Tarara Winery's "Fine Wines"

Wine Temperatures

2010-02-19T08:41:00.001-08:00

The temperature of which wine is served is one of the most important and most overlooked parts of appreciating fine wines. The temperature plays such a huge role in the perception of aromatics, acidity and tannin.

I have been thinking about this a lot over the past few days since I heard a comment at the DC Food and Wine show we attended last week. There was a group of individuals that came to our booth from a local wine shop and mentioned that our Chardonnay was a bit too cold. They followed up by apologizing for being too picky?

First off I hope we do not give the impression at Tarara or at any wineries that someone is putting us out because they want to enjoy their wines in the appropriate ways.

Second, I am thankful that they let me know that the wine was too cold. It was!!! We immediately pulled the wine out of the ice to let it warm up over the next 30 minutes or so.

Most times when being at these shows you simply have two choices, put you wines in the ice bucket or not. Our Chardonnay had been on ice for about 45 minutes to an hour bringing the wine probably to somewhere around the mid to upper 30's. This is in fact where many people drink their Chardonnay, but if you are trying to get the best out of the wines aromatics and viscosity, it my be too cold.

A Chardonnay or other similar white wines that tend to be lower in acid with a fuller body (Viognier in many cases) can benefit from being served a little warmer. I tend to like my Viognier around 50 degrees and my Chardonnay even a touch warmer at around 55. If the wines are served too cold then with the lack of acidity these varieties just start to come off thin and not showcasing the viscosity they are known for. On top of that, the cooler a wine the less the aromatics will be perceived, so for a variety like Chardonnay that is lower in aromatics to begin with it will not only come off thin, but weak in aromatics.

The easiest way to solve this problem since most people do not have dedicated wine fridges or coolers, is to just take the wine out of the fridge 25-30 minutes before you plan on having it.

There are some white wines that do benefit from being cooler. Wines like Riesling or our Charval that define themselves strongly off their crisp acidity for balance when young can be served cooler. The cooler temperature will help put that acidity to the forefront and these varieties also tend to have s strong enough aromatic profile that it is not detrimental to the nose to be a little cooler. I love serving these wines around 45 degrees to really showcase that acidity and still keep the aromatics quite lively. You may want to pull these out of your fridge for 15 minutes or so.

Wines that are destined to be served cooler would be many dessert wines like a late harvest Petit Manseng or an Icewine since you want to increase the perception of the acidity to balance with the intense sweetness. Sparkling wines also benefit from being in the higher 30's to increase that acidity perception and helping define the mousse of the wine. The aromatics of classic sparkling wine is less important to worry about since it is strongly tertiary characters that will not be dumbed by the cold, like bready or brioche characters from the lees contact. These could be consumed directly out of your fridge.

Red wines often suffer the opposite temperature issues to white wine. It has been written on the back label of almost every red wine "Serve at Room Temperature". That has been the philosophy for hundreds of years. The downfall is when this suggestion first came about it was based on what the Europeans classify as room temperature which is about 64-65 degrees. I don't know about you, but I have my thermostat jacked up to 70+.

The big piece to red wines and temperature is there tannins. The cooler the wine the more the tannins will be perceived. If you have a young strongly tannic wine like a young Bordeaux or a current release of our Long Bomb or Meritage then the wines can benefit from being a little warmer to let the fruit showcase through the tannins. If you were drinking a wine with moderate tannins like our feature varietal reds or many new world Cabs then somewhere in that 64-65 range is probably going to work best. I would recommend just putting the wine in your fridge from about 15-20 minutes to get that slight chill.

There are some reds that should actually be chilled closer to what you might want to drink the Chardonnay at. Wines like a village level Beaujolais or lighter Pinot Noirs could be consumed at temperatures around 50-55 degrees to help showcase the acidity and increase the tannin perception since these wines are not classically firm structured on their own.

The last class of reds that some find controversial with the subject of temperature is the big, lush, fruit forward, new world styled Zinfandels or Shiraz's. If these wines are pushing the highs of ripeness with softer tannins you may want to serve them a little cooler like the lighter Pinots (maybe a touch warmer) to get better structure to balance with the fruit. The downside and the controversial part is that some of these wines are also high alcohol 15+% and the cooler temperatures will accentuate the perception of that alcohol.

In the end, you have to experiment with how you enjoy your own wine, since that is what truly matters, but there are some general rules of thumb that are shown above.

1) Cooler Temperatures will increase the perception of tannins
2) Cooler temperatures will increase the perception of acidity
3) Cooler temperatures will decrease the aromatic perception
4) Cooler temperatures will increase alcohol perception
5) Cooler temperatures will help showcase and define the mousse of a sparkling wine

So...go and experiment with a bottle of wine.

Sante.

Screw Tops - Friend or Foe

2010-02-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

Being part of the younger generation in the wine industry I have a great advantage. So many people are stuck on what they call tradition in the wine industry and are willing to risk the quality of their product over it. When I confront many people in the wine trade about why they do not use screw top closures, I am often given the same five arguments:

1) Corks have been a tradition for hundreds of years.
2) Corks and opening the wine is the most romantic part of the wine.
3) Consumers are not willing to pay for wines in screw tops.
4) Wines closed with screw tops do not age as well.
5) Wines closed with screw tops have “reductive” issues.

In general I find these statements almost amusing at times. I do believe in understanding history in order to better ourselves today. Therefore, understanding corks and what positive attributes they have is essential in understanding how to make wine in alternative closures. That does not mean I need to stick with the “traditional” closure that causes between 5-7% of wine (equivalent to about 1 bottle per case) to be noticeably off. When I say noticeably off, I mean a wine that wreaks of moldy newspaper, or a musty old basement (musty basements are also traditional in the old world, now we have de-humidifiers). This odorous flaw to the wine is created by a chemical called TCA (2-4-6 Trichloroanisole) which can be found technically on any thing that contains phenols (woods, plastics, grape skins and therefore wine, etc) when it comes in contact with certain sterilizing agents and a mold. This tends to be the show most within corks because if it comes from somewhere else, it will ruin the entire vintage of the wine. The problem with the corks is that it creates an inconsistency and an unknown after the wine is bottled. Tricholoanisole is incredibly potent. Studies show that the average person can detect TCA at a level of 4 parts per trillion in wines. Some critics have proven to be able to sense TCA at levels hovering around 1 ppt. To put in easy terms, that is the equivalent to approximately one sugar cube in 100 Olympic size swimming pools. It must be noted however that TCA is completely harmless to human beings; it is only detrimental to the aroma and flavor of the wine. Just think if other industries accepted a 5-7% failure rate, how different the world would be today.

The second statement of opening the bottle of wine being so romantic is really strange. Most of the time this process works out to be quite the opposite. How many times have we all gone to open a bottle of wine and the cork snaps in half? Then we all have the opportunity to look silly trying to dig that last 1/8 of an inch cork out of the bottle before we finally end up just puncturing it into the wine itself. There is also the instance of when you are trying to pull the cork out of the bottle and you pull to hard and a splash of your favorite Syrah splashed all over your dates new white shirt. Ok, well maybe that only happens to me, but it could happen to any of us. This could be stopped by also using one of these new high tech corkscrews that look like they come from the space age, but then how could you argue that it is traditional or romantic. Lastly, what if you go down to your cellar and select the last bottle of a special vintage for your 25th anniversary, come up from the cellar and go through the whole romantic routine of opening the bottle, just to find that it smells of moldy newspaper? Is it still romantic?

The statement of consumers not being willing to pay for wines under screw top, particularly for ultra premium wines has never been substantiated. Many people in the wine industry have under-estimated our wine buying public. At Tarara Winery our currently top selling wine is the first screw top closed wine we have released. It is a red blend (current vintage is Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot) that sells for $25.00 per bottle. This is only the first of the Tarara lineup to be closed with screw tops; we will be 100% inside of a year when the 2007 reds and 2008 whites are released. In many areas of the world screw tops are just though of as routine now. Look at Australia and New Zealand, they have about 85% closed with screw tops and that includes top end Reds and Whites well exceeding $100 per bottle. There are now Grand Cru Burgundies, top Loire Valley and some top producers of North East Italy (Veneto) using screw tops. These wineries have done this because they realize that the consumer just wants a great bottle of wine, and if the odds are better with a screw top then that is probably OK with most of us. Besides, if the best part of a bottle of wine is opening it, then it is a bad bottle of wine.

Many people have told me that wines do not age well in screw tops. I have also been told that they have not been tested to have shown being successful aging. These closures are no longer new, and there are many examples of wines from the USA, Australia, and New Zealand that have been aging gracefully under these screw tops for well over 15 years. The beautiful part of these wines is that they in some opinions age better. They gain lovely tertiary characters that are normal from aging, while also retaining freshness and lively fruit creating a wine of better complexity and balance. Are they identical to the wine with a cork, NO.? But then again after 10-15 years no two wines with corks are going to be identical either, each bottle will age slightly different under a cork so there is very little consistency. With the screw tops there is much more consistency bottle to bottle, even after extended aging. Here at Tarara Winery we create many wines that we believe will age gracefully for well over a decade. Some of our first vintage (1989) are drinking beautifully today. We think that using screw tops is just one more step to ensuring that our wines will be great upon release and after aging for years.

The last comment I here normally comes from people within the wine trade, and cork producers. There are many believers that wines closed under screw tops suffer from Reductive qualities. This is when sulfides (naturally present in wine as well as being added at times) reduce down to create off flavors like rotten egg. This has happened in the past before winemakers became more knowledgeable about the newer technology. Today winemakers can be far more diligent in making their wine to be certain that there are no reducible sulfides in the wine before bottling through proper oxygen management and by using fewer sulfides. This is one of the huge perks to wine in screw tops. It is possible to create the wine with less sulfides (which protect against unwanted yeasts and microbes as well as oxidation) since it is a more anaerobic environment. Those that believe that wine with elevated sulfides may want to look at screw tops since there is not as much necessary to do the same job.

