Virginia Wineries

In the past couple of years, we have had 2 vacations to Virginia. Much of the vacation time was spent visiting wineries. Virginia is now the 5th largest wine producing state in the US behind California, Washington, Oregon and New York. There are approximately 230 Wineries in the state. The growing conditions are not ideal for grapes but techniques have been developed which now can produce surprisingly good wine. The Virginia wine country now centers around Charlottesville, Warrenton and Louden County in the northwest corner of the state. Some wineries around Charlottesville that we enjoyed were Veritas, Whitehall and Barboursville. Around Warrenton we enjoyed Naked Mountain, Delaplane and Mediteranean. In Louden County we enjoyed Breaux.

Last night, we opened a bottle of Breaux Equation X we purchased in September at Breaux Vineyards in Purcellville Va. Breaux is a lovely winery not far from Harpers Ferry, W.Va. Equation X is a merlot based blend that comes from grapes grown in different vintage years. The wine is a deep color and the aroma jumps from the glass. The taste is soft but a little earthy. It was a very enjoyable experience. Equation X is $17 at the winery and you can only buy it in VA, MD, WV and DC.

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Ken Wright Cellars Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2018

I was aware of the reputation of Ken Wright Cellars for Willamette Valley Pinot Noir but had never tried one of their wines. The winery is most known for single vineyard Pinot Noirs but their entry level wine is a blend from several vineyards. When I have looked for wine from Ken Wright, I have either found the single vineyard wines costing more than $60 or I have found the entry level Willamette Valley blend priced significantly higher than the $22 price on the winery website. One well known wine shop in downtown Greenville actually sells it for $34. I guess that the wine must be really good to command higher than retail prices. Two things have recently happened. Costco has a Ken Wright premium Pinot Noir for around $40 and Whole Foods Market has the entry level Willamette Valley Pinot Noir on sale for $22 rather than their usual price of $27. I chose the entry level Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and I am sure glad that I did. Ken Wright Willamette Valley Pinot Noir has a deep r

Parcelica Grande 2018

It has been a little over 3 months since I last posted on this blog. I have taken that time to enjoy old favorites as well as wines bought directly from wineries. I needed a break from trying a lot of unfamiliar wines so that I might have something new to write about. However, now I am planning a live video post for the OlliLife newsletter at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Furman University about value wines from lesser known wine regions and this will require Wine Jane and I to do a lot of research. Well, someone has to do it! There are few places that have as much affordable quality wine as Spain. The best known wines from Spain come from areas like Rioja in the northern part of Spain. However, even greater values can be found further south in the areas bordering the Mediterranean Sea. One such area is Yecla, about 50 miles inland from the sea. In the past seven years, I have posted about four wines from Yeccla. All have been blends of the traditional Spanish g

Dragon Vine, a novel by Steven Laine

It has been a year since I have posted to the South Carolina Wine Blog. However, I was provided with an advance copy of the latest novel by Steven Laine entitled Dragon Vine for my review. Mr. Laine writes novels with a wine focused theme and I reviewed Mr. Laine's previous novel Root Cause in 2019, which I greatly enjoyed. The synopsis of Dragon Vine is as follows: When his father dies in a wildfire, Carmine Cooper takes over the family winery in the middle of harvest, putting his dreams of becoming an architect on hold. He soon finds himself fighting with a vengeful neighbor, blackmailed by a local gang, harassed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities, and the target of an ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives) investigation. Carmine’s only hope to solve his problems and finish his first solo vintage successfully rests in identifying an unknown grape variety his father grew and made into wine for a quarter century with links to an a

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