Linden Vineyards

2014 has been a tough year financially for the restaurant and that has really put a damper on our ability to get out and visit wineries like we had been accustomed to in the past. I knew it had been a while since we visited Linden, but it really struck home when we pulled up out front to see that they have undergone a renovation of the winery since our last visit back in April: new windows, some new siding, new doors, a new tasting counter, and one doorway closed off. The upstairs is also now open and looks much different with large, arched windows filling each of the gable ends.

Beautiful in all Seasons

I had figured that the weekend after Thanksgiving would be a great weekend to visit, the snow and the holiday keeping traffic low. And it was: traffic was minimal. Not good for the winery, but not unexpected, but very good for us. When I visit, I like to take my time and taste the wines and compare and contrast them with vintages past and that is nearly impossible to do when people are lined up three deep at the tasting counter behind me.

We tasted through the current line up very unhurriedly. Most of the wines I had not tasted before (well, I am sure I have tasted a bunch of them in barrel) as they are mainly from the 2012 vintage. It's pretty obvious that the lack of wine in 2011 is forcing Jim to release wines more quickly than I am sure that he would like. New to me were 2012 Chardonnay, 2012 Claret, 2012 Petit Verdot, and 2010 Hardscrabble Red. They are all delicious but the Petit Verdot needs a good bit more time before it is ready.

Lunch Outside on the Deck

Despite the snow on the ground, it was a very pleasant 60 degrees outside and we took advantage of the beautiful weather to have lunch out on the deck, the only people to do so. The venison summer sausage and the Meadowcreek Appalachian cheese are old stand bys. The smoked duck from the Marshall IGA is new and is a bit too heavily smoked for my liking. Delicious, but too much smoke. The Merry Goat Round goat brie from Firefly Creamery is new to Linden in my experience, but it is a regular on our cheese plates at the restaurant.

2013 Hardscrabble Red Barrel Sample

Unbeknownst to us, Jim was doing library tastings this weekend (a 30-year retrospective of Hardscrabble: had we known, we would have signed up). While we were out on the deck and between tastings, he came out to say hi bearing a small carafe of 2013 Hardscrabble Red from the barrel. It's a young, fiery beast with good minerality and structure. I am looking forward to tasting it in a few years when it calms down.

Tasting in the Cellar

We also did a cellar tasting where we tasted Boisseau 2012 Chardonnay against Hardscrabble 2012, Boisseau 2010 Red versus 2012, and Late Harvest Vidal 2007 with Late Harvest Petit Manseng 2009. The Boisseau 2012 Chardonnay is probably the finest Chard from that site that I have yet tasted; clearly it has been picked earlier than in years past and has more acid to help it balance. The 2012 Hardscrabble Chard is to me the finest Chard that Jim has ever made, very nicely balanced and very Burgundian. I'm very familiar with both dessert wines: we pour both of them at the restaurant. The Petit Manseng is always over the top.

It was a great day with Ann to be able to sit and savor delicious wine.

Delaplane Cellars/Pasta Fagiole

I'm working on way too many things at work right now, so many that my head is constantly spinning and I am unable to get any badly needed downtime even when I am not at work. So, Ann has purposely not scheduled anything for us to do on Sundays in March so that I can just chill on my day off. Even though we didn't have anything planned on Sunday, it did seem to be a good idea towards late morning just to get away from the house and have a little lunch/wine and try to unwind.

We needed to get to Delaplane to pick up some wines (we are members of their club) and since it is the closest of the upper tier wineries to us, we often end up there when we don't have any other plans and so we did on Sunday. The change of context worked for me. I was able to relax with the help of a half bottle of really good wine, my best girl, and a total change of scenery!

A Special Treat 

We arrived in the tasting room shortly after noon and were among the first to arrive for the afternoon, which turned out to be fairly slow but not atypical for this time of year. Although I don't wish slow times on anyone, it is so much easier for me to relax without tons of people around. As a restaurant guy, I love the buzz and the people, but I'm on all week and when I'm not at work, I don't necessarily want to be on. I need a little off time to recharge my batteries.

Upstairs on the mezzanine level, Jim was conducting a class on wine and food pairing called Sunday Sipping, with food supplied by Tarver King and crew at the nearby Ashby Inn. Betsy spied Ann and me while we were tasting through the line up and brought us each a sample of the final pairing along with a taste of their Petit Manseng. Tarver made what he calls potted cheese (basically a gelatin-stabilized cheese mousse) of Challerhocker cheese and milk topped with a bit of honey and accompanied by a biscotto.

Cheese geek that I am, I freely admit that I don't know much about Swiss cheeses other than the usual suspects and Challerhocker is a new cheese to me. It's a washed rind cheese that melts well. The salty cheese mousse with the sweet floral honey was a great contrast to the sweet Petit Manseng. This highly savory contrast is always my approach to a pairing with a great sweet wine. In my current frame of mind, I probably would have gone with an unctuous pork liver terrine, but this pairing and the presentation were excellent.

The wines being tasted at the counter are all reds now, the whites being sold out and the new 2012 vintage not yet ready for prime time. I am particularly surprised at the 2011 reds; they are very drinkable, especially for the worst vintage that I can remember.