All and all, screw tops are one of many newer forms of closures for our wines. It is not about ruining tradition, the romance of wine or a cheaper way to close our entry level wines. Screw tops are a modern way to be certain that the wine ends up on the dinner table exactly as the winemaker meant for it to taste. It is about taking an age old beverage that makes so many of us happy, and using modern technology to make certain the consumer has the opportunity the fruit, the winemaking process and the terroir we are so happy to have without having to look through a musty newspaper aromatic.

Cold with Snow, Need warmth of V-Day

2010-02-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

Whether or not you are a fan of Valentines Day there is one thing for sure. We are all looking forward to a little warmth and good reasoning to get out of the house after almost a week of being trapped by the white stuff.

We have a great time out here at Tarara in the snow. We have been building snowmen (although he met his demise pretty quick), running around with our crazy Great Dane Mia (who is too wimpy to go out today with the wind and blowing snow) and driving awesome equipment. Being from Canada, I have seen my share of snow, but I have always had to use the traditional shovel to move it. Here, we have the opportunity to drive big tractors, bobcats, and even bulldozers. That makes snow removal much more fun.

Since we are having so much fun removing snow we want to be sure everyone knows you can get out here this weekend. It is much rewarded and I am sure many of you need to re-stock your wine after this snow.

We will be celebrating Valentines Day with our Valentines Dinner which will include 4 courses of great food, four wines, and warmth. There are only a couple of seats left so if you are interested, click here.

If you are in DC and can't get out to Tarara, please visit us this weekend at the DC Food and Wine Show. Jon (our assistant winemaker), Rob (our sales guru) and myself will be there through the weekend tasting some pre-release wines and enjoying a wine community that has been stranded for almost a week.

I hope to see many of you this weekend in DC, at our dinner or in our tasting room celebrating the end of the Snow.

See you soon,

Jordan

Don't We Want Some Mystery?

2010-01-18T09:14:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a more philosophical post then most that I enter. I have been tasting a lot with several different people lately, and have heard so many different thoughts.

It seems that there is this approach being taken by some that wine is a simple beverage that can be broken down into it's individual components for replication. Is this true? My guess is that yes, to an extent this could be done and is by some, but why?

A recent article stated that there is no such thing as minerality in wine. By scientific research it showed that no vine uptakes minerals from the soil and imparts them in the grape, and therefore it can not be tasted in the grape. OK...well I still have to ask then, why do I sometimes taste a loamy character, or chalky note or some other for of minerality? I can not be told, nor should anybody be told what they taste and what they don't. Is it possible that the combination of soil type, soil pH, slope, drainage, sunlight, etc combined is giving a different profile that may not be proven, or even needs to be? Also, is it not possible that some dust from the soil on a windy harvest day, or spores from nearby brush fell on the grapes themselves and therefore made it into the fermentation? These are the questions of terroir and I love that this is part of wine.

The unfortunate thing is that with new technology and winemaking methods lots of these characters can be minimized in order to craft a beverage for what the winemaker believes to be the market's profile. Through eliminating barrels and using oak alternatives and micro-oxygenation equipment, using specific enzymes for extraction of certain aromas, selected yeast to help mold the acids present or extract certain aromas, measures quantities of sugar, tannin, etc, yes, one could probably make a replicable homogeneous wine. This would showcase the cellar and the winemaker more then anything.

At Tarara, our goal is to produce wines created by nature, since wine is and has always been a product of nature and what it allows the grapes to do each year. We take a minimalist approach, avoiding any additions of yeast, sugars, etc whenever possible and we never add un-necessary additives like tannins or enzymes. Why? Two reasons:

1) We want our wines to have personality and show the character of the vintage and vineyard. This is done by letting those natural pieces speak for themselves.

2) As much as our wines might not have identical profiles year to year, by not over extracting any one character, or minimizing another, we allow the wine to develop it's own complexity. If we concentrate on extracting one character then it may be intense and enjoyable, but also slightly one-dimensional.

So the more I discuss and taste with people, the more I see how there is a separation in wine from those that are made into a set style with recipes, and those that are crafted with a minimalist approach to showcase what nature has to offer each year. What is correct? Great question, I hope some of you respond so that we can have some great discussion over the philosophy of wine.

Welcome 2010!!!

2010-01-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

It is a new year here at Tarara and now that the dust has settled from closing down all of 2009, we can look at a year that promises to be great.

This year we have many changes that will be coming on line. We have our all new design, including a new website, new labels, brand, and of course some luxurious wines. The new brand/website should be live sometime throughout March.

This will be the year we release our 2007 Reds. This is the vintage to stock up on. It is the bet vintage we have seen here in Loudoun and at Tarara we treated it as such. We will be releasing our 2007 Meritage and Cabernet Franc.

We will also be releasing our 2008 Chardonnay (already out actually), our 2008 Viognier (will be released at our Fine Vine...Just Say Viognier event), our 2009 Charval, and 2008 Long Bomb ED2. While 2007 was the year nature gave us a gift, in 2008 and forward we are just better understanding our terroir from each vineyard. The 2008 Chardonnay and Viognier show lovely character and complexity that we have never before found. This was just from treating the fruit with the care it deserves and showcasing our vineyard. The wines show a great minty and anise note across our estate vineyard. You will have to taste for yourself.

The 2009 Charval is another year into trying to master the art of blending through this fun wine. It shows great fruit, complexity and a touch of sweetness just to balance the crisp acidity of the 2009 vintage. The blend is Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. Exquisite!

The Long Bomb Ed2 has already been tasted by several at our Premier Tastings and pre-release tastings. Almost everyone has raved about the new blend of this powerhouse. It showcases the some of the best o our Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Tannat, and Petit Verdot. This wine is actually available in the month of January through the online store only and for every cases purchased you will receive a complementary Long Bomb football Jersey to celebrate the NFL playoffs (click here if interested). Too bad neither the Skins or my beloved Bills got anywhere close.

Two other great pieces to note about the releases in 2010 is that we will finally be 100% screwtops by the end of the year. The 2006 vintage was the last at Tarara to use cork in order to ensure the quality of the wines moving forward without the risk of the pesky cork taint. Also, and maybe the most exciting is the release of our Commonwealth Series. This is a series of three wines that will only be sold as futures and only 50 cases of each are available.

The Commonwealth series will include a Cabernet Sauvignon dominated blend with some Tannat and Merlot from predominately Tranquility Vineyard, a Merlot Dominated blend with small amounts of Petit Verdot and Tannat from predominately Mountainview Vineyards, and a Meritage style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot from our Estate Vineyards. Each of these wines is a blend of the best 2 new barrels from their selected wines. The oak is dominated by Virginia Oak as the whole package is a step for us in our direction of supporting local to the furthest extent possible.

So many special wines to be released in 2010. It will be a great year and many more as we move forward expressing the terroirs of several local partner vineyards through our soon to come vineyard designated series of wines. Sante.

Vintage 2009 - Sigh of Relief

2009-11-17T13:31:00.000-08:00

We are about to press the last of our Cabernet Sauvignon tomorrow. It has been a long and at times drawn out vintage this year.

Throughout the growing season we saw many ups and downs in terms of our vineyard. We had a mild ending to the winter that made our vines want to get rolling fairly early which gave us many days of worrying about late frost and damaging the buds that were bursting. Luckily...no frost!!! On the other note it did stay cool and wet through much of the spring creating very uneven fruit set leading into the summer.

The uneven fruit set means at harvest time there was an abundance of chicks and hens. Chicks and hens is when there is some very small (under developed) berries in a cluster. Sounds bad, but in doing some research some have found this to be beneficial in cooler years because many of these under developed berries have no seeds. With a reduced amount of seeds there may be less green astringent tannins to come off aggressive in the more elegant styled vintage. I am not 100% certain this will work completely as planned but based on the ferments I am incredibly pleased with the quality of tannins we are getting this year. I was under the impression that we would have to press earlier then normal this year, but in tasting through the ferments I have found I was wrong. We have been able to maintain our extended skin maceration's giving great structure without being aggressive or green. We did however have to bleed off more juice then normal from our reds to extract every ounce that we could from the skins during the fermentation's.

After the cool wet spring, we saw a cooler then normal June before finally getting into our normal warm weather in July and August and with some good sunshine. Interestingly though, the nights all summer and right through the fall were cooler then normal preserving the acidity and giving a great balance to much of the fruit, especially the Viognier and Chardonnay.

Near the end of July came our most challenging 10 minutes of 2009. We had a ridiculous and tiny storm front that came through acting with the power of a small tornado up rooting trees and whipping hail at us along the way. The hail heavily lowered the crop volume in the vineyard and forced us to cull out a lot of fruit from within grape bunches. This meant obvious low yields but also opened up the clusters a little which came in beneficial with each rain fall not causing the clusters to become overly tight.

Given the cooler spring weather and cool nights and some rainy days we also started to find veraison (when the skins of the reds change color) coming later then we could have imagined. This also forced another strong decision to thin even more crop in order to ensure the remaining clusters could fully ripen. It meant thinning in some places 50% of the crop in order to be certain the remaining fruit would maintain the quality we strive for our of our vineyards.

The harvest began the first week of September with our Pinot Gris for our Charval production. We then had a lull of a couple of weeks before having a brief rush of Viognier and Chardonnay. All the whites came in during great weather. Much of September was cool and sunny preserving the acids and keeping the potential alcohol to a reasonable level. We are segregating our grapes this year based on vineyards and will be releasing wine potentially based on vineyard instead of varietal or style for the 2009's. The Viogniers and Chardonnay's show these terroir differences beautifully for this vintage. We have fruit ranging fruit oily and tropical right to crisp and almost flinty styled. Should be an exciting year for many whites.

