On Sunday, April 20, 2014, three of my friends and I went to Chateau Morrisette Winery in Meadows of Dan, Virginia to taste their wines, tour the facilities, and enjoy the company of friends (and dogs!).
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| Chateau Morrisette Winery, production, and tasting room building |
Chateau Morrisette is located off of Winery Road near Floyd, VA and whose vines were planted in 1978 by the Morrisette family, a time when there were no working wineries in the state of Virginia. David Morrisette produced his first wine for sale in 1982 after receiving a oenology degree from Mississippi State University. The dog on many of Chateau Morrisette's label was David's trusty companion Hans, the winery dog from 1980 to 1995. In the photo below you can see my boyfriend and I in front of a photo of Hans hanging over the fireplace in the tasting room.
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| Matthew and I in front of the fireplace |
While the majority of grapes used in the Chateau's wine are shipped from various Virginia vineyards, some
Vitus labrusca grapes, such as Niagra and Catawba, are grown on the site of the winery. Chateau Morrisette is the largest buyer of Virginia grapes. Chateau Morrisette has 32 acres of grapes between the namesake winery and Woolwine vineyards, in Woolwine, VA. They also use Virginia apples for some of their fruit and sangria farmhouse blends. Other fruits, other than grapes, come from as far south as Georgia. On site vines are harvested in late September to early October and Woolwine grapes in late August to early September. We went to the winery on Easter Sunday, and although the winery was not in production the tasting room was very busy!
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| Matthew, Ryan, Jacqui, and I in the tasting room |
Below is a list of the wines we sampled in the tasting room. The fare was labeled "Leon's Choice" in honor of our wine waitress' dog. We tasted 12 wines to get an idea of the winery's strengths and weaknesses.
- 2011 Dry Rose: The nose on this wine was acidic and dry with hints of apricot. It tasted like lemon, pear, and rose water.
- 2011 Cabernet Franc: The nose on this wine was off dry with hints of green pepper and strawberry. It tasted like cranberry, blackberry, and pomegranate with a light body and lightly peppered finish.
- 2011 Petit Verdot: The nose on this wine was blackberry, blueberry, and black pepper. It tasted vegetal, like green beans, with blueberries, black pepper, and a light body.
- Libery: A blend of Chamborsin, Petit Verdot, and Cab Franc, also known as "Service Dog Red". It smelled peppery and like blueberries. This blend tasted like white pepper, lemon peel, lavender, and had a thicker body with a peppered finish.
- The Black Dog: A blend of Chamborsin, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot and a label featuring Hans that increased the sale of this wine by 200%. It smelled off dry with hints of raspberry and tasted sweet although it only has 1.2% residual sugar. It also had flavors of red currant and a smooth texture, with a lightly peppered finish.
- 2011 Vidal Blanc: This white smelled tart, dry and acidic; it tasted off dry and citrusy like limes, but otherwise was not very complex.
- Our Dog Blue: A semi-sweet blend of Rielsing, Vidal Blanc and Traminette. When the winery put a dog on this label and changed to a blue, German-like bottle sales increased a shocking 300%. It smelled sweeter, more off dry and slightly mineral. It tasted sweet, like apricot and pear, and had a thick body.
- Sweet Mountain Laurel (white): A blend made of mostly Niagra grapes. It smelled sweet, like honey and apricot jam. It tasted like Welch's grape juice, honey or mead, with hints of mulling and hot apple cider spices.
- Red Muscadine: The nose on this wine was like smelling strawberry ice cream and tasted like carbonation, fresh strawberry, and cotton candy water ice.
- Farmhouse Sangria: This sangria is a Merlot base with orange, cherry, and lime juices. It smelled like a fruit basket made mostly of limes of oranges. It tasted clean and refreshing, with a thicker body, cherry, lime and orange flavors and hints of mint and cinnamon.
- Sweet Peach: Made from 100% peaches from Georgia and North Carolina. It smelled bright with peaches, clove, and honey. It tasted like peach preserves or canned peaches with a thick body and a lightly spied finish.
- 2011 Heritage: A "ruby style" Port made with 170 proof Brandy and Chamborsin grapes; 18% alcohol by volume. It smelled like Brandy or Vodka immediately after it was poured, without even picking up the glass! Up close it had an aroma of dark chocolate and raspberries. The wine was full bodied and hot with hints of bitter coca bean, milk chocolate, and bourbon. Our pourer also gave us chocolate to try alongside this Port which made the wine taste like a chocolate punch to the face. The chocolate brought out the sweetness and berries in the wine.
Our wine waitress informed us during our tasting that Chateau Morrisette had just hired a new winemaker from California who was hoping to change the mundane reputation of Chateau Morrisette's wines. She said to look out for his white wines starting next year and his 2016 or 2017 red wines that are mimicking a Bordeaux style. We then took advantage of our complimentary winery tour. We started our tour outside on the grape pressing dock. Chateau Morrisette owns two grape presses, the smaller press nicknamed Lucy is used for red grapes and the larger press Ethel is used for white grapes. They also own a hopper that removes stems and leaves.
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| Ethel, Lucy, and a de-stemmer |
Once the grapes are pressed into juice, it is placed into fermenting tanks where the juice is added with yeast to yield wine. After fermentation, some wine is aged in barrels. The winery ages in French, American, and Hungarian barrels.
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| Fermentation tanks and aging barrels |
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| Me and some barrels! (and some very large fermentation tanks) |
Once the wines have mellowed and the flavors have blended together, the wine is ready for bottling. Using Aristocrat vodka and steam to sterilize the bottles the wine is put into the bottle and corked using a bottling machine. Once the bottles come out it is one person's task to place foil caps onto each bottle. The bottles are then put into boxes and moved to the warehouse in Floyd, VA. The bottling line can pump out 75 cases of wine in just fifteen minutes. Since all wine has a different length of aging, the winery is moving wine from fermentation to aging to bottling all year long.
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| the Bottling Machine |
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| the Foil and shipping assembly line |
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| Boxes with pictures of Hans stacked high awaiting wine bottles |
I think the most interesting part of our tour was the fact that entire tasting and bottling building is made of the most recycled timber in Virginia. The entire building is held together with wooden pegs and steel is only used where it was required by law. Below are some images of the woodwork throughout the building.
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| Bent timbers from the hull of an old ship in the bottling area |
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| The chandelier from the entry of the tasting room and mission style woodwork |
Chateau Morrisette was a good experience and it was a beautiful day filled with beautiful architecture. My favorite wine was the delicious chocolate-punch-in-the-face, Port-style Heritage. I hope the next time I visit I can eat at their onsite restaurant, which I hear is a phenomenal dining experience. I also hope to take advantage of some of the summer wine and music festivals.
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| Me and Ryan in front of the Chateau Morrisette sign |
