North American Wine Roads - Virginia - Route 211 Wine Trail

This week's North American Wine Trails post comes from Kurt Jenson and his Wine About Virginia blog on a new wine trail in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Well, the unofficial Route 211 wine way is now "official."  The web site for the Rt 211 Scenic Vino Wine Trail is up and running, even though some of the wineries are not. 

Members of the 211 Wine Trail are Unicorn, Magnolia (open Summer 2013), Gray Ghost, Narmada, Gadino Cellars, Little Washington Winery, Quievremont, and the Copper Fox Distillery.

While most of the wineries should be familiar to regular readers of this blog, there are two new names in the member winery list of the RT 211 Wine Trail.  Magnolia Vineyards facilities are currently under construction, but they are now on their 5th season of growing vines on their property and they are currently making wines at other wineries.  Their 2011 vintage wines will be available for sale available in their tasting room once they are licensed and open. 

Quievremont is located at the center of center of Reality Farm.  Their website says that their 2012 wines should be ready in May 2013.  I noticed in an add that they will be at Vintage Virginia this year.

To finish reading about the 211 Scenic Vino Wine Trail, visit New Nothern Virginia Wine Trail.

Am I an Over-aged Millennial? We Enjoy Similar Wine

Yesterday I received this press release announcing the results of the 4th annual NextGen Wine Competition for Millennial Wine Drinkers and what caught my eye was that the winery awarded Best Rosé is a wine we have discussed often the last few months: the Canyon Wind Cellars 2011 47-Ten Rosé. This wine first shown on my radar while visiting the winery during a 2012 DinkLocalWine.com pre-tour. In fact, check out our Facebook page where the view from the winery is our cover picture. Then the rosé was provided as a gift in the media package and I was able to compare it to another nice local option, the 2011 Boxwood Winery Topiary Rosé. Both are very good wines and available at very reasonable prices ($12 for the Canyon Wind Cellars and $15 for the Boxwood). For me, the Canyon Wine Cellars closely resembles the Provence style - light and dry; whereas the Boxwood is bigger. The millennial judges also enjoyed several "other 46" wines such as the Apple Barn Winery 2011 Apple Cranberry and the Galer Estate Vineyard and Winery 2010 Vidal Blanc. Galer Estate calls their Vidal an "Icebox" wine because the grapes are frozen in a commercial freezer. Two other local wineries that fared well and received Best of Class awards was Maryland's Detour Winery 2011 Alpine Frost and Virginia's Gray Ghost Vineyards 2011 Gewurztraminer.  I've tried this Gewurtz - it is tasty.

Here is the official release that we received:

Vineyard & Winery Management has announced the conclusion of the 4th annual NextGen Wine Competition for Millennial Wine Drinkers, held June 5-6, 2012. The competition is designed specifically with this exciting and important consumer group in mind, and is judged by qualified and knowledgeable wine industry millennials aged 21-35.

Produced by Vineyard & Winery Management, NextGen is one of the fastest growing and most exciting wine competitions in North America today. Judges included high profile NextGenners such as Jessica Altieri, “America’s Social Wine Ambassador.” Altieri, 27, is a leading online wine social media and video pioneer, traveling the world to spread the conversation about wine in an unpretentious way. She is the founder, CEO and Certified Sommelier for WineChannelTV and has worked with some of the world’s leading wine brands, governments and trade associations.

“I would have to say that the results from our lineup of millennial judges mirror very closely what is trending in the marketplace today,” said Bill Traverso, Director of Wine Competitions for Vineyard & Winery Management. “That is why a competition with millennial judges helps wineries in making plans for which variety to plant and which type of wines to make for the next wave of wine consumers.”

“The 2012 NextGen Wine Competition was an incredible success,” declared Chief Judge Giovanni Balistreri. “Judges were flown in from all over the country to join local industry professionals; their combined wine expertise and knowledge contributed to making this competition shine.  A big thank you to our sponsors! I look forward to the 2013 NextGen Wine Competition.”  

Riedel glassware was used to assess all of the wines, which were judged from a field of 750 entries. Judges awarded a total of 17 Double Gold, 63 Gold, 253 Silver, and 249 Bronze medals.

The full results are available in this pdf. The sweepstakes awards are as follows:

Best of Show
Lago di Merlo Vineyards and Winery
2009 Sangiovese Lago di Merlo Vineyard

Dry Creek Valley, California

Best of Show Dessert/Late Harvest
Galer Estate Vineyard and Winery
2010 Vidal Blanc

Chester County, Pennsylvania

Best of Show Fruit
Apple Barn Winery
2011 Apple Cranberry

Tennessee

Best of Show Rosé

Canyon Wind Cellars
2011 47-Ten Rosé

Grand Valley, Colorado

Best of Show Sparkling
E & J Gallo Winery
Barefoot Bubbly NV Moscato Spumante

California

Best of Show White
White Tie Wines

2011 Moscato

California