Last week I had the good luck to meet Luca Paschina for the third time at an event in New York on wines from Virginia. All of the wines showed beautifully but I have a soft spot for those from Barboursville both because they are extremely well- made wines and because they were my first entrance into the world of Virginian wine. I wrote this post back in 2011 about the winery. I have been drinking a bottle of their Cabernet Franc Riserva from 2017. It has both power and finesse as well as lovely red cranberry and black plum, spice, and bramble notes. It is just what I have been in the mood for this past week although had I saved it for Thanksgiving, it would have been a nice pairing with various elements of that meal too. Perhaps I will get a bottle to bring to our celebration.
From my previous post on the winery:
I’ve wanted to visit the Barboursville Winery in Virginia for about four years or ever since I picked up a brochure on Virginia wineries and what great stuff an Italian named Luca Paschina had been doing with grapes, especially Viognier in that area. He was working at Barboursville which is owned by the Zonin family from the Veneto. Thomas Jefferson, once a residence of the big white house in the picture, actually designed the original home at Barboursville.
Barboursville is an odd combination of American and Italian touches. The restaurant, aptly named the Palladio – both for the Zonin’s heritage from the Veneto and Jefferson’s preferred building style, served a lovely combination of Italian specialties with an American flair. The head sommelier of course hailed from Italy and is a member of the Italian Sommelier Association, as am I.
Barboursville is very famous for a wine called Octagon which President Obama drank at the inauguration. It is a blend of Merlot, with percentages of Reserve Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. The wines are vinified separately and then blended. They are fermentation in stainless steel tank for 5-7 days, then macerated for 10-20 days. It is then aged 12 to 14 months in barriques of new French oak and then spends six months in the bottle before release. This is their flagship wine.
I actually prefer the Cabernet Franc on its own and the Viognier which I thought was just splendid. I was also lucky enough to dry a dessert wine made from Malvasia on a visit to the winery in October and then at the Italian Embassy in Washington at a Vinitaly event.
Still, it is the Viognier which stole my heart. It is fermented in stainless steel, does not spend any time in wood, and instead goes through extended lees aging. This brings wonderful nutty and toasty notes to this wine which also has lovely fruit and floral aromas and flavors. I had this wine with lobster this summer on Cape Cod and it was perfect.
I’ve visited this winery twice now and highly recommend it as a day trip from Washington, DC or as part of a Virginia Winery tour. I’ve been a Jefferson fan since I was a little kid because of my Dad so this was a special trip for me and a perfect wine for President’s Day.
avvinare.com 
Hello Susannah,
We’ve selected you as our Foodista Drink Blog of the Day for Friday 2/25! This blog post will be featured on the Foodista homepage for 24 hours. Besides posting your link on the homepage, we will also post a couple shout outs on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
Since you are now a part of the Foodista Featured Drink Blogger of The Day Community, we’ve created a special badge for you to display proudly on your blog sidebar. I couldn’t find your email on your blog to send you the access code for the special badge, but I want to make sure you get it if you are interested. Please send me an email and I’ll send it right away.
We are really enjoying your blog and look forward to seeing your recipes, tips and techniques on Foodista! If you would not like to be recognized on Foodista please let me know and I will remove your blog from our queue.
Cheers,
Andrea Mitchell
amitchell@foodista.com
Andrea thanks so much!
[…] are for eating crab like the one above. I had this crab in Maryland after visiting the beautiful Barboursville Estate owned by the Zonin family from the […]
[…] We learned during the lesson that male settlers in Virginia in the 1600s were called to plant at least 10 grape vines. We also learned that Thomas Jefferson tried to grow grapes in Virginia for 30 years in the 1700s but failed to produce even a single bottle of wine. George Washington too apparently struggled at Mount Vernon to produce a wine but to no avail. In 1873, a Virginia wine was finally made from Norton. Eventually, in the 1900s a series of wineries were opened. In 1973, Chardonnay was grown successfully at the Waverly Estate while in 1976, Gianni Zonin established Barboursville Vineyard. […]
Reblogged this on avvinare and commented:
As Memorial Day approaches and I see so many sailors around New York City, my thoughts go to USA wines and USA veterans. I don’t know of any wineries started by US veterans. I am sure there are some though and I would love to taste their wines. Often Memorial Day is about picnics and the start of the summer but I try to remember what it really stands for and those who have sacrificed so much for this country. According to Wikipedia
“Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country’s armed forces.[1] The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May,[2] originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois, established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers.[3] By the 20th century, competing Union and Confederate holiday traditions, celebrated on different days, had merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service. Thank you to all those who have served our country, including all of older relatives who fought in WWII.
[…] We learned during the lesson that male settlers in Virginia in the 1600s were called to plant at least 10 grape vines. We also learned that Thomas Jefferson tried to grow grapes in Virginia for 30 years in the 1700s but failed to produce even a single bottle of wine. George Washington too apparently struggled at Mount Vernon to produce a wine but to no avail. In 1873, a Virginia wine was finally made from Norton. Eventually, in the 1900s a series of wineries were opened. In 1973, Chardonnay was grown successfully at the Waverly Estate while in 1976, Gianni Zonin established Barboursville Vineyard. […]