2007 Harvest in Virginia

A leading grower in the area has called the 2007 summer in Virginia ‘unprecedented’ and ‘California-like.’ I had the privilege of working a couple of afternoons last week at the sorting tables for Jim Law’s Linden Vineyard, where we processed bins of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, with Cabernet Sauvignon scheduled for picking next week or so. The growers/winemakers present were uniformly impressed with the ripeness and clean quality of the fruit.

As a footnote, one winemaker commented that ‘these will be wines that sell, but not the ones you take home for dinner,’ indicating a preference for less-ripe, more elegant and food-friendly wines. I know there's been a lot of discussion on this topic in past posts.

Ian

Ian,

where you on the sorting table last friday afternoon? We may have crossed paths and not even known it. My wife and I were there right after lunch when the PV came in from Avenius. She jump up on the sorting table for a while as I was talking to Jim and wandering through the vineyards.

Brian

Brian:

I worked Tuesday and Wednesday of, actually, the week before, not last week, as I wrote. It gets a bit monotonous after the first hour or two, but the company is good, and you get to ask wine-making questions of the old hands.

Cheers.

Ian

We are hearing the same down here in Charlottesville. My husband Chris was helping Brad out at Blenheim. They say not much white fruit due to the late freeze we had, but that the fruit is beautiful.

Erika
Arcady Vineyard

Good news indeed, especially for those of us who live around VA.

By the way: Do you know what ever became of Archie Smith (I think the last name was Smith) and his Meredith Vineyards?

We have only been here since 2001 - that name is not familar to me but I've only been working touring the vineyards for four years - were they growers or did they also have a winery?

Erika
Arcady

It it was like that down in ol' Virginny, then I am confident that most of the East will see very fine wines across the board this vintage. Here in Ontario, they were saying similar things recently - the growing season was hot and very, very dry. I am looking forward to some really good reds, even vinifera reds, from this year.

I guess it is good that something favorable comes out of this drought. But personally I'd rather we got our normal rainfall. The drought in Virginia and much of the East has been pretty brutal this Summer.

Glenn

As far as I know, Erika, they were the Virginia wine pioneers of recent history. They had their own wineryand grew their own grapes. 25 some years ago, my wife and I would go to inns in the VA countryside with another couple and Meredith Vineyards, in Middletown, VA (I think) was always a stop.

Jon,

Meredyth Vineyards, in Middleburg, have been closed for a number of years, after a long period of decline. The land has been sold and a small part is currently home to an organic market garden.

Thanks for this information, Frank. I'd often wondered what happened. The were an important part of my early wine years.