The Madison-based vineyard, owned by Steve and Jean Case, has won a number of awards for their wine – but it is their tasting room that was voted number one in the nation by USA Today in its 10 Best Reader’s Choice contest.
“We have come so far thanks to the amazing talent and hard work of many, and we are honored to continue this journey with our exceptional team and all of you,” read a blog on their website.
In celebration and appreciation of a decade in business, the vineyard is offering special “Founder’s Flights” in their tasting room.
The vineyard also released three vintage wines for distribution in seven states.
2021 Shenandoah Valley Cabernet Franc
Variety: 100 percent Cabernet Franc
In 2021, Early Mountain Vineyards is building on the strategy they started in 2017 of delineating their Cabernet Francs by the multiple places they are grown, with three vineyard specific wines and two regional blends.
Both the Madison County and Shenandoah Valley bottlings reflect the ping pong character of the last four vintages, with 2021 balancing the intensity and power of the hot, dry 2019 vintage with the classic style of the cooler 2020.
Though they talk about the regional bottlings as being lighter in style in their normal vintages, they stand by their commitment to not only embrace place, but also vintage; this is Virginia after all, and there are different conditions every year. They want to celebrate this, instead of forcing the wines to act the same every time.
The Shenandoah Valley, in particular, had a long season and this wine was made with two vineyard picks, one in the middle of harvest, in the transition, and one later and riper. In particular the North Valley vineyard near Woodstock is bringing serious depth and concentration, while the Timberville vineyard balances and contributes aromatically. They are excited to offer the 2021 Shenandoah Valley Cabernet Franc as an expression of this vintage and region.
Food pairing: Works beautifully with traditional Cab Franc pairings of roast lamb and fuller flavor meats, but with its silken texture and savory notes it also bridges to lighter dishes with umami notes
2020 Petit Manseng
Blend: 93 percent Petit Manseng, 4 percent Pinot gris, 3 percent Chardonnay
More than any other wine, dry Petit Manseng represents their philosophy of winegrowing at Early Mountain: keep progressing, next year will be different, next year they apply what they’ve learned. It is also probably the wine most likely to elicit the comment, “Dang, this wine changes every year.” It sure does, they love that about it, and it keeps them coming back for more.
Sometimes Petit Manseng’s acidity seems crazy high, but they’ve learned to embrace it and to not push the wine to 17 percent alcohol just to get closer to “normal”. They’re also learning that you can temper it with lees aging, skin contact, and malolactic fermentation, and in some vintages, like 2020, the acid is not as bracing as others.
2020 departs a bit in style from 2019, because the fruit from their block at Early Mountain was almost completely wiped out from frost, necessitating new relationships with growers, especially in central Virginia, where the grape ripens during warmer temperatures. Every year they take a step further in understanding what this grape wants to be, and they’ve realized how much the vintage has to say in defining these wants. They love Petit Manseng, because it does not need to imitate a more famous wine; all it has to do is be itself, and it is distinct and compelling. There’s wildness in this journey that is Petit Manseng, and they’re excited to bring you along.
This bottling was fermented warm in a combination of oak puncheon and foudre, concrete, and large Acacia.
2021 Foothills
Blend: 28 percent Merlot, 28 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 23 percent Petit Verdot, 8 percent Tanat, 8 percent Petit Manseng, 5 percent Cabernet Franc
They always have fun making the multiple variety blends like Five Forks and Foothills. Both wines are made from vineyard blocks that produce fruit that stands in contrast to how they are told red wine or white wine should be.
Over several vintages, they have noticed that Foothills inherently embraces classical Virginia vintages, even to the point in riper years, they find themselves blending towards aromatics and a palate weight that could even be considered refreshing. While you may recall they typically blend a small bit of Petit Manseng into this red blend, 2021 is unique in that they utilized Petit Manseng two ways to complement the fruit density of the vintage: they co-fermented juice with Petit Verdot, which allows for additional color formation and aromatic diversity, as well as inclusion at final blending. This vintage of Foothills sees almost equal play between Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot, with Tannat and Petit Manseng equaling each other and just a skosh of Cabernet Franc.
They have always considered Foothills a “Bordeaux-ish” blend, with Petit Verdot being used at much higher percentages, but allowing for a lot more play using other varietals, like Tannat and Petit Manseng. It is this non-committal approach to blending that makes Foothills such a unique and vibrant wine.
Distribution and tasting room
The distribution of these three vintage wines is with Bowler Wines (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania), William Corner Wines (Virginia and Washington, D.C.) and Avant Partir (Georgia and South Carolina).
Early Mountain Vineyards ships nationally to 24 states in the U.S.
Early Mountain Vineyards is located at 6109 Wolftown-Hood Road in Madison.
Tasting room hours are 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday – Monday. The vineyard is closed Tuesday and Wednesday (open for pickups only).
For more information, visit https://www.earlymountain.com/
Share
Crystal Graham