The reds just had to hang and hang. With the exception of the Tannat harvested early in September with just massive structure, all the reds were harvested after October 15th just trying to push for bigger, riper fruit. In the end, I think we succeeded. Much like 2008, I was not completely pleased with the fruit as it came to the winery and though it would be a very green year. Now that the ferments have come to a halt and the reds are all (except the one Cab Sauv) pressed I am realizing that it is a lighter more elegant year, but with great acid balance and fruit character. Some of the vineyards definitely show some bigger structures and bright fruit that will create longer lived wines, while others are going to be lighter and more subtle best for the earlier drinking windows.

The real excitement was with Syrah. We have seen that in both 2007 and 2008 the Syrah that came off our vineyard surpassed all other varieties giving classic meaty, smokey characters with ripe plum and pomegranate like notes. This year was the test. We had our first "real" crop meaning more the 1/4 ton per acre. This year we harvested 1.5 tons per acre and will have a few hundred cases and wow is it going to be great. Once again, it beat the odds and is just surpassing all our expectations. It shows those classic Syrah characters and velvety structure of the past years but also is showing more cracked pepper notes given the cooler vintage. This grape really is something special for our terroir.

So overall the 2009 vintage should be one that will be remembered. We had to take some bumps and bruises, but in the end, I think there will be some gems. I look forward to showing them to you as they evolve in the future starting with our crisp white blend Charval that will be due out in the spring. A great blend of Chardonnay, Viognier, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc.

Salute.

Let the Harvest Begin

2009-08-29T07:38:00.000-07:00

Well, it always amazes me how fast the time can fly. I feel like we just finished crushing our Cabernet Sauvignon. That was October 18 / 2008. Now we will be harvesting our Pinot Gris again on Monday or Tuesday, hopefully!!!

It was definitely been a trying year for growing grapes, which makes life fun sometimes, battling mother nature. We saw wet cool weather during flowering and fruit set so it made for some uneven sized berries and a slightly lighter crop. I have not dealt with clusters like this year many times in the past with the difference of ripening and berry size within one cluster. That said, several of the berries do not even contain seeds, which if they ripen will give far better fruit with less agressive tanins. Interesting.

Following the poor fruit set and flowering weather has not been a lot better. We did get some dry warm weather through the end of July and start of August to accelerate the the grapes entry into Veraison (when they start to change color) and getting us back on target for normal harvest dates. We have however gone back to having more then our share of rain and inclement weather. Early August saw one of the most brutal storms I have ever seen, even though it was tiny and fast. We saw 4 inches of rain in 10 minutes come with winds that up-rooted 11 trees on our property and hail that harmed a lot of our crop. Since then it seems at least a couple times a weak we have seen some dramatic amount of rain.

Do we feel defeated, absolutely not. We have gone out and thinned our crop by almost 50 percent knocking off all the green clusters that we do not believe would have ripened to our standards in order to make the remaining clusters ripen further and develop the character we have come to love from our vineyard.

As mentioned, our first fruit looks to be the Pinot Gris which should be harvested early next week as long as they dry out a bit over the next couple days. In doing our sampling of the fruit we are finding decent flavor developement, lower then average sugar and higher then average acid. One might think to let them hang longer, and normally I am that person giving the suggestion, but I think the fruit is in the right balance currently for the vintage. It should be interesting, it almost reminds me of the delicate styles Jon (our assistant winemaker) and I use to make in Canada. I think maybe our cooler climate winemaking history might give us a strong adavantage this year.

I am expecting most of our wines in 2009 to show lower alcohol levels and brighter acidity then normal years. My original thoughts if we start getting dryer weather through harvest will be whites with brighter acid and a little leaner, but with some good aging potential and reds that will be leaner and lighter with soft fruit and be best consumed young.

I will have to keep you posted on that as the grapes come in and as the wine is created.

So with that all said, I am off to the vineyard to keep an eye on the fruit as it comes in and i will do my best to keep you in the loop as we dredge our way through yet another harvest.

Sante.

NoVA Terroir and Syrah?

2009-06-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

A little while back I was quite enthused by a tasting that I was involved in. There is a group of us that get together once or twice a month and choose a selected theme to really nail down on. We taste the wines blind and they often come from all over the world, unless the theme is a region. This particular tasting that got me so excited was all things Syrah from anywhere in the world.

At this tasting that included three winegrowers, a viticulturist, a wine aficionado, and a wine distributor we tasted through Syrah/Shiraz from California, Washington, Barossa, Cote Rotie, Idaho and Virginia. Yes, Idaho and Virginia were included!!! The bottles cost on average in the $30-75 per bottle range.

There really were some stunning wines. It really showed the wide range of what Syrah/Shiraz can offer. Some wines were overtly fruit bombs showing lush jammy red and blackberry fruit, some showed floral notes, some smoky, some meaty many with great complexity. The regions I am normally best at characterizing would have been California, Barossa and Cote Rotie (or Northern Rhone). California often shows gobs of fruit and fairly substantial barrel treatment and quite elevated alcohol (sometimes balanced, sometimes not). Barossa Valley is similar to California in the sense that it often is a huge extracted wine with jammy and bramble berry like notes and good barrel treatment, usually quite low in acidity. The old world versions like Cote Rotie or Hermitage, Cornas, St. Joseph, etc from the Northern Rhone tend to show some different complexities like smoky meat (think bacon or charcouterie), forest floor, as well as balanced fruit. All of these wines from these regions kept with their trends and common characters.

In the end of all the tasters there were three favorites almost unanimously, although all in different order of the top three. One of which was clearly a wine with a couple years of age, but still with some age ability. It showed great intensity on the nose with subtle fruit like blueberry, raisins, and plum but really struck us for having great earthy and bacon tones. The palate was soft and silky with a long smoky oak driven finish. The wine ended up being Domaine Jamet Cote Rotie 2001. Not Shocking, especially since it was a $70.00 bottle. The other two showed some very common characteristics. They had the plummy and ripe fruit characters of a wine from Barossa or California, but the complexity and subtle meaty tones of the Northern Rhone and also a great underlying floral aspect. The palate one both were medium bodied showing great elegance, still very firm tannins as they were clearly young wines and great long finishes.

Well it was no shocker that they came from very close to each other and they were made in similar methods. Both were co-fermented with Viognier (traditional in Cote Rotie). One had 6% Viognier, the other had 9% Viognier. Both wines were aged about 16 months in barriques of which 75% was new. One of the wines was primarily French Oak, the other was exclusively Virginia Oak. What were they? Tarara Winery Syrah 2007 and Delaplane Cellars Syrah 2007. Both of these wines came from Northern Virginia which was really exciting to see. It made me ask myself the question I am still asking today. Is it possible that Syrah could find a new home in Northern Virginia? I seem to think so, since we have already proven Viognier is from here is second to none, and in most places of the world Syrah and Viognier are planted side by side. In tasting our 2008 Syrah there is several of the same characters only our 2008 is a little lighter then the 2007 given the nature of the vintage and the 2008 shows a touch more floral, the 2007 a touch more fruit. Altogether though it has me thinking...Syrah and Northern Virginia...Great Terroir?

Our 2007 Syrah is currently only available to our Estate Wine Club members as it was our first crop and is a limited release. In the future we are looking forward to having plenty of Syrah since the vines are maturing.

So with that all said, it is time for me to get back out to the vineyard and watch the 2009 Syrah vines grow into some great wine for the future showing Tarara's terroir.

Sorry, I have been Gone

2009-02-25T11:39:00.000-08:00

Well we had a little I.T. glitch with the blog over the past couple of months and we apologize, but we are now back and more exciting then ever. I hope you enjoy reading about some of the many things we have going on that are new and exciting at Tarara since I last wrote.

First off, we have entered our 20th anniversary here at Tarara and we are celebrating full steam with events all the time. We have created a lounge once a month for our wine club as well as several great features like season tickets to our concert series which goes an extra month this year. We are also ramping up for our very first "Fine Vine Festival: Just say Viognier". This will replace our "Winds and Wine Festival" as a more upscale 20th anniversary experience to delight you with Virginia's flagship grape variety Viognier and some local cuisine. We will be celebrating with 4 other fabulous Viognier's from around the state as selected by a great panel of sommeliers and wine writers including Laurie Forster and Dave MacIntyre of the Washington Post.

Since I last wrote close to the end of harvest the wines have dramatically been changing. The 2008 vintage is starting to show some incredible poise and complexity that I was having a hard time seeing with all the hustle and bustle of harvest time. The reds, Chardonnay and Viognier are tucked away in barrel just slowly developing into what could turn out to be a classic vintage. The Chardonnay and Viognier are showing a great amount of elegance and complex fruit from 2008. They are wines of incredible balance with a great backbone of acidity. We have some reds resting in barrel that have never existed before at Tarara that are showing great promise. Our Touriga Nacional (previously used for our 2007 D9 - to be released in May) is the first time we have created a dry version of this variety and it shows great red berry fruit intertwined in complex red meat like aromas that all lay under a great structure of acidity and fine tannins. The Tannat that is also a first is full of smokey characters laying under what is clearly our most structured wine to date with massive but velvety tannins. Both these varieties are destined to be in our "Long Bomb Edition Two" with some Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. That could all change as the wine matures further though and more varieties could be added like Cabernet Sauvignon or Petit Verdot. I will keep you posted. It will be hard to top "Long Bomb Edition One" as out of the gates is has clearly been our most popular wine just flying off the shelves due to it's great value.

Our Meritage from 2008 may actually be a first for Tarara as well. This is our flagship wine and for the first year ever will hold a great proportion of Petit Verdot which is showing an Inky violet color, with intense plum character and loads of cracked black pepper notes under a line of vibrant acidity and ripe tannins. This wine is looking to be a blend of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. We will see about the Cabernet Franc and how it works with the blend. Right now, I would say this could rival our best Meritage to date. Even better then the great 2007 being bottled next week that is selling like crazy as a futures item? We'll see.

