Located at one of the first seeds of our country, the Williamsburg Winery vineyard was planted in 1985. On Easter weekend, I went home to visit my family in Newport News. This gave me the perfect excuse to take them all to visit the Williamsburg Winery with me! We visited the vineyard on Saturday.
Welcome to the Williamsburg Winery!
Here I am standing at the entrance by the sign, super excited to head in.
The winery it self is not to far from the popular Kingsmill Resort where me and my family had our Easter Brunch. It sits on 300 acres, of which most of it is vines, and includes a restaurant, hotel and winery.
First vines you see going up the winery driveway.
On the left is the cafe, and the right is the winery which houses their cellar.
When we got there, I was sad to learn my brother had already done the tour and would not be walking around with me. He and his wife went to the tasting at the same time I went on the tour with my mom and friend Jessica. The first thing the tour included was a short video briefly talking about the winery and its history, the winemaker, and a little about how wine is basically designed. Then we went down to the cellar where they stored their barreled wines.
Here is a small portion of number of barrels they had in their cellar. This room was full of the red wines and the white wines were in the next room. Below is a picture of my friend Jessica and my lovely mother hanging out in the cellar.
Moving through the cellar we got to the winery's own bottling machine. The tour guide informed us that they were one of the few wineries in Virginia to actually own their own bottling machine and use it in house. I think it would have been neat to see the machine work its magic but no such luck.
On our way out, back through the cellar, I took a few more pictures for good measure.
We then proceeded upstairs, passing through the wine bar and the community room which was being set up for a wedding reception later in the day. We then were shown a large window which looked down on their huge stainless steel wine tanks. I can't remember exactly how large the guide said they were, however she did say that it took almost 24 hour straight to bottle one entire tank.
Immediately next to the window into the fermentation room, there was this cool room full of the winery owners' collection of colonial wine jugs. The tour guide told us that in colonial time, each person or family brought their own bottles to be filled instead of the winery providing them.
Then we moved on to the best part; the tasting. We had six wines on the list to try, and then we selected one of the two dessert wines to try. Luckily, Jessica and my mom were nice enough to let me try theirs so I could try all 8 wines. I forgot which wines we were trying in each picture so.... yeah.
The three of us taking notes on the wine.
2011 Dry Rose -
Description: A Merlot-based rose aged only in stainless steel, look for strawberry and cherry tones with a clean, crisp finish.
I thought this one was very fresh and crisp. There was a nice little bite from the acidity and a noticeable heat. The aftertaste was a little bit dry.
2010 Acte 12 Chardonnay -
Description: A very food-friendly Chardonnay aged in both oak and stainless steel.
My mom actually ended up buying a bottle of this so she must have enjoyed it. This one was light and silky which I had not yet experienced in a Chardonnay yet. The guide informed me that it went though secondary fermentation.
2011 Sir Christopher Wren Write -
Description: A very floral, fruit-forward blend of white wine grapes aged primarily in stainless steel.
This wine was light and tasted and smelled like flowers. Overall it wasn't very flavorful.
2010 Arundell Cabernet Sauvignon -
Description: A rich, medium-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon with fruity tones and a light, oaky finish.
First of all, this was a very full-bodied and not light cabernet sauvignon in my opinion. I can normally pallet a small tasting of a cab sauv but I could not finish this. It was just too much. It was full of red fruit, licorice, oak and it was dry with a long after taste.
2007 Burgesses' Measure Merlot -
Description: Our medium-bodied Merlot features a cherry and berry bouquet with a smooth spicy finish.
This wine was very smooth, full with red fruit and had a short aftertaste.
2009 Hening's Statute Barrel Aged Claret -
This Cabernet Franc-based blend features a complex, berry nose and a smooth, silky finish.
This wine was also very smooth, very fruity and had a nice long finish.
Jessica and I partaking in the tasting!
2010 Lord Botetourt Red -
Description: This classic bistro wine is a blend of red Bordeaux varietals with an emphasis on petit verdot.
This wine was very different and very intense. It was very smooth and tannic. It tingled my tongue.
Vin Licoreux de Framboise -
Description: A red wine infused with raspberry juice.
This wine was overwhelmingly sweet and tangy. It was suggested to be used mainly as a cooking wine because it would impart beautiful flavors into the entre or dessert it's used with. This one hurt when it touched my tongue.
Mom and me giggling during the tasting. !
This was a great experience. I left with two new bottle of wine and a Williamsburg Winery wine glass that I am using as we speak.
Cool thing to note, on the box I am holding which they put my purchased wine bottles in is a quote from Kevin Zraly saying that Williamsburg Winery has "...some of the best wines in the world." I talked to one of the shop keepers about how I was reading the book for a class and she showed me that they actually sold the book in the shop as well.
