It had just finished raining as we headed along the windy sunlit summits of the Blueridge Parkway. Rebecca and I were en route to Villa Appalachia, a winery specializing in dry Italian old-world-style wines. We had heard about it from the wonderful workers of the Vintage Cellar in Blacksburg. After letting them know of our love for Chateau Morrisett, they noted their preference for the more traditionally styled wines of the competing winery in Floyd, Virginia. The rain had cooled the air coming through the open windows as I rowed through the gears in my Mazda. This combined with the lack of foliage on the trees at the higher altitudes we were reaching gave a good impression of early spring. Highway gave way to smaller routes, which in turn gave way to gravel as we finally reached the sign for the winery.
What we found on this particular summit, was a pastel pink villa, reminiscent of the architecture quite commonly found in the Alps of southern Switzerland, where I spent some time several years prior. It had plenty of outdoor seating, and the sun had just started to burn away the clouds from the morning's rain, making outdoor seating the clear preference. Upon entrance, we were greeted by a couple of golden doodles, one of which was named Abbie. The proprietor soon noticed our arrival and scheduled us in with the next tasting group. In the meantime, we looked around the grounds of the villa. There is a cabana with a pizza oven, a small enclosed courtyard with additional seating, several outbuildings of various sizes, and a number of smaller tables with two or three chairs apiece scattered about the property. What we did not see were any vineyards.
Before long our tasting appointment had come due and we crowded around a small bar in the main area of the interior of the villa along with four other patrons, all elderly, preparing to be served by a younger gentleman behind the bar. We gave us a quick explanation of the winery before pouring the first wines. Villa Appalachia has been in business for about 30 years, however it has changed ownership in the last 5. They specialize exclusively in old-world style wines, many from a single varietal (all reds are varietal), and named as such. All the wines they serve are either mostly or completely dry, and most are Italian, which seemed to serve as the theme of the winery in general. Their vineyards are lower on the mountain, about 1500 feet lower which is why we couldn't see them. I have included a picture of their wine list below. All of the wines were included in their tasting for 10 dollars. They also gave us the little red piece of paper and a pen to make notes, which was very helpful.
My reviews of all the wines from worst to best:
8. Pinot Grigio: I thought this wine was extremely oaky, and barrel-tasting for a white. Extremely tannic and green and woody. These notes completely overpowered any citrus or fruit notes I would typically expect from this grape. Not pleasant at all even though I usually like pinot grigio.
7. Lirico: It smelled like cheese and didn't taste like much. Just very weak flavors but with a not unpleasant body/texture. The smell is the sort of malolactic acid smell one would expect from an oaked chard. But the flavor corresponding to this smell just wasn't there. Again slightly too much wood/barrel flavor.
6. Dolcetto: This wine again suffered from a similar plight as the two above. It was a red with rather delicate flavors that got drowned out by the oak. It was very tannic and dry and smokey. Also a little hot in the mouth. Hard to distinguish the fruit flavors, but could be a lot better with food.
5. Cabernet Franc: Now we are getting into the wines I enjoyed. This was very similar to the Dolcetto but with a bit less of the oak problem and it made better use of the characteristics listed above. The hotness of the Dolcetto was translated to a pepperiness here. Black pepper, tannins, buttery on the nose. Had quite a fair amount of unpleasant sediment, even in just the small amount used in the tasting.
4. Aglianico: This was maybe the most interesting/unusual wine at the tasting. A huge blast of cedar flavor. It was like the wine equivalent of licking the old wardrobe in your grandmas house. This wine made the best use of all the wines of the very woody/oaky/cedary characteristic shared by most of the wines from Villa Appalachia. It was comforting. Like a cedar chest or closet. It is a warm comforting thing to drink. Would be very pleasant in the winter. It reminded me of Christmas with my grandparents. Antiques all over the house, spiced wine on the stovetop. It, unlike some of the earlier wines, was able to preserve a character of dark fruit; Blackberries. It also had a LOT of tobacco on the nose, which translated pretty much completely to wood on the palate. Smelled like a good cigar.
3. Sangiovese: As you all know Sangioveses are my absolute favorite wine so I was expecting great things here. This was the lightest Sangiovese I have ever had. Probably because most of the time I am having chianti, which is only required to include 80% Sangiovese, and so the rest can be filled with even bolder grapes. It was jammy on and rich on the nose, with some more oak, raspberry and plum on the palate, but all with a relatively light body and color. This along with the two listed below were the ones we decided to get glasses of to sip on outside in the sun as the day began to warm up.
2. Rosa: This was the only rose they had on the menu. Completely dry and extremely refreshing. It was dry while still being light and airy and fruity and floral. Extremely drinkable. I could put back a bottle of this one on a nice spring day on a moment's notice. I will likely be buying a bottle.
1. Allegra: This was the first wine we tried and definitely the favorite overall, especially after drinking the full glass of it out in the sun. It is very fruity, with notes of tree fruit like pear and apple. There is citrus as well but in lower quantities. Very light, crisp and easy to drink. None of that overbearing oak so everpresent in the villa Appalachia wines, or any other off flavors. Just enjoyable refreshing classic dry white wine. Certainly unoaked as despite being 50% chard there was no detectable malolactic acid. Delicious. I will have to try more Vidal Blanc in the future, but I will be back for more of this wine.
Above you can see a picture of the bar where the tasting took place. The ladies were from Floyd, and then there was another older couple from Indiana. The tasting environment facilitated by the man pouring was very conversational and pleasant, which also help in my tasting on the wines. On the way, there was a sign denoting the entrance to the rocky knob viticultural area. Kinda funny to have a designated area for two wineries. We asked for a tour of their production but they are not currently doing tours. Despite this they weren't too busy so the older gentleman that greeted us shows us around back there they do some of the processing. The machine with the hopper pictured below is the crusher/destemmer. The machine under the tarp is the press. I'm glad I learned the difference between crushing and pressing from this class. Also pictured is me enjoying that lovely Allegra.