Next week we will also be bottling our highly anticipate first release of Syrah 2007. This wine is still defying it's own limits with its blend of 91% Syrah and 9% Viognier co-fermented. Everytime I taste the wine (which has to stop since there is not much and I keep diving in) I am finding it more and more complex with great raspberry and plum notes nixed with licorise and yes bacon. Sounds odd, but smell for yourself and you will be addicted. The palate is soft and silky with a medium to full body showing great elegance and complexity leading to the long smokey finish. There will also be the new D9 being bottled next week for release in May. If you enjoyed the first version of this wine, the 2007 will make your knees weak with smokey aromas from the 18 months in barrel, meaty aromas of the Touriga Nacional and a lovely blend of earthiness and fruit from the Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Chambourcin. This will all be complemented by the firm tannins, and a good dollop of alcohol (18%) as our new fortified wine. We will also bottle our flagship Meritage 2007 which is already selling like crazy as future and is a lovely blend of 46% Cabernet Franc, 34% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and our 2007 Cabernet Franc which is a classic rendition of the variety. The first of our 2008's will also be bottled including our Rose which is a blend of 49% Cabernet Franc, 29% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petit Verdot and 2% Tannat and our new style of Charval using all classic "Vitis Vinifera" varieties to include in the 2008 (Chardonnay 48%, Sauvignon Blanc 41%, and Pinot Gris 11%). So much to bottle and enjoy, so little time.

With this all said I have to get back to actually visiting my family right now as I am in Canada and don't get to see them too often. I had the opportunity to come back to my home province of Ontario to receive the "Premiers Award" as being he top graduate out of the Ontario college system in the past five years. It is a testament to all those that I have surrounded myself by. Tarara Winery has played a huge role in my success and the wines are obviously a sure proof and I am glad the Ontario Government has recognized the accomplishments that those I work with have created. I am also here to celebrate a Wedding. My wife's cousin Darryl Keller and his soon to be lovely wife Rachel will be married this Saturday and I would like to wish them all the best and I look forward to a fantastic evening surrounded by my lovely family that my Wife Jen has brought to me.

So at that I will leave you until next time, and I hope we will not have any more glitches to I can keep you up on what is happening in the Vineyard as we come out of dormancy in the soon to come spring (I hope), the Cave where the wines just keep getting better and better, and with our Retail store and all of our events so that you know the best times to visit us at Tarara. Thank you so much for keeping us as the voted number one winery in Loudoun for 12 consecutive years moving into our great 20th anniversary celebrations.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

2008-11-10T10:18:00.000-08:00

And then there was a day off........Well we have just about finished our harvest season. All of the grapes have made their way into our cave and are just finishing up their primary fermentation's. It sure was an interesting year and one that I am sure we will look back on as one that made us wiser.

First off, I have never had a vintage with such a perfect split of white varieties and red varieties. We were able to spend the first 4 weeks of the vintage concentrating on only the white varities (Chardonnay, Viognier, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc) and then 1 week of just slamming our reds in (Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Touriga Nacional, Tannat and Syrah). What a rush it was at the finish line.

Throughout September there were a couple of rain falls, one in particular at the beginning of the Month, I think here name was Hannah, which is one named removed from the mix for my first born. This all made us a little nervous about the up bring of rain and the cooler fall giving us a hard time ripening our fruit. This is when we went out and did what all the financial people hate to here and knocked off the fruit we knew would not ripen.

October was interesting and really lead to what made us push the envelope on hang time for our reds. The rains slowed and the nights were cool and even cold in many cases (but not quite enough for frost) with abundant sunshine during the day. By the end of September our sugars hit their peaks for the season and stopped really changing much. All the month of October they were hanging anywhere from 22 - 23 brix giving a great potential for balanced alcohol. Even with the sugars in a perfect range I just wanted darker seeds, better flavor, and silkier tannins. So the grape stayed on the vine.

As of October 19th we official got hit by frost on our Vineyards at Tarara. That meant a week of controlled and fun chaos. We received 30% of our harvest in three days and at the end we were glad we did. The fruit was just getting to the point we wanted it. The tannins were softening, the seeds where brown and the flavor in almost all the fruit was just starting to show lovely ripe berry notes. The best part is there was a perfect balance of acidity to hold it all together.

A couple weeks later our Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are just chugging on through their ferments. That Cabernet Sauvignon spent it's first 8 days just cold soaking. The wait seems to be well worth while. The wines which could have been disastrous this year have turned for the best. Stunning.

Looking back, the whites that I was once sceptical on are showing incredible complexity at such a young stage and beautiful elegance. I think in some cases there quality may even surpass the nearly perfect 2007 vintage.

Only time will tell what the final result of 2008 will be, but my gut tells me it is going to be a great vintage that will also drink well young while you wait for the 2007's to mature.

Cheers to another vintage in the history books.....almost.

Harvest Part 3

2008-10-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

With a cool and wet spring with some torrential storms, a wetter then normal July and a tropical storm at the start of Harvest mother nature is finally being friendly.

We still have our Merlot (Hill Block), Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon left out in our vineyard. We also have some Tannat coming from off site as well as some more Cabernet Franc. All of these grapes were almost harvested the week of September 22 to 26 but we decided that we would test mother nature once again. Finally...she gave us the break and is giving us some of the best ripening weather we could ask for. It has gotten up to 70ish during the day and cooling off at night to the mid 50's and even 40's to allow the acidity to stay fresh while further maturing the seeds, skins and flavor.

We have started to taste some of our blend potentials for our whites as well and have finished most to the barrel ferments of Viognier and Chardonnay. Our main white blend that we are currently doing trials on is our Charval (with a face lift this year) is looking to be a blend of about 58% Chardonnay (about half of which comes from Clone 96 - a musque clone adding more banana and tropical aromatics) and 42% Sauvignon Blanc. The barrels have fermented beautifully with only the Wild Yeast barrels of both Chardonnay and Viognier still working away. The wild yeast has been a lot of fun being a slower and cooler fermenter in all cases so far preserving the aromatics and expressing more or our "Terroir". Our Virginia Oak trials have also been very successful thus far with Chardonnay ferments but it is still very early to tell. Any way we can express our vineyard and location "terroir" we will strive to do so by staying as local as possible with everything in our winemaking.

We have also just brought in about 3 tons of Petit Verdot that could sneak it's way into our flagship Meritage as well as our soon to be released "secret wine" (see the past blog) on November 1st. It would obviously go into next years edition though. The cold soak is showing great color already, with a lovely black pepper note in the juice. We are quite excited.

Anyway, I have to get back down to the cave and help our assistant winemaker Jon Boyle racking our 2008 Syrah - very yummy.

Until next time - Cheers!

Winemaker scared, but not of Harvest

2008-10-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

OK, so harvest this year has had it's challenges. Between having broken presses, rainfall, broken down trucks and ravaging deer I probably should have started to go crazy a little while ago. my wife Jen says I did, but I think that she is just talking about my normal charming ways.

Harvest has been hard, but what really has me shaking in my boots is the amount of private tastings that I fear may be in the 2009 season. In case any of you did not already know we at Tarara have a little deal going this football season. A deal that might have my cocky attitude knocked down a notch, some hope anyway. The deal is that anyone who buys a case of wine on Sunday or Monday to celebrate their favorite football team can be entered into the pool. I being a Northerner my whole life (from Canada, but close to the border) am a huge Buffalo Bills fan. At the start of the season I made the deal that if the Washington Redskins had a better season then the Bills I would do a private tasting for those entered in to the pool from case purchases on Sunday's or Monday's.

I was very confident this would be no challenge a week ago with my perfect 4-0 team. Well.....now the Skins have beaten the Cowboys and the Eagles in two weeks (two huge victories) and bringing them to 4-1, while my Bills lost to Kurt Warner and his Cardinals (after last weeks performance by Warner, I thought this game was a shoe in for me) making the Bills 4-1. On top of that the Bills have now lost starting QB Trent Edwards to a concussion. Bad news for me, great news for any case buyers on our Football days.

That all said, I have a huge recommendation to any of you reading this blog. November 1st we have a huge release of a brand new wine at Tarara. If you are a football fan and a fan of huge reds, I recommend you stop by and check out this new wine. If you come of November 2nd it also happens to be a Sunday so if you buy a case it could make the wine purchase even more fun if Buffalo's luck carries over from yesterday.

So, as much as I would like to sit here and sweat about the football season, I do still have to make some great wine for you to drink. Today, we crush Petit Verdot and we will let our Merlot (from the Hill Block), Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon hang through this stretch of great weather we are supposed to have. I hope to see many of you here over the month of October (Virginia's Wine Month) and into November and further enjoying some of our new releases for Thanksgiving and this exciting football season.

Cheers!

Harvest Part 2

2008-09-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

I have not written a blog about each day as promised I know, but it is for good reason. I have been spending every waking hour assuring great wine for all of you to consume in the next couple of years.

It has been an interesting harvest so far. We have battled tropical storms, hot humid weather another weeks worth of rain and a broken press. Doesn't winemaking sound fun? Well....even with all that it still is a lot of fun. Jon our new assistant winemaker and myself have slugged through the fruit from this less then ideal vintage and sorted out our fruit to select only the top bunches to make it into our Tarara wines.

So far we have harvested our Pinot Gris (which is actually done fermenting and sitting comfortably in older barrels maturing and waiting for the best time to get it ready for bottle for you), Chardonnay (going into barrel today to start it's fermentation), Viognier (currently sitting in barrels fermenting away) and our Pinot Noir, Chambourcin, Vidal and Seyval which were all sold as fruit to some of our neighbor wineries looking to buy some of Tarara's great fruit. We also have some Touriga Nacional, Sauvignon Blanc, and a touch of Merlot that we have brought in to help complement our portfolio this year. It has been an absolute pleasure to deal with a couple of new varieties like Sauvignon Blanc (planned for Charval which is getting a face lift this year and becoming a beautiful vinifera blend. Meaning as of 2008 Tarara is no longer using any hybrid grape varieties) and Touriga Nacional (used for D-9 and a new wine that was created in 2007, which you will have to keep posted on - due for release on November 1st).