Our Favorite: 2010 Williams Gap Bordeaux Blend

Ann and I gravitated to our favorite of the current wines, the 2010 Williams Gap red blend of four traditional Bordeaux varietals, basically equal parts of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc with the balance Petit Verdot.

Cheeses and the Fennel Sausage from Croftburn Market

We always seem to get the sampler plate of whatever cheeses and sausage they have on offer and this time the cheeses were uninspiring, but the fennel sausage from Croftburn Market in Culpeper was delicious. We like the charcuterie from Croftburn a lot, but recently we have been spoiled by the amazing salame from Olympic Provisions in Portland. Nothing against the home team, but those guys on the left coast have got it figured out. I've even learned some tricks for my own charcuterie by tasting theirs.

Mousse Truffée

Ann has never seen a piece of truffled liver mousse that she could pass up, so we ordered a slice to go with our bread. There is something luxuriously comforting about a piece of hot crusty bread slathered with silky liver mousse!

Baguettes, Good and Crusty

After Jim finished his tasting upstairs, he wandered over and sat and chewed the fat with us until he and Betsy left for brunch up the street at the Ashby. He was kind enough to grab a bottle of the 2012 Springlot Sauvignon Blanc and pour a glass for each of us. It has a really tropical nose and decent enough acidity, though a person could want more acid. 2012 was a bit too warm at times for that though. Springlot is across the valley directly west of the winery and up at a pretty good elevation; Jim pointed it out to us from the winery. With only 18 cases made, the general public will never see this wine and we were delighted and surprised to be able to taste it.

Midafternoon, we headed back to the house where I started prepping for dinner and then went to fetch Carter while Ann was baking another awesome loaf of bread for dinner.

Root Veg and Pancetta

I had promised to make pasta e fagiole for dinner this winter because Carter likes it so much, but I hadn't yet got around to it. It kept getting bumped by other equally delicious dishes. So I made it a point to make some this weekend and I gathered some celery root, carrots, onions, pancetta, garlic, sage, and rosemary and went to town on it after we got back from the winery.

Pancetta Loves Rosemary, Sage, and Garlic

Ann also made some bread dough on Saturday so that we could have a loaf with our beans. I'm giving away her secret here: she bakes it in the big cast iron cocotte. Not only does it give the loaf shape, but when covered for the first part of the baking, it traps in the steam necessary to give the bread great oven spring.

Sadly, this loaf didn't turn out too well. Our primary oven appears to be malfunctioning and we ended up moving it to the secondary oven. The loaf suffered for want of a decent oven, but not enough to keep us from gorging on the bread to the point where we were too stuffed to want the pasta and beans!

Ann's Bread Secret: Cast Iron

Pasta e Fagiole

Linden Vineyards

Look at This Day!

Ann and I love fall more than any other season: the crisp nights, warm days, and beautiful scenery make it our season. Our first date was in the fall and we got married in the fall. Something about fall speaks to us and it may be the complicated juxtaposition of warm and happy days against the hints of the cold and wet days to come. Or it just may be that it is the season that lets us both sit outside and drink red wine to ward off the chill. Or I could be waxing way too philosophic for a mere blog post.

Sunday the 21st was an archetypal fall day: the trees were nearing peak color, a hint of crispness sneaked into the air while the sunshine was warm and generous, and above all, the sky was the blue that all skies should be and that every landscape painter dreams of, dotted with puffy white clouds. It was against this glorious backdrop that we met Steve Wright at Linden Vineyards, our first visit since the late spring and Steve's first visit ever. We were glad to help Steve in his quest to visit every Virginia winery, especially the winery that we think is the best on the East Coast.

 

Because Steve had never been to Linden, we decided to do the cellar tasting which is always interesting, comparing two wines side by side. First up was the 2009 Avenius Chard versus the 2008. In all Jim's wines that I have tasted so far, I prefer the 2009 to the 2008, though there is nothing at all amiss with the 2008s. I prefer the greater acidity and more floral notes on the 2009 Avenius Chard to the more tropical and riper 2008.

Then we were on to the 2009 Boisseau Red against the 2007 Hardscrabble Red. This was interesting in comparing the always fruit forward wines of the warm Boisseau site against the really fruit forward 2007 vintage. Even in the hot 2007 vintage, the Hardscrabble's structure shines through in comparison to the Boisseau. But, I prefer the 2006, 2008, and the 2009 vintages of the Hardscrabble to the 2007.

Then we did the 2007 Late Harvest Vidal against the 2008 Petit Manseng. There is just no comparing these grapes. The Petit Manseng is otherworldly while the Vidal is just merely very, very good. I understand the Vidal is getting ripped out, no doubt a tough decision, but one that becomes obvious when you taste these wines side by side. The biggest surprise was in the tiny pairing that was served with the Petit Manseng: a banana chip topped with a bit of Cambazola cheese and a peanut, a little goodie developed by Andrew Napier, who also did our tasting. The banana chip and Cambazola were obvious pairings, but the peanut was counter-intuitive and shocking in how well it paired with the wine. I have learned something new and will be at some point in the future ripping that off. Who knew?