, it was apparent that she was determined to bottle wines with a clean crisp quality and not intended to win competitions just because they appealed to the judges. The three that we sampled were a 2011 Table White: 2/3 Viognier and 1/3 Chardonnay, a Rose: a blend of Cabernet, Mourvedre and Merlot all in stainless steel  and a Chardonnay with 25% aged in French, Hungarian and American oak barrels.

The Table White was crisp, vibrant and would pair well with oysters and seafood. The Chardonnay was creamier- nice with a minerality and not overly oaky, and the Rose ideal, chilled for sipping on a warm Spring day. I think it was pretty obvious which wine would be chosen and after some deliberation, it was the Table White.

If you want to see some excellent photography, check out Dominique’s website and some of the shots she captured. We had a similar vision but her pictures were certainly better than mine.

I think Kirsty’s personality came across as sweet, serious and humble, committed to quality and I look forward to her future wines.

I  noticed something that had eluded me on past visits to Blenheim, the diamond reflection from the ceiling of the tasting room floor to the barrel room.

I thought it was kind of cool! Thanks for the invitation to Blenheim!