We have also been doing a lot of trials this year for something new and exciting. Most of our estate grown fruit is being fermented on Native yeasts. We do also have commercial yeast on hand in case the ferment does not start the way Jon and I like, but so far so good. With the Pinot Gris in a comparison trial we found the native yeast coming in off the grapes showed more floral notes and slightly more balance fruit characters then the two commercial yeast we tried along side them. All together the Pinot Gris is looking to be leaner then our 2007 with a much more powerful backbone of acidity which will help it pair well with more delicate foods and hot sunshine in 2009. The biggest downfall is due to our rigorous sorting to only select the best fruit and harvesting only when the time is right we will have even more limited quantities of Pinot Gris (down 58%) and Viognier (down 62%) this year. What does that mean? If you act fast and get it before it is sold out in 2009 (being bottled probably the week of April 6th) you will have some of the top Pinot Gris and Viognier 2008 can offer.

As far as the press breaking down, it was actually somewhat of a blessing. For one whole day it put Jon and I to a screaming halt, which meant I was able to re-introduce myself to my wife Jen who hadn't seen me in days.

Well, I have to go now. We are out in the vineyard trying to beat the rain and harvesting our Pond Block Merlot. So far it looks great and all the wines should be exciting and delicious for all of you in the coming months and years, even if there are a few hiccups along the way. Hey!!! that is what makes winemaking and harvest so intriguing and fun. Working with mother nature and your surroundings to make the best wine possible knowing that no two wines or grapes or days will ever be the same. What a job. I hope to write to all of you again soon. Until then please enjoy a bottle of Tarara wine for us and celebrate another year of grapes.

Harvest Part 1

2008-08-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

So I have been gone for awhile again. Life has been crazy getting some final 2007 wines put to rest in bottle (Please come see these ones in the fall or winter) and getting ready for the new harvest season.

To start, we have hired a new assistant winemaker to help Tarara strive for the stars with even more experience, passion and knowledge. We have hired Jon Boyle from the Niagara Region of Canada. he also brings to us winemaking experience from British Columbia and the Margaret River region of Australia. We know Jon will help us achieve our goals of being the top wine destination for all of you.

The 2008 harvest kicked off on Tuesday with the picking of a small block of Pinot Gris. With the nature of the vintage we will be harvesting each grape variety in multiple passes. We had a rainy and cool spring and wet June and July. This has lead to some interesting challenges the we will face in creating another great vintage. Even though we know we still will. There was uneven fruit set and there will be uneven ripening, hence the multiple picking and there will also be a huge amount of sorting of the fruit both in the field and in the winery. We have also kept our crop load to a minimal this year to get the best out of the fruit we select. The up side is that we did have the month of August which had moderate day temperatures with cooler nights, was bone dry and had no humidity. This has definitely given us a boost in the quality of the fruit in the vineyard and will help else with prolonged hang time to ripen all elements of the remaining fruit.

The sole tonne of Pinot Gris that we have harvested this week came off before our two days of rain. On receiving the fruit it was almost pristine. The berries were just on the verge of wanting to go south and had we not brought them in before the rain, they probably would have. The resulting fruit is showing lovely tropical and honey type characters early on in the juice. The Brix was at a happy 21.5 meaning approximately 12.5% alcohol is the target. The best part of this fruit is that it also maintained great acidity meaning the early pick of Pinot Gris is a winemakers dream. We can stand back and let the vineyard express itself. It is only three barrels thus far which it will be fermented in. They are all french oak and are a mix of 1,2 and 3 year old barrels. A first for Tarara on this lot is that we are allowing the wine to go through a "natural" fermentation meaning we are allowing the yeast on the fruit from the vineyard to do the fermentation as apposed to adding commercial yeast. We will be watching closely to see the benefits and or disadvantages of the natural yeast of our vineyard to determine if this will be a new aim for us at Tarara. Our hope: to create a more complex wine with a round mouth feel while respecting nature and what it can offer us. We especially are looking at more ways to express the vineyard that we are incredibly proud of.

So until the next exciting day of harvesting fruit I hope all of you enjoy a glass of Tarara's current offerings. Cheers.

An evenig with Vintage 50

2008-07-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

As the excitement of the 2008 growing season continues and the harvest comes closer it is time for me as a winemaker to make my rounds to one of our great neighbors. This weekend I have the opportunity to pour some of Tarara's finest at Vintage 50.

Vintage 50 is one of Tarara's newest partners to pair fine local cuisine with some of Loudoun's top wines. On Friday and Saturday night of this week (July 24-25) we will be pouring our Pinot Gris 2007, Viognier 2007, Rose 2007, Cabernet Franc 2006, and Meritage 2005. Aside from pouring tasters of the wine we will also have the chance to serve the wine with a lovely tasting menu served in the Dining Room of Vintage 50.

If you do not get a chance to see us together at the restaurant you will also have the opportunity to do so next weekend here at Tarara. Next weekend for our Blackberry Days Festival there will be the opportunity to taste the fine pairings of Vintage 50's and our wines. It truly is a great weekend to come by to also enjoy some you pick Blackberries, live bands, and even get a chance to dunk some of the Tarara staff in the dunk tank. If you are luck I might let some of you give it a try on me.

Now I have let you know where I will be over the next couple of weekends, during the week I will be out using my green thumb to try to help our vines coast into the harvest season to give us another great vintage. I hope to see many of you over the next couple of weeks as we continue to showcase our wines through the summer with great food, music and company. Cheers.

Long time but Not Gone

2008-07-14T06:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it had been brought forth to me that it has been a long time since the last blog entry. My apologies. It is definitely not that there has been a shortage of times to write about. Since last writing we have started our Concert Series, the vines have gone through bloom and we are now starting to leaf pull and thin fruit, and Jen and I have travelled the French Riviera and West Coast of Italy sipping fine wine with the Beach Boys.

The most important/memorable time I have had in the last bit though was right here doing what we do all the time this time of year. Last week, I had a chance to get my first portions of the vegetables that Whitie has always grown for us around Tarara. I went out and harvested some lovely spring onions, eggplant and zucchini. It brought me back to the day I arrived here last year and Whitie took me out to get some spring onions as an appetizer. Wow, they may have been the best onions I have ever tried. Below is the recipe that must be followed closely as it is very complicated.....OK, just good and fun.

Onions alla Whitie.

-Fresh Spring Onions (preferably picked only minutes ago) - as many as you can eat
-Minced Garlic - a healthy dose
-Extra Virgin Olive Oil - enough to coat the bottom of the pan....maybe a little more
-Salt and Pepper - as much as you like

Directions:

1) Clean the onions and cut into halves
2) Put olive oil into pan and heat
3) Add Onions and Garlic - cook until soft and starting to brown (caramelize)
4) Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss on a plate with a couple of forks
5) Pour a glass on your favorite Tarara Wine....I really enjoyed the 2007 Rose last week.
6) Raise the glass and salute a friend you are eating with and Whitie and enjoy.

As the summer moves forward I promise to all of you that read these blogs I will post more often again. I have just been caught up in all the fun life, wine and Tarara have offered to me over the past month and a bit. So until next time, Cheers.

Regional Wines and Abundant food

2008-06-04T06:32:00.000-07:00

Have I let all of you know lately how much I love my job?

It has taken me awhile to write about my trip to Virginia Tech the weekend before last because I spent last week in the land of snow and hockey pucks. Yes, Canada.

I have to say, being from Canada I always thought everyone in the world was crazy when commenting on how Canada is always covered in ice and snow. That was until last Tuesday when my wife Jen and I went to the Gala for the Uncorked Wine Trade Show we were there for. The gala was outside, and I do not think they were expecting May 27th to be 38 degrees F. It was a mighty chilly dinner, but fun none the less.

Now to get back on track, six of us from Tarara made our way down to Virginia Tech on Friday May 23rd for the first Vintners Table Weekend. This is an VT Alumni organized weekend to celebrate some of the finer things in life and all based around the great wines of Virginia. Although we probably would have liked a bit larger of an audience the event was a great success for the first of many.

On Friday we started with tours of the sophisticated labs of VT's oenology labs with our gracious host Dr. Bruce Zoeklein. Dr. Zoeklein has been the leader of VT's wine program and also for Virginia's wine industry for many years. He deserves accolades from all of us in the wine trade here in Virginia. One way I am sure he would be happy to accept our gratitude would also be in a cheque form to the Virginia Tech Oenology Department to help fund the program that helps us all so much.

After our lab tours we made our way to the Grand tasting in the Presidents Box of Lane Stadium. Before I get to the wine let me briefly talk about Lane Stadium. In Canada, sports are not a big part of the educational systems so I must say when I almost dislocated my jaw since it dropped so fast. This is a miraculous building and the President's Box is not to shabby either. Wow. The wines and the food around the room were superb. The wines were from wineries stretching to all corners of Virginia and we had the opportunity to taste so many wines from Agliancos and Syrahs to Riesling, Chardonnay and Viognier to of course Tarara's Cabernet Franc Reserve and Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. I must say our Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve was truly incredible with the Beef Wellington, and my mouth watered at the idea of our Chardonnay with the Lobster in a Brie Sauce.

After an evening of food and wine several of us did what us in the wine industry do. We went out for dinner and round two of the wine and food experience. Unfortunately most of the food and wine got lost by the incredible conversation around the table. Looking back, I really hope no one was listening, we would have sounded like some of the nerdiest people on the planet. That said, who am I kidding, when it comes to wine, I may just be the nerdiest person on the planet. The table was a great cross section of people in the Industry from wine writers like Dan Berger and Doug Frost, to Distributors, winemakers and of course Dr. Zoeklein. Much of the conversation was about microbials, varieties and the affect of terroir, and even filtration. If that does not excite everyone I do not know what will. I will admit it was on of the most fascinating conversations I have been involved in in ages and all joking aside I would like to that all of those that were there for a great evening.

