Winery Visit - Kings Family Vineyard

Saturday, February 25, 2012
King Family Vineyards

The sign we saw as we entered the vineyard. First winery visit ever!

Five of my friends from wine class decided to head north and stop by a vineyard and we ended up at King Family Vineyards. When we arrived we went straight to the tasting room.We arrived as soon as it opened at 11am so we got to get started on our tastings right away. We got to taste six wines:

Roseland 2011 -

This photo is courtesy of King Family Vineyards website. Mine was not this good.

60 % Chardonnay, 40% Viovnier This wine costs $19.95 and only 770 cases were produced.
The King Family says that there is a peach, honeysuckle, and acacia flower on the nose with a hint of lemongrass. I definitely could smell the honeysuckle and a floral aspect. King Family says the mouth feel is bright and fresh with good acidity reminiscent of a pear crumble and a long and creamy finish. After tasting this wine i could detect some peach with lots of honeysuckle. I would agree with the bright fresh mouth.


Chardonnay 2010 - 

This picture is a little bit blurry like most of my pictures.

100% Chardonnay. 100% Malolactic Fermentation. 25% of the volume is fermented and aged in new French Oak, the restin older barrels. Only 575 cases were produced and the cost is $21.95/bottle.
King Family described this wine with a nose burst s with white flowers, lemon, and pear. White peach, ripe pear, and lemon on the mouth with touches of oak and a smooth creamy finish. I would agree with the lemony floral scent on the nose. There was also a hint of peach on the nose as well. The wine was buttery with a light fruit flavor. It was a little tart for my liking and you could taste the oaky flavor.

Crose 2011 - 

This was a very clear wine and you can see right through it.

100% Merlot dry rose. 720 cases produced at a cost of $16.95/bottle. 
This wine is probably one of their most popular. I really enjoyed this wine but that's because I love grapefruit and cranberries. The vineyard describes this wine as grapefruit and cranberry dominate the nose with a hint of red currant. The mouth feel is crisp and refreshing with a slightly tart finish. I would agree with the vineyard. The boquet on this wine was extraordinary. I could have smelled this wine forever. The smell didn't perfectly match the taste of this wine but I still enjoyed it. This wine reminded me of a summer day all around. It was tart at first and rather dry but I could still detect the cranberry and grapefruit. I think there was a hint of lemongrass on the finish.


Cabernet Franc 2010 - 

This is the best picture I took. This wine was delish for a red wine.

500 cases produce at $22.95/bottle
The vineyards description: The nose offers fresh strawberries on the vine, anise, and a touch of oak. There are notes of vanilla, strawberry, raspberry, and spice on the mouth with soft tannins. The finish is soft with a hint of black pepper.
For a red wine I actually enjoyed it. It had slight floral scent with some strawberries in the background. The taste was just as described above. There was a mix of strawberry and raspberry and a little spicy-ness. The finish i though was more vanilla like than black pepper. I got the black pepper first then ending on a vanilla note.




Seven 2009 - 

Can you see the Polo guy on top of the 7?

This wine gets its name for the 7th chukker in polo (like the 19th hole in golf) [Fun Fact: This vineyard also raises horses for polo] This wine is fermented in Kentucky Bourbon Barrels for 2 years and only 475 cases were produced at $24.95/bottle. 3% residual sugar, 18% alcohol.

The vineyard says that this wine was made in the traditional Porta style with and American twist. Dried fig, banana, and orange peel on the nose. Vanilla and nutmeg on the mouth with dark fruits, raspberry and toffee. When I sniffy sniffed this wine I got a smokey Bourbon smell. When I tasted this wine all I could taste was Bourbon. So if you like Bourbon with a little fruit added in then this is the wine for you. I did not enjoy this wine as much because of the high alcohol taste and I guess I don't like Bourbon either.

This is just one of the barrels that contains Seven.

Loreley 2010 - 

This photo is also courtesy of King Family Vineyard. 

50% Viofnier 50% Petut Manseng. This wine has 10% residual sugar, only produced 320 cases and it sells for $24.95/bottle. This wine is able to drink now through 2018. 
This dessert wine was made in the vin de paille (straw wine) style. It was fermented and aged in barrel. There is white flower, tangerine peel, peach cobbler, and gingerbread on the nose and mouth. The mouth feel is full and creamy. I would agree with this description almost fully. The smell was very light and floral to me. The color of this wine was much darker than all of the other whites from the day. When you taste this wine be expecting of a fuller feeling than all the other wines (except 7 it was pretty full as well). I tasted honeysuckle and tangerine peel.

***

 During the tasting our server decided to tell us how the idea for a vineyard got started. The King Family bought the land to raise polo ponies. Then a group of Virginia Tech students came to visit them because they wanted to grow grapes on their property because of the awesome climate and location. The owners told them that they were not interested but took the idea and ran with it. They planted some grapes and the vineyard took off. The vines below are Petite Verdo (they have a long growing season in this part of Virginia.)

The view was amazing. It might have been cold but it sure was pretty.

The total property has 27 acres of vines and are harvested during 6 weeks out of the year. This vineyard produces an average of 60 tons of grapes per harvest.

After only a short few minutes outside in the freezing cold we went inside to look at where the wine is actually made. The grapes are crushed and then put into these takes. For the Crose the skins will be left in the tank for no longer than 2 days and for a more full bodied wine the skins will be left in for 2 weeks. There were different size tanks: the largest tank can hold about 700 cases of wine and the smallest can hold 300 cases of wine. The barrels can hold about 25 cases of wine.

The barrels are made of all french oak and cost about $1000/barrel. The reason they use the french oak is because of the angular grain. Our tour guide said that American oak has a messy grain and is not as good for wine making even though it is way cheaper only costing $300/barrel. They do roast the insides of the barrel to different toasts for different flavors.

Just one side of the barrel room! There were so many of them. The red on the center of the barrel is just so they can be messy (it covers the mess from the spills).

Overall this winery visit was amazing. Our tasting guide was so nice and informative. She knew what she was talking about and gave us as much information about the wines and the vineyard as we wanted. Our tour guide was very informative as well. He also knew a lot about the winery, the King family, the grapes, and the overall process of making the wines. I would recommend this visit to everyone, however I would suggest going when its warmer and during a polo match.