Virgina Wine - Wine of the Week

by Gretchen Roberts, Posted Feb 8th 2009 @ 2:00PM

When President Obama took over the White House last month, the wine world was abuzz with, well, the buzzword of his administration: hope. Story after story declared him to be the savior, the messiah, of wine. He would rescue the White House from its teetotaling predecessor and bring the cellar back to its glory.

My two cents? Obama has bigger things to worry about. But 200 years ago, when the country was a lot smaller and depressions, world wars, and recessions were unimagined events of the future, Thomas Jefferson did not. After touring Europe, Jefferson returned home convinced that our county could produce wines on par with Europe's best. He imported vine cuttings form some of the best vineyards in Europe and planted them at his Virginia estate, Monticello.

Jefferson actually put wine on par with national issues, saying, "By making this wine vine known to the public, I have rendered my country as great a service as if I had enabled it to pay back the national debt."

More Wine of the Week after the jump.

Alas, Jefferson toiled in vain. Weather conditions and disease made it impossible for the European vines to survive, though he worked them for twenty years.

Today Virginia has a thriving wine industry, one Jefferson probably would have cried tears of joy over had he foreseen the future. With nearly 140 wineries, the state is fifth in the nation for wine production. Wine writers around the country are beginning to discover the region.

I had a chance to try the sparkling rose from Kluge ($28), a winery just miles from Monticello near Charlottesville. Kluge's sparkling wines are made European-style from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, just as Jefferson would have liked.

Honestly? I loved it. The wine had pretty strawberry aromas and berry flavors, with a sweet and tart middle that made me think of eating a juicy piece of candy with a burst of liquid in the middle. But what really made
the wine so good was the sweet taste of success, how Patricia Kluge and all these other Virginia winemakers have completed Thomas Jefferson's quest, and so elegantly.

Filed Under: Wine of the Week, Drink Recipes, Drinks
Tags: kluge, obama, rose, sparkling wine, thomas jefferson, ThomasJefferson, virginia, wine

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-08-2009 @2:30PM Neal said... Virgina wine? Eh?
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2-08-2009 @3:09PM HaterTot said... Kluge is amazing! I was skeptical of VA wines until I was served a Kluge Reserve sparkling at http://restauranteve.com/ in Alexandria. Glad to see one of my favorites gaining some notoriety!
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2-08-2009 @5:48PM Alex said... Is it just me or did someone in Kluge's PR/marketing department stop by the Krug website and ... um ... just stop (while making careful note of the typeface)?! Talk about exploiting the fact that the winemaker's name sounds a bit like a rather big European brand ...
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2-08-2009 @6:17PM Nicole said... I live between two fabulous Virginia wineries (w/i a 10 mile radius of my home). I know the wine makers, and I love their products. There are also four lesser wineries within the same radius.

The problem is that they are small production wineries who sell out of many of their wines a few months after they are released. They don't distribute nationally, so those of you not in the area would not be able to try them.

There *is* great wine here, but it's just not widely available. I have not tried Kluge's sparkling wines, but of the larger producers I have tried (thinking of Horton here)...they just aren't that great. They are credible, but not great.

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2-09-2009 @1:52PM RT said... Virginia definitely has some good wine, but it's uneven and does better with sweeter wines, typically. One under-the-radar grape for Virginia, though, is Petit Verdot. PV is typically really tannic (which is why it's often used in small percentages to add structure to wines in Bordeaux), but in Virginia is quite well-balanced. The Petit Verdot I tried from Pearmund was exemplary. Hidden Brook in Loudoun Valley is another solid winery, especially if you're into desert wines
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