Saturday was filled with tasting and fun. We started the day tasting a line up of Virginia Viognier and Cabernet Franc. The Viognier in particular re-iterated what we are constantly trying to inform everyone about. The Viognier in Virginia is almost impossible to beat. The wines showed incredible richness, with great acidity backbones and lovely tropical and floral characters. The wines in general were a great balance of richness and elegance as well as complexity and freshness. In the afternoon we tasted through an incredible range of wines showing the versatility of Virginia. We tasted varieties like Petit Manseng (stunning wines), GSM blends, Petit Verdot, Nebbiolo, Aglianco, and Norton. The tasting showed the Dr. Jekyell and Mr. Hyde of Virginia. Some of the wines were mean and aggressive with meaty and earthy aromas, some were pleasant, supple wines that showed elegance and grace. Go figure.

Between the tastings was the tailgate party. What event at Virginia Tech would be complete without tailgating. Now to be fair this was not your average tailgating. We all stood behind some of the 2008 Saturn series including their roadster (sorry I don't recall the model name, I am a wine guy, not cars), with a string quartet, beef tenderloin sandwiches and some of Virginia's finest wines selected by a panel of wine enthusiasts from around Virginia. The six of us had a huge smile on our face as we listened to peoples comments on our 2007 Pinot Gris which had been released only a week earlier.

Saturday evening was a culinary marathon. The event's gala was beautiful with a trio of Violins, guest speakers Doug Frost and Dan Berger and..... yes 9 courses of food and 19 wines. All of the tables were supplied with dump buckets to be certain not everyone in the room consumed three bottles of wine each. The food featured some great dishes including a Crab dish (that even Margie our GM thought was great, and she is a Crab connoisseur), Rare Tuna, Beef Tenderloin, Duck and the list goes on. Most of the wines paired beautifully from the peppery Syrahs with the beef to the Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc with the Crab to the Late Harvest Petit Manseng with the Chocolate Bomb (well this might not have been a great match, but both the wine and the dessert were....well.. yummy).

As the night and weekend came to a close the six of us asked for the assistance of a forklift to lift us from the table to get to our wonderful rooms at the new Virginia Tech Conference Center. All and all it was a delightful and successful weekend. It was a weekend of spending time with friends, meeting new friends and of course doing it all around some of the best wines on the planet. Some of Virginia and Tarara's finest. Salute.

Winds and Wine Festival

2008-05-19T13:17:00.001-07:00

Well....The first big festival of the year is in the books for Tarara Winery. The weather was beautiful on Saturday creating a great success of the day. Although we had some early rainfall on Sunday some brave souls still made their way to our concert field for some great wine, food, music, and overall fun.

We hosted the festival for the first time in our concert field overlooking Shadow Lake and in the shade of the trees. It was truly a beautiful setting and a true testament to what Whitie Hubert has given our team to work with and how great an event our Tarara team can put on. From talking to the many people that visited us this weekend we were not the only people that felt it was a beautiful success. I want to personally thank each and every one of you that joined us for this great weekend.

I had a great time talking to a few of our wine club members as well. It was an overwhelming response to how much everyone enjoyed their VIP seating looking down at the concert stage while sipping some of our new release wines. We were very happy to see such a turn out from our club members and look forward to seeing them all again at Blackberry Days , Great Grape, and the Concert Series.

Another great addition to our festival was the release of the greatly anticipated Pinot Gris and Viognier from the destined to be legendary 2007 vintage. These two wines were huge hits showing that our only problem with them is that we may not have made enough. As always though our flagship Meritage was also an incredible hit among the couple of thousand of people that joined us this weekend.

It really was a great way to end the week that was full of rain and gloomy days that preceded our weekend. Everyone was happy to be outside, full of life, and enjoying one of the premiere festivals Loudoun County has to offer. We all enjoyed Tarara Winery's Winds and Wine Festival and look forward to seeing you again at the next event Tarara offers.

Happy Mothers Day

2008-05-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

It is slightly overcast today at Tarara but today is still one of the nicest days of the year. Today is the day where we can all be thankful for being who we are and realizing that it is strongly due to one person in our lives. Our mothers.

I have to give a few very personal "Happy Mothers Day" wishes to some people that are very special to me. First off, and obviously, is my mother Julia McLaren. I just got off the phone with her in Canada and she is off for a delightful Brunch with my brothers, my sister-in-law and new mother Kim with baby Brian and my step-father Duncan. It should be a delightful day and I wish I could be with you. Mom, happy mothers day and thank you for all you have done for me. Kim, happy first mothers day and thank you for bringing us such a joy with my nephew Brian. Brian be good for mommy today!!!

I would also like to give my wishes to some mothers here at Tarara. Margaret, you have welcomed us since the day we came to Tarara with you home and open arms. Thank you so much and happy mothers day. Margie and Heather it is great to be in such a family style environment each and everyday at Tarara. Happy mothers day to both of you. I also wish a happy mothers day to all the Tarara family that is with their children enjoying the moment today.

To our many loyal mothers that visit Tarara each and everyday. I hope your day is truly a special one and I hope that we at Tarara can be a part of your special celebrations in some form, even on your dinner table in as a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to complement you meal. We at Tarara pride ourselves on bringing you the best possible wine, but doing such in a friendly manner as we would with family. That is because we look at our Tarara team and you as the loyal patrons as all part of our extended family. That is one of the many reasons why today is so special to us. Happy Mothers day to all of Tarara's extended family members. We hope all of you enjoy this special day and come and see us soon.

Happy Mothers Day.

Swing and a Miss

2008-05-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Heather and Brandon for sending Jen and I to experience yet another attraction in this wonderful area. On Wednesday night Jen and I had the opportunity to sit three rows up from third base at Camden Yards and watch the Baltimore Orioles take a pretty good beating.

The whole experience was really quite exciting and enjoyable. The only one thing I could think of that was missing as we enjoyed our jumbo Chesapeake Crab Cake and watched the game was a glass of 2007 Tarara Pinot Gris. That and watching Baltimore win. The delicate Crab meat would work beautifully with the new vintage of Pinot Gris while the saltiness would be toned down with the creamy sweet texture of the new vintage. If you are interested in trying this great new vintage please join us at it's launch at our Winds and Wine Festival. We will also be releasing our much anticipated 2007 Tarara Viognier.

In the end the Baltimore Orioles were taken by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays by a score of 8-1. If it weren't for the 5th inning it really could have been a close game. But what a blast, we just had to be sure to keep our heads up for foul balls so that we could come home to make more wine at the end of the night.

The whole night really reminded Jen and I once again (like we needed a reminder) that we have been given such a great opportunity to be here at Tarara. Within only an hours drive there is more that can be enjoyed then anyone could imagine. Not to mention what we have on site. For any of you out there that haven't visited Northern Virginia and bordering Maryland and especially Tarara lately, you owe it to yourself to do such this spring. Golf season has begun, baseball is in full force both in D.C. and Baltimore, the weather is beautiful for visiting the many historical and Civil War sites, and of course, we are now releasing some 2007 wines which is the best vintage yet for Virginia. We look forward to seeing all of you as soon as you can.

Spring at Tarara

2008-04-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

Spring is in the air. Well spring has been in the air for awhile I guess, but it feels more like it now since we just finished our spring bottling, our spring barrel tasting and the Washington Capitals are golfing.

This part will be short but sweet, but I have to say it or I wouldn't be a true Canadian born winemaker. The Washington Capitals played an excellent season and my father law Warren, Brandon (our Director of Sales husband) and myself had the fortune to go watch game seven. What a game and it could have gone either way, the shots were far in favor of Washington (even if there could have been a couple more) and the whole team played well. Congratulations on a season well played to the Washington Capitals.

On Sunday we had our annual spring barrel tasting, and what a success. We had about 100 people brave the thunderstorms to come sample our 2007 Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc as well as a little 2006 Whities D9 to honor everything Whitie has done. All of the wines got incredible response with comments of 2007 being an absolutely fabulous vintage. However the show was definitely stolen by the D9. Many cases of futures have been moving whenever someone tastes this wine. Everyone was astonished by its richness and balance praising it as better than many ports they have tried and even better then the original 2003 release. I for one also saw the incredible potential that our 2007 reds are showing. They have intense color and ultra rich fruit. The structure is currently very aggressive (as it should at only 7 months old) showing the wines are going to be superb and should show great longevity.

If you are interested in getting these wines at a great value as futures please contact our wine sales manager Lisa at lisa.nicholas@tarara.com

Our spring bottling was not only an incredible success, but it was also a lot of fun. We had a team come in from Canada called Hunter Bottling. This bottling line is really cool. Instead of the usual 53 foot trucks that bottling lines role in on, this one is only a 22 footer with the same output. This meant we could set up with a view of Sugarloaf Mountain over the Potomac. Since the weather was so nice, it really made for an enjoyable bottling. This line also does everything one could imagine from screw-tops to cork, all different bottles right down to laser inscripting every bottle that passes by. Tarara would like to thank Glen and Randy for their incredible work and look forward to having you back for our next bottling.

The best part about the bottling is the wines that we now have in bottle for all of you. We have bottled our 2006 reserve reds (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Meritage), Wild River Red and of course the first from the terrific 2007 vintage. We gave bottled our 2007 Charval, Rose, Pinot Gris and my personal favorite, the Viognier. The Pinot Gris and Viognier will celebrate their official launch at our Winds and Wine Festival on May 17 and 18. We look forward to having you all there and seeing you with our now wines.

So spring is definitely in full force at Tarara and everything looks great around the grounds from the Vineyard coming into season, to our green grass and blossoming orchards to our extraordinary asparagus. If you haven't been out to Loudoun Wine Country yet this spring, what are you waiting for? We look forward to seeing you soon.

