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| The welcome sign outside of the tasting area. |
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| A view of the vineyard at Stone Tower. |
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| Some of the land being prepared for planting. |
On Friday, March 14th I went with my Grandparents to visit Stone Tower Winery in Leesburg, Virginia. It was very clear from the moment we began our steep descent up the rugged Hogback Mountain Road on our way to the winery that Stone Tower is a very young winery, still in its formative phase. The winery and vineyard is located on 200 acres of farm-land in rural Leesburg and it is very literally off of the beaten path. As we parked our car next to the tasting barn, we noticed that there was only a small section of the land around the winery that currently had vines planted, though it appeared that they were preparing more land for planting as well. I was immediately struck by the stark differences of this winery to my visit to the Napa Valley winery Honig. Stone Tower appeared to be surrounded by non-vineyard farms on all sides, and the weather was still very cold at this point, whereas just several days earlier in Napa Valley vines were planted in every direction for as far as the eye could see, with warm temperate weather.
We made our way from our car into the
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| The tasting room at Stone Tower Winery. |
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| Inside of the tasting room. |
tasting room, which was very cozy. Our tasting hostess greeted us and spoke a little bit about Stone Tower, and their current and future plans. At the time of my visit to Stone Tower, all of the wines that they were had produced were made using grapes from other vineyards, some of which came from Virginia, and others elsewhere. Some of their vines had suffered from the intense cold this Winter season, but for the most part they had survived.
Our hostess told us that Stone Tower winery planned to plant grapes from the following varietals: Chardonnay, Viogner, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Merlot. She mentioned that they made use of French oak barrels, concrete eggs and steel tanks for their fermentation. All of this sounded fantastic, and I could certainly see this winery becoming a very nice Virginia winery in the near future, though for the moment it was very much a work in progress.
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The tasting menu for Stone Tower's
Reserve Tasting |
After discussing the present and future plans that Stone Tower
Estate Winery had in store, our hostess brought us over to the tasting area. There were two tastings offered at this point, the "Current Vintage Tasting" which offered four wines, or the "Reserve Tasting" which offered six. Naturally, we decided to opt for the Reserve Tasting. On the menu was one Blanc de Blancs champagne, two Chardonnays, one Viogner, and two Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Petit Verdot blends.
- 2009 Wild Boar Blanc de Blancs
This sparkling Chardonnay was made in the traditional methode champenoise (made the way they make it in the French region Champagne). Our hostess told us that this wine had sugar added to it after secondary fermentation. I found this to be a nice, easy to drink champagne, and despite not personally being terribly crazy about champagne I found it to be an easy drink. On the nose, this wine presented green apple and melon aromas. On the palate, this wine was noticeably tart, sweet, with noticeable fruit flavors and a delightful crisp finish.
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| The bottles of wine that we tasted. |
The acidity balance of this wine was on point, and my only major gripes would be a lack of complexity and the level of sweetness. I ended up deciding to purchase a bottle of this wine to use for a friend's birthday a few days later.
- 2012 Lacey Chardonnay
This Chardonnay was very similar to many California Chardonnays that I have tasted, with only one noticeable exceptions. This wine was barrel fermented in neutral French oak for 6 months, so it had less noticeable oak-y flavors. On the nose, this wine provided green apple aromas. On the palate, this wine was not very tannic, somewhat tart, semisweet, and only slightly creamy. I did like the more mild flavors that the French oak brought to this wine, but overall I was not terribly impressed by this wine.
- 2012 Lauren Chardonnay
This Chardonnay, like the Lacey, was aged in both new and neutral French oak, and had a slightly more noticeable oak nose/taste than the previous wine that I tasted. On the nose, this wine was buttery, fruity, and noticeably oak-y. On the palate, this wine provided a nice melon flavor, but I was not crazy about the oakiness of this one. This was much more similar to the few standard California Chardonnays that I have tasted, and while easy to drink, was not my cup of tea.
- 2012 Viognier
This wine, made of the Virginia state grape Viognier, was more my speed when it comes to white wines. This wine was aged in 50% neutral French oak, and 50% concrete egg. On the nose, I detected some floral, and lemon aromas. On the palate, this wine tasted very peach-y, lemon-y, and perhaps a tad bit too spicy. Overall this wine was fairly well balanced, but provided some interesting complexity which I enjoyed.
- 2011 Sanglier Noble
This "Bordeaux blend" red was comprised of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 47% Merlot, and 2% Petit Verdot. On the palate, this wine provided blackberry and cherry aromas. On the palate, this wine was very tannic, with a light body similar to a Pinot Noir wine, which was a plus for me. This wine was much more to my liking than the previous four, and one that I would not hesitate to drink again, although I wouldn't say it has much on the Napa Valley Cabernets that I tasted during that visit.
- 2009 Sanglier Noble
Another Bordeaux blend red wine, which is comprised of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, and 6% Cabernet Franc. On the nose, this wine had very strong blackberry and black cherry aromas, with a hint of herbiness. On the palate, this wine was very tannic, very well balanced, and had a nice smooth finish. I would say that this wine was the most enjoyable drink of the bunch, but at $40/bottle, I'm not entirely sure it's the best value.
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| An unbound French oak barrel. |
After our tasting, we thanked our hostess and walked around a little bit outdoors. We encountered an unbounded French oak barrel on the other side of the tasting building which I thought was interesting to see. We were unable to take a tour of their production facilities unfortunately, due to time constraints.
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| The soon-to-be new tasting area. |
On our way back to our car, we also saw a building that was still being constructed, and what she informed us would be the new tasting area once it was completed. It appears as if this winery is coming along nicely, and I look forward to hearing more about them in the near future!
