It may not have the cachet of the Texas Twitter Tasteoff, but at The Washington Post
we conducted our own version of the famous Judgment of Paris, pitting
the US vs France in an oenological grudge match. Only we slipped in some
local wines without telling anyone.
What did our professional judges – three retailers and three
sommeliers – decide? Virginia can go toe-to-toe with the big boys!
Read about it in today’s Washington Post.
I was slightly disappointed with the Judgment of DC competition and
article (despite being a VA wine fan) because the article suggests that
the Virginia wines stood toe to toe with the best wines from California
and France; however, the wines selected for the tasting hardly represent
the best wines from those two prominent wine-making regions. I really
enjoy the Newton unfiltered cabernet, for example, but the judges rated
it as a 92 point wine (exactly Parker’s score for the Newton). That is a
very good wine, but California wineries produce hundreds that are even
better each year, like my favorites, Caymus or Caymus Select.
Virginia wines are on the rise and many are very enjoyable, which I’m
proud to see as a Virginian, but none of the tested local wines passed
the 90-point mark. They are good wines and we should enjoy them, but
they didn’t match the best that California and France have to offer…
yet.
The Post goes through all this, and NOT ONE of the wines is from a
producer in the immediate D.C. area? Loudoun County, for instance:
Breaux? Tarara? Bluemont? Notaviva? Why is that? Several of these places
are opening annually. We love the destinations. But: Is the wine any
good? What a lost opportunity. We also wonder: Are the wines of Northern
Virginia any better or worse than those produced closer to
Charlottesville, etc.? And why not taste what Virginia is good at
producing: Viognier or Norton or Cab Franc?
Here’s some additional info on how I selected the wines:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/all-we-can-eat/wine/preparing-for-wine-judgment-day.html