Memories of Ralph J. "Whitie" Hubert

2008-04-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

I write this blog on a very sad day at Tarara Winery but in celebration of a great man and one who has been a huge part of the best time of my life.

Yesterday afternoon we lost Ralph J. "Whitie" Hubert. Whitie was not only the founder and leader of all of us at Tarara, but he was also our dearest friend, family member and mentor. As you read the stories that I have about Whitie I am sure many of you are going to say to yourself "I can beat that story!" If that is the case please comment on this blog, or feel free to email any great moments and stories you have shared with Whitie to any of the following emails: margie.russell@tarara.com, heather.akers@tarara.com, or jharris@tarara.com. We would love to put together all the stories and memories that celebrate Whitie's life for his loving wife, children and grandchildren to read and enjoy him in the ways we have as well.

Now as I said at the start of this blog, this is meant to celebrate Whitie and our memories of him. So as Whitie would probably tell me, "Well...stop talking about it then and do it already."

My memories of Whitie start from the very first words we ever spoke to each other. I arrived at Tarara during our Winds and Wine Festival for my interview. It was a crazy time for all the staff at Tarara, but Whitie and Margaret made time to meet me. What were Whities first words to me? "If you are going to work here you have to cut your hair." He said it with a big grin on his face, and I replied, "Well I would love to say I will do that for you, but my Fiance Jen beat you to it and told me it needs to be cut before our Wedding next weekend." With that, Whitie and I became close from then on and he and Jen had something in common, keeping me in check. From that moment on Whitie and Margaret included Jen and I as if we were family.

The day after our honeymoon I made my way to our new home in Virginia at Tarara. I arrived late at night only to find the Whitie and Margaret had waited up for me to welcome me with open arms giving me, almost a stranger at this time, a huge heart felt hug. This goes with the saying that Whitie always told me, "The way you know you are going to work well with someone is you have to know that you can put your arm around them." We all knew we could put our arms around each other. It is the Hubert way, it is the Tarara way, and it is definitely now my way.

Starting my married life with Jen has been incredible. Lots of this can also be equated to the fact we have two great role models for marriage. Margaret and Whitie have been married 56 years and have never woken up without being even more in love then they were the day prior. This is something I am so happy to learn from Whitie and Margaret. Whitie taught me above all make sure you treat your wife properly and make sure that the two of you are happy. Not a week went by without Whitie asking Jen and myself, "Are you happy, is there anythingwe can do to make you happier?" Whitie not only told me but showed me by bringing Jen flowers every time he passed our house, or bringing us our daily 25 pound portion of vegetables that he proudly grew in our gardens here at Tarara. Yes, I said 25 pounds, Whitie would never let anyone starve during the growing season at Tarara.

Whitie treated everyone who came to see Tarara with open arms and respect. He would gladly show anyone what he had accomplished here. Sometimes it was safe, sometimes not like when he took a gentleman we were interviewing and I down the hiking trails to the Potomac in Margaret's Buick. I was told never to say anything, but I guess I can let you know now Margaret.

With everything Whitie did for everyone around him, he also made time to do some things that Whitie wanted. Whitie lived to be 83 years old, but I will tell you, he crammed in at least 160 years worth of living. Whitie always had some project on the go right up until the last minute. Over the past month, Whitie didn't want me to come in and see how he was doing, he wanted me to let him know if the deer fence was up yet. Whitie was bound and determined I think to show me that Deer are gladly going to jump a fence unless it was well over ten feet tall. After some conversations with many people, he is probably right.

Whitie's projects never ceased to amaze me. His thought process was far more complex then mine ever will be. Some of his ideas may sound crazy like equipping the entire farm with zip lines for more efficient work (which don't get excited, it never did happened), or building pavilion after pavilion, stages, and decks. Whitie always had a vision, one I know we will always look to in the future at Tarara.

So, if Whitie knew I was writing this right now he would have two thoughts. One would be pride since he would realize how much we love him. The other would be, "Hey, it's 11:00am, aren't you supposed to be making wine, building a fence, or working the composter right now?" He would then follow up with, "I am so glad you are here. Are you still happy? How is your puppy? Does he need a puppy door, or in my case a horse stall? How is Jen? Is she happy? When is your Mom coming to visit again?" Well Whitie, once again, "Yes, I am happy, Jen is happy, the dog probably does need a stall, and you need to pay me more so I can feed her, my Mom is great, and most of all a lot of our happiness comes from you."

So to everyone reading this blog, please chime in as I could keep going for days with stories of Whitie, as I am sure you could as well. We would love to hear anything, whether you witnessed him rolling a tractor, crashing a plane or helicopter, or he asked you to grow 3 tonnes of Shiitake mushrooms, or build a raft to float a road grader out on to Shadow lake, or of course if he has welcomed you into his home with flowers and open arms, we know that Whitie has likely touched each of us somehow.

I will leave you all with saying this, "Whitie, thank you for being such a great mentor and inviting us to be part of you lovely family. We love everything you and you family have done for us. I love that you have taught me to be a better person, husband, and friend. I love that you have taught me that my limits are only limited by my own imagination and passion. Whitie, thank you for everything you have done for all of us. We love you."

Obscure Wine Adjectives

2008-03-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

I write this blog one to give my opinion in case you need it, but also to ask yours. I read many tasting notes from wine writers, peers, guests of Tarara and even my own. My common thought from all the notes is why do we feel so inclined to try to list such obscure adjectives in regards to the wines taste profile.

Some of these characteristics are useful to those of us that study or take wine far more seriously then most people should. For instance, a couple of days ago in another blog I wrote about our Syrah that is still in barrel showing a "deli meat" characteristic. Obscure yes, but this is a trait in which is characteristic of perfectly ripe Syrah and generally from a hot dry year like 2007. Many Syrah's from the Northern Rhone Valley are the easiest to pick out of a blind tasting due to this trait being quite dominant in so many of their wines. There are other tell tale notes for certain wines such as Eucalyptus in Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petrol in aged Rieslings. As odd as they sound it can be quite intriguing and is sometimes a sign of a complex wine.

To some up all of Virginia with a certain variety or unique characteristic would be impossible. There are so many different soil types, macro-climates, hill slopes, vintage variables, etc. that will impact these notes. Tarara's wines tend to show a juicy, and full bodied character. This is due to it having a very warm macro-climate with about 40% of our fruit coming from south facing slope gathering the most sunlight. They also tend to have fairly soft acidity and fruit forward characteristics due to our hard, red clay soil in conjunction with the sunlight.

That all being said, is it important to you as a wine consumer to know all this or read about other odd characteristics such as "crushed stone" or "melted licorice"? I for one, and I am classified as a professional, can not distinguish very easily the different aroma compounds from a whole stone or one that has been hit with a hammer. I have also never thought to heat up a pot in my kitchen to melt down the licorice I want to eat.

I believe the part that we often forget to look at is a wine's structure and balance. This is because we are spending too much time and effort assessing characteristics in a wine that are imaginary anyway and could be left to each person's own perception. Structure however is finite and is what we would examine for pairing with food on most occasions. Is the wine crisp, tart, balanced, or flat (all used in relation to the wines acidity level)? The more acidic a wine, the more acidic a food it will pair with so that you can detect the subtle characteristics in the wine and the dish. If a wine is hugely tannic, you may want to pair it with a high protein dish, such as steak which will break down tannins and allow you to get more from the wine. Structure is also what helps give a wine age ability. That said, do not go and age a wine just because it is astringent and/or tart. A wine that is going to age must always be in balance. You can not make a wine good by aging it if it started as an inferior wine. Other items I like to note are the warming sensation from the alcohol level, is it in balance, or is the alcohol taking over the wine and making it "hot"? How is the intensity of the aromas and flavors? You don't need to get overly descript, but you do want to be able to taste something. Lastly, yes, I will look at the flavor and aroma notes as well, but it does not need to be so "out there". As a wine consumer you might only need to know if the wine is fruit (red berries or dark berries), citrusy, floral, herbaceous, oaky and so on. I don't believe you are going to better you experience if you are naming the species of oak that you smell, but you do want to wine to taste good according to your palate.

First and foremost, everyone needs to remember, wine is meant to be enjoyed with great food, great friends, family and at the end of a long day. We at Tarara are making our wine to appease critics and connoisseurs, however we want to make that same wine part of everyones everyday life. We want to do it without pretence or dictating what you should taste.

Tell me, does hearing a wine is showing aromatics of yellow grass on the south side of Tuscan slopes help you enjoy the wine? Or, would you like to just hear the wine has balanced structure, with gobs of fruit, some oaky notes and a long warm finish. What is it you like to know or taste for in a wine?

Rabbit's, Eggs, Ham and Tarara

2008-03-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

Wow...what a day!!! This Easter must have been one of the most beautiful days I have seen. Jen and I were spending our first Easter as Virginians, and what a way to do it.

We woke in the morning to a wonderful day with the sun just beading off Shadow Lake between our house and the winery. We then had a lovely breakfast of pancakes before getting into what we know best at Tarara. Our wine. And yes, we did spit, it was still morning.

We sampled our up and coming 2007 Viognier, almost ready for bottle and our 2006 Reseve Cabernet Sauvignon also being bottled in April. I must say, stunning!!! There is nothing like a career tasting lovely floral and tropical fruit scented Viognier on a beautiful spring day at Tarara.

We then went for a walk through our lovely trails here at Tarara with our Dog (Mia, pronounced Maya) through the woods, up to the vineyard, and then down along the Potomac River. I was constantly thinking to myself, how did we get to live this dream.

We then took a walk to visit with Whitie, Margaret, Martha, and Steve and his family Isabella, Andrea and Daniella. The Huberts are always the most gracious and welcoming people, which is why Tarara is so special. They were joined by Aunts, Uncles, and cousins all around to enjoy the great Easter egg hunt. The whole family welcomed us in as if we had always been there, it made us feel absolutely blessed.

