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| Picture of CM's Vineyards (from their website) |
This afternoon, my friend Courtney and I toured and had a wine tasting at Chateau Morrisette. Chateau Morrisette started as a hobby and a personal supply of one red and one white wine for the Morrisette family. They then sent their son David to Mississippi State University to learn the science of viticulture. After coming back to Virginia, that is when the winery really took off. On the tour we were told that where the restaurant is now was the first main building and in the late 90s they outgrew it and built the new building. We were then told that it has the most recycled materials used to build a winery in the entire United States, which I thought was really neat and so environmentally friendly!
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| Cool Barrel and The Juicer! |
On the very right of the picture is where the grapes go after being cleaned and de-stemmed. They go into the "bladders." Grapes for white wines go into the "tight bladder" so that the skins don't come into contact with the juice, and grapes for red wines go into the "loose bladder" so that they have do have contact with the juice.
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| Stainless Steel Vats and Oak Barrels |
Just a couple fun facts we heard on the tour were about the corks they use. Recently, they have not been able to use natural corks because a disease killed a lot of the trees that corks come from. Because of this they now use mostly synthetic corks and twist on tops. A nice thing about the synthetic corks is that the wines can stand up right, lay on their sides, or be upside down in a holder. On the other hand though, while twist off caps have so many advantages, CM has to use them on the bubblier and carbonated wines because synthetic corks would pop out, and because they are twist on they can only stand up right, so storage options are lowered. I thought all of that was interesting, because I never thought about how corks affected storage!
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| Barrel Close-up! |
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| Stainless Steel Vats Close-up |
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| VT & Wine FOR LIFE!! |
After the tour we headed back into the front of the main building and did our tasting! I completely spaced and forgot to get a picture of the tasting bar, but I did take great tasting notes! We had the Ellie Mae's Choice Menu and out of the 10 wines, I had 4 favorites and ended up buying 3 bottles!
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| Ellie Mae's Choice - Tour Guide's Pup! |
My favorites were the fruit wines near the end (7-9) and the Angel Chardonnay (6).
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| 3 VERY FAVORITES! Peach, Apple, and THE BEST CHERRY |
Name: Angel Chardonnay
Description: Trumpeting a tropical halo of pineapple, papaya and citrus aromas, this light Chardonnay delights the taste buds with a soft entry and lingering acidity. A fruit forward wine bestowed with a heavenly smooth finish, Angel is a blend of barrel and tank fermented Chardonnay complemented with Riesling, Viognier and Vidal Blanc.
Price: $12.99
My Review: Fruity smell, lots of pineapple, pear, tropical fruits, mangos, citrus, yellow delicious apple. Compared to their regular Chardonnay this was a little sweeter and just simply good for a Chardonnay, which I wasn't expecting. It was a semi-dry/semi-sweet wine which proved to be a good balance.
Name: Cherry Wine
Description: This pure cherry wine is made from flavorful red pie cherries and juicy dark sweet cherries. Smooth and sweet, this delicious wine is packed with rich cherry character. The flavors and aromas linger luxuriously on the palate throughout the long, languid finish.
Price: $10.99
My Review: Straight-up maraschino cherries... ALL THE WAY. Just think 4th of July Cherry Pie in a liquid form and this is it! I've never had anything like it, ever. A little cinnamon, but mostly just maraschino and black cherries. I bought a bottle of this and the next 2 bottles and plan on making icy wine slushies!
Name: Sweet Mountain Apple
Description: Our Apple Wine is made from sweet, crisp and juicy Virginia apples. Bursting with the vibrant fruitiness of just-picked apples, this wine is sweet and smooth, with a clean crisp finish.
Price: $10.99
My Review: Two words: apple juice. Tasted and smelled just like a juice box. No more, no less this is adult apple juice.
Name: Sweet Peach Wine
Description: Sweet, rich and smooth wine made from 100% peaches.
Price: $10.99
My Review: When you go to the store and pick up a can of peaches in light syrup and you open up the can... the scent that comes from it was its exact smell. Once you eat the peaches and start to drink the juice... that is exactly what it tasted like.
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| Me and Courtney after a great afternoon! |
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