Virginia Wines

There is a wine estate in the Languedoc, South of France, at the time ran by very capable Belgians with a name resembling “Virginia Wines”, in fact it would be the English translation – which equals the heading of this article – from the French estate’s name. I first tasted this wine in the former “Rick’s American Café”, Avenue Louise, Brussels, European capital of Europe…… I rembered that especially young white chardonnay was excellent and well sold among American expatriates around the bar, this was the time that IBM etc. had huge European head office in centrals Brussels.

Rick’s American Café was an enormous success from the early 1980 onward unitl founders sold out and deservedly retired, the business incredibly fast collapsed and closed forever.

Nowadays I think by hearing Virginia Wines of the State of Virginia pressing for recognition as a world class wine region. The more mature laymen relay to Virginia tobacco but the younger generation of non-smokers – smoking is not done any longer, so tobacco is not socially cool etc. – will quicker mention the relative success Virginia is scoring as a wine district. The days that State officials are pulling out a box of cigars and proclaim that “The future of Virginia is tobacco, not wine” are long gone.

The Virginian winemakers had remarkable success. In 1990 the State had fewer than 50 wineries, at present it has 275 making Virginia the sixth largest wine region in the United States this according to Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a federal agency…and they should know!!

As American palates have evolved from Budweiser to Gallo, wineries have popped up in all 50 (!) States, as we all know too well at VintoVino, this from the shores of Lake Michigan to the Texas Hill County, California dominates, to no one’s surprise, accounting for 90% of the country’s production. State governments nationwide are looking to drive wine tourism and strengthen agriculture.

California has the acclaim with its wine says Linda Murphy, co-author of the books “American Wine”, other States have seen this boom and are looking to get a piece of the action. In Virginia wineries and vineyards with their related jobs, taxes and sales add about $750 million to the States economic stats. Wines is one of the fastest segments of agriculture, why could not Virginia become the East Coast capital for wine and tourism.

Virginia is an emerging region consequently the overall quality is not as good as the top Californian brands, but its improving all the time said Steven Spurrier,

the wine merchant who deftly organized the Judgments of Paris in 1976, in extremely influential blind tasting event that shocked the world…..I would have been prepared to have given up some precious assets to have been present at that event, only to see the facial expression of some Bordeaux wine barons after they found out that their own French wine oenologists had “blindly” picked two Californian wines to beat their own French competition of that time!!

And all this down town Paris, can one imagine the impact at that time…??

But Virginia has a major handicap namely an unpredictable growing season which may bring heat waves, hail and heavy rainstorms. When it comes to wine, Virginia has had a long tradition of failure. After the colonists settled in Jamestown, the local government decreed in 1619 that every man had to plant vines and ships wines back to mother England, but the vines bore little fruit. Thomas Jefferson planted European grape varietals at Monticello, although he stubbornly tried for years, he never harvested a crop enough to make wine.

A more modern problem lies in a challenge for Virginia and other fledging wine producing estates. Many wineries can sell their entire production in their tasting rooms.

But some wine purist bristle at the tourist trade, claiming it brings rowdy fun-seekers or weekenders and not many serious wine lovers to their wineries.

These wineries usually have next to their tasting rooms, restaurants and inns to facilitate people to stay longer than one day.

I guess that wine being a product dating back beyond the days of the Old Testament and the days of Bacchus, that these problems are well known and will be taken care of slowly and surely as the Virginian winemakers will in the end understand their terroir, this uniquely, indefinable combination of land, soil and climate which characterize a ‘also Virginian) vineyard. This process takes mostly 10 to 15 years sometimes a life time, a trade which requires such a patience can surely deal over whatever time with some rowdy fun-seekers and or passing weekenders…….