The Easter egg hunt was definitely interesting, and may even go on for a awhile to come. The Easter bunny had lost track of where all the eggs were hidden, and the kids didn't quite bring back enough. Steve and Andrea did help, but there still may be some hidden eggs for all of your next trip, who knows.

Dinner was fantastic. We enjoyed a lovely honeyed ham which was beautiful with our 2006 Viognier after sipping some Reserve Merlot 2004 and Reserve Cabernet Franc 2004. There were some delicious yams, string beans, salad and rice. It was a great meal, filled with enlightening and educational conversions about Canada, Yellowstone Park, and Volcanic Eruptions (don't ask). We even got to see Steve Hubert with a fantastic new hair style.

All and all the day was just fantastic, and a true Tarara style experience. A day full of great wine, great surroundings and most of all great people. Thank you very much to the Huberts for all of you hospitality.

Tarara tastes with the Worlds most prestigious

2008-03-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

This past week has had a couple of events that have been both fun and very educational. I have always been a firm believer that the only way to make the best wine in any given region is to not only understand that region, but understand the whole world of wine.

I have been lucky enough to be a two events this week that have either showcased Tarara on a grand scale or have had a chance to better my own knowledge in order to make better wine for you.

On Saturday night, my wife Jen and I joined our facility manager Dan Patterson at a lovely gala event to help raise funds for Langley School. We arrived to be greeted with some lovely hosts that really helped showcase Tarara throughout the entire event. At first, when I saw the other fine wines being served I was a little taken back. Most of the wines being auctioned or given as prized were one with long track records of being some of the worlds finest. When I say long track records, I mean centuries in many cases. The wines along side ours wine First Growth Bordeaux, top vintage Chateauneuf du Pape and so on. What was extremely exciting though was the great response I had in regards to our wine. Surrounded by some of the most astute palattes I have been around for some time, there was many people that commented on not only how great Tarara is to visit, but also how great our wines are and how Virginia is producing fabulous world class vintages. The wines we had the opportunity to showcase included: We thank Langly School for working with us and promoting local wines as much as we like to see our local youth gaining great education.

The next event I had the experience of attending was at the Kennedy Center with Steve Hubert (son of Whitie and Margaret-the owners of Tarara) and one of the Hubert's and Tarara's dear friends Jamie Sanchez.

Jamie is a partner in two of Washington's busiest, most exciting and tasty restaurants. Both Cactus Cantina and and Lauriol Plaza offer incredible Spanish and Mexican cuisine at a wonderful value. If visiting though try to make it early as both can be some of the hottest spots in the city.

We all made our way to the Kennedy Center (my first time in the building, and wow...stunning) to taste the portfolio of Winebow. The portfolio included many great wines from all around the world that I was able to taste and compare to what we have here at Tarara. Which was interesting given the Steve and Jamie were two of the original people to taste my first blends at Tarara. There were some great wines, but the more I tasted the more excited I got about some of our current and up and coming vintages. Two that kept coming to my mind were our up and coming Syrah and Viognier.

Our Viognier 2007 will be released during our Winds and Wine Festival in May and our Syrah is still resting in barrel awaiting perfect harmony. Our 2006 vintage of Viognier is almost gone. The Syrah is available as a future product only right now and due to it's limited quanitity (75-100 cases) may only ever be sold as futures and will be the official Tarara 20th anniversary release in 2009. It is also the first Syrah Tarara has ever produced. If you would like to order some Syrah please contact Kathy Swanson or Lisa Nicholas in our retail store at (703)771-7100 or via email at lisa.nicholas@tarara.com or kathy.swanson@tarara.com

The Viognier is currently showing lovely floral notes and lush tropical fruit and a little cedar on the incredibly intense nose with a lush palate of mango and honeysuckle and a warm long finish. This is going to be great wine this summer.

The Syrah (out of barrel samples) is dark violet with a huge nose of blackberries, white pepper and charcouterie. Yes, I said charcouterie (deli meats) and it is wonderful adding complex notes and is very common in great Syrah. The palate is rich and full with huge but silky tannins and load of blackberries and plum and a finish that doesn't end.

The whole experience at both venues this week really reasured to me that what we have at Tarara is really special. Our wines and our property are truely a sign of what Virginia is. It is beautiful, bold and absolutely world class.

Touring Wine Country Loudoun

2008-03-14T16:29:00.000-07:00

Today was a beautiful day for touring the Loudoun County Wine Region. That is why I am so thrilled that our sales team at Tarara invited me to join them in taking in an afternoon of fine wine and lovely scenery.

As a group we had the fortune to visit four of our great friends. We started our day at Breaux Vineyards, then to Corcoran Vineyards, then out past Purcellville to Bluemont Vineyards, and then back to our close neighbor Fabbioli Cellars. The entire drive throughout the region was full off lovely countryside and quaint little villages. Not to mention the abundance of history, and I was even pointed out to some areas where such great movies like Remember the Titans were filmed.

As we made our way into Breaux Vineyards we were greeted by the tasting room manager and their case club manager, both lovely hosts. We tasted through a range of great wines including their Nebbiolo which is very unique to Virginia.

At Corcoran Vineyards we were hosted by the great Lori Corcoran. Corcoran is much more of a small quaint little winery with big enthusiasm. Lori has been an absolute champion and promoter of all things Loudoun. It is great to have her in our county. We tasted a lovely array of her small volume hand crafted wines led by a great Malbec with a splash of Tannat blended in.

We enjoyed our lunch on the deck of Bluemont Vineyards looking down at an incredible view of the countryside from high up above. 951 feet if I recall correctly. Bob Rupy (partner and winemaker) and his lovely wife hosted us and led us through a tasting of some great wines as well. I have to say, their Strawberry and Peach wines were two of the top fruit wines I recall tasting anywhere. Congrats.

We ended our tour down the street with our good friend Doug Fabbioli at Fabbioli Cellars. Fabbioli Cellars is Virginia's answer to the Garagiste style wineries of St. Emillion or Pomerol. Doug specializes in his dry reds, but also had a couple whites from other local wineries selling their products through his store. Doug has been an integral part of helping many start up wineries get off the ground in Loudoun and always is pushing to elevate the county as a whole with everything he has done. This is a great winery showing great product without any pretence.

Tarara winery is very proud to be a big part of Loudoun County and all it has to offer. We recommend to all to come on by and try some of our great wines, but also visit our great friends and neighbors. You can come and sip a lovely glass of Rose or Charval on our deck overlooking the Potomac River and Sugarloaf Mountain on lovely days like today, then try what everyone has to offer as you travel through this lovely county.

There is one thing that does need to be mentioned to all that are coming to Loudoun. Bring a designated driver or please learn that spitting wine is not rude. In whole, visiting Tarara and four of our friends could give you the opportunity to taste well over 40 wines in one day. Sounds fun, and it is, but being a responsible driver means we can all be safe at the same time and some of these roads do take attentive drivers.

My last note on the day is to wish a good friend farewell. Joseph Black has been a great part of the Tarara Winery team helping bring great benefits to out Tarara Estate Wine Club, making ordering Tarara Wine Online much easier, developing a more user friendly website and he even made this blog possible. Joe is leaving Tarara to be with his lovely baby daugter Savannah and "better half" (sorry Joe) in Germany. This is one of the main reasons we toured today, to celebrate all that Joe has brought to Tarara. Cheers Joe, and we look forward to your next visit to Tarara as we know you can not stay away too long.

With Joe leaving for Germany we have added Lisa Nicholas to our team at Tarara who comes to us with knowledge and enthusiasm developed from all over the United States. We look forward to a long and exciting relationship with Lisa and welcome her as we do with everyone, with open arms. Welcome Lisa.

Lisa, and the whole Tarara team look forward to your next visits. There is always something new at Tarara and we look forward to showing it off as we enter our next growing seasons.

Cheers, and lets raise a glass of Tarara to celebrate Loudoun, fine wine and this great weather.

Welcome to Tarara's Blog

2008-03-12T12:40:00.001-07:00

I want to give a huge heart felt welcome to all of our loyal patrons of Tarara. Many of you have been with us for as long as anyone here (with the possible exception of the Huberts of course and Margie our General Manager who have all been here from day one making Tarara what it is). This is a new chapter in what Tarara wants to offer all of you. This will be a fun blog written by Myself (Jordan Harris, Winemaker) to keep in touch with all of you, even when I am tucked deep in our cave covered in Cabernet Sauvignon.

I want to be able to hear all of you thoughts as I let you know what I and our entire team are up to. As we travel around the world of wine we want to let you know what knowledge we plan on bringing back to Tarara to help you enjoy all our products and what we have to offer. I would love to here that same from many of you, what you want to see at Tarara and how we can better each and everyone of you experiences.

I have to add into this Inaugural blog some very important thoughts though. I hope everyone here already knows it, but you loyal people visiting us don't see everything that happens here. I started at Tarara in June 2007 after getting married and in May going on a honeymoon to France and Italy and then came here the next day. The biggest beauty of Tarara is the people that surround you whether visiting, working or living here. I showed up to wide open arms from Whitie and Margaret Hubert (the owners of Tarara) who not only gave Jen and I a new life, but a place to live here and so far the best times of our lives. It is a true blessing to be part of Tarara and everything it has to offer. The entire staff is full of excitement and passion led by our Director of Sales Heather Akers and our Special leader and General Manager Margie Russell.

I think many of you already know it but Tarara is a special place and we hope many of you keep connected through this blog that will be posted very regularly and please leave comments on anything we can do to better help you. Even better come see us anytime whether it is a busy Saturday sipping a lovely glass of Meritage or a hot summer day enjoying our Concert Series, we would love to have you and promise there is something for everyone's enjoyment.

Until next time, Life is to short to drink bad wine. Please open a bottle of Tarara and celebrate.

Jordan

Tarara Winery

2008-03-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

Tarara