For those who don’t know, I should preface this by saying I am generally a fan of drier wines. I like the mouth feel and the evaporation more, and I don’t really enjoy the lingering bouquet of sweet wines in my mouth. There are exceptions, of course, and I won’t limit myself because of it, but it is how my preferences lie.

Upon arrival, I asked for the barman to recommend me a Muscat or Muscato, and the recommendation came as the 2006 Il Conte D’Alba Moscato D’Asti. A sweet, sparkling wine, that was described as having peach overtones. My palate was fresh, and I’m going to honestly say that the nose had no peach on it, so I was hoping for a surprise. The mouth feel was solid; what one would expect from a sweet sparkling white, but the bouquet was disappointing. The peach (and perhaps something else, more floral but hidden) was submerged in a cloying clover-honey overtone. The entire glass was simply like sparkling-honey wine and reminded me more of a mead than a muscat normally should. At the end of the glass, my mouth felt as if it were coated with the sweetness. I went through a few crackers and about half a glass of water to cleanse my palate. I, personally, would not recommend this wine for most people and most purposes. Disappointing, truly – 2.5 corks out of 5, only an average wine.

Moving forward (and thinking forward to Father’s day) I asked for a recommendation for a Cabernet Franc. What I ended up with was the 2005 Alexander Valley Cab Franc, and after the disappointing first pick, I was looking for a way to improve my thoughts on Mercy’s stock, and I’ll say right now that the Alexander Valley Cabernet Franc was definitely a step up. The nose was quite nice, with a dry floral scent. I couldn’t identify it immediately, but possibly some sage and honeysuckle, but the latter could have just been the remnants of the lingering bouquet from the Muscato d’Asti. There was a lighter mouth feel than I expected, but it wasn’t bad, and there was the definite peppery taste that one comes to expect with Cabernet Francs. There were more discernible tannins than I would have hoped for, but in the end, as the wine was given a chance to really breathe, it mellowed quite a bit. I would give this 3.5 out of 5 corks, but my main thought on this is that it hardly warranted the $15 price point for the 6oz carafe.

What makes a good vacation? Well, in my opinion there has to be some amount of exploration, good food, and good drink.

That made last Thursday’s and last Friday’s tour around the Loudoun Wine Trail in Loudoun County, Virginia, west of Washington, D.C. a pretty good way to start a vacation. My friends Chris and Rachyl (who knitters from Ravelry may know as The Knitting Pirate) hosted our friend Michael and me for the Memorial Day weekend, so the local wineries were high on the priority list.

We started with a known favorite – Chrysalis Vineyard in Middleburg. Every time we visit, we’re more impressed with the quality of wine that is produced there. While Michael was exceptionally impressed (as always) with the Locksley Reserve, I found myself quite taken with the ’05 Tannat and the ’06 Viognier. We bought a bottle of the ’05 Chardonnay and had a ploughman’s lunch on the grounds, and then moved on.

Our second stop on Thursday was Breaux Vineyard in Purcelleville. I’m not quite sure how I would describe our experience here – Ben, the Tasting Room Manager was well informed and friendly, and the wines were certainly solid, but none stood out in my opinion. The most interesting wine at Breaux was (probably due to my love of Rosés) was the Syrah Rosé, but while it was good, I think it could probably still use some maturity.

The third winery we visited was Doukénie Winery, and Paige in the tasting room was very friendly. She seemed a bit distracted as we did our tasting, but she was friendly and enthusiastic and the Mandolin white was quite interesting, but the wine that got everyone’s attention was the Raspberry Merlot – which they say is not a dessert wine, but I highly disagree – as my qualifier for a Dessert wine has a lot to do with pairings, and the high residual sugar makes it hard to pair with much else. It was served with dark chocolate during the tasting, but it could easily stand up to something like a chocolate flan or a créme brulee.

Last for the day on Thursday was the biggest (and most pleasant!) surprise of the trip, Loudoun Valley Vineyard. As soon as we made it in the door, vintner and owner Bree Ann Moore was there, making cheerful conversation and guiding us through our tasting. The wines were all quite lovely, and consistent and consistently superior in my book. We took away several bottles from Loudoun Valley, including the misleadingly named Zinfandel Blush, which is actually a sweet Rosé, and the most excellent Cabernet Franc. I highly recommend visiting this little gem as much for the wonderful treatment as the good wine.

Friday’s first vineyard was Fabbioli Cellars, which was showcasing a couple of other vineyards wines along with their own, and I have to say that I was very impressed with the 8 Chains LoCo Vino, even though it was significantly sweeter than I prefer my wines to be. It is, as I understand, a 50/50 blend of Traminette and Vidal Blanc, and goes (as tested) quite well with Mexican fare. Fabbioli’s own productions were good, but they all still seemed a bit underdeveloped – though there is clear potential and I certainly will be keeping my eye on them.

I’m combining the second and third vineyards we visited, Lost Creek and Hidden Brook, because the families that own them are related. At Hidden Brook, we met Deborah Houck – one of the owners, who was quite helpful in going through their tasting. At Lost Creek, we had another good experience. Both wineries tended towards the sweet whites, and very fruity but light reds, not quite where my tastes lie. I think with both, as well, there still needs to be a bit of development – but don’t discount that as these being bad wines. Give them ago – I promise if your tastes list towards the sweeter, then you’ll be startled by how much the wines at these two fine places appeal.

The last winery for this trip was Tarara, which is one of the more established (and possibly the largest) Loudoun County winery. We did both the reserve and standard tastings, and all of the wines were solid entries. I think my biggest complaint about Tarara’s wines is that for the quality, I’d have placed them at a lower price point. That isn’t to say they aren’t good wines, but many are priced like one would expect exceptional wines to be priced. Still, the staff was very friendly and I enjoyed the most wine-related discussion with them more than any of the other staffs. They gave us a very good idea of both what the goals for each wine were as well as what the actual results were. Kudos to Tarara for that!

So there you go! My Memorial weekend at Loudoun County vineyards! It was a great experience, and I look forward to visiting each of the wineries again and following their progression.