The aromas don't deceive. The taste that follows is intense.
Meet Veritas Vineyard & Winery's 2008 Petit Verdot, a lush red wine that very well could be the star of the show at Saturday's Celebration of the Vine wine festival at the Chesterfield County Government Complex.
At a recent wine judging for the event, two of three groups picked the Veritas Petit Verdot as the top red wine. For good reason.
Blackberry and dark berry aromas led to blackberry jam, plum, even some vanilla, among its many flavors in this complex wine from Afton-based Veritas. Tannins were light and soft.
That a petit verdot was a favorite among the judges is no surprise. Bob Kocher, who carries nine Virginia petit verdots among his 425 state wines at his Once Upon a Vine shop on MacArthur Avenue, explains.
"I carry so many petit verdots not only because it's my style of wine, but because it's a big red full-bodied wine with a nose that reaches you as you pour it into the glass," he said. "It has so many flavors that explode in your mouth and gives you a pleasant, lasting taste on the palate."
Veritas petit verdots often stand out.
"It is aged in oak a little longer than some of the others, which adds to its smoother and softer tannins and adds a taste of vanilla as well as deep complex flavors of fruit, spices, chocolate, leather and tobacco," Kocher said. "The petit verdot is a perfect wine to cellar. It will only get better with age and become an elegant first-rate wine."
Petit verdot is used primarily as a blending grape elsewhere, including France, where it's one of the five classic Bordeaux grapes. Here, it's earning a reputation as a top wine.
"Petit verdot is a nice fit for Virginia as one of our bigger reds," Emily Pelton, Veritas winemaker (with her dad, Andrew Hodson) said. "As we are garnering more and more success with petit verdot in Virginia, it is becoming more and more popular, and therefore more people are making it as a single varietal, and it is ultimately a good fit as a beautifully tannic, very age-worthy wine for Virginia."
Why the good match?
"We are able to ripen this fruit beautifully with relative consistency, and the aromas and flavors that we are able to produce are interesting and fun, and most importantly different," Pelton said. "I really like working with petit verdot because of the massive intensity of color and richness.
"The berries are small and the clusters are relatively open, so disease pressure is typically low. I do have some problems in wet years with some splitting of the grapes, but am very happy to put up with this problem and mitigate its effects in order to have PV as part of my red wine program."
A celebration
Veritas Vineyard & Winery's 2008 Petit Verdot is a must-taste wine at Saturday's Celebration of the Vine festival.
In the bottle: 100 percent petit verdot, 12.6 percent alcohol; aged 14 months in oak, 12 months in the bottle
In the wallet: $29 at the winery (www.veritaswines.com) and festival; discounts on multiple-bottle purchases; $25.99-$28.99 in local stores
In the store: Once Upon a Vine (MacArthur Avenue), The Vino Market, Private Stock
In the future: Celebration of the Vine, Saturday at Chesterfield County Government Complex, 9901 Lori Road, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; 17 wineries; $20 advance, $25 at gate; non-taster $10, $12; www.chesterfieldchamber.com
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