Varietal: Â 100% Sauvignon Blanc
Region: Â Virginia
Cost: Â $22 (SRP)
Winemaker’s Notes: Â Delicate boxwood and grapefruit aromas lead into a crisp, flinty finish. Soft grassy notes pair with gooseberry and passion fruit to create a classic Sauvignon Blanc. Fermented in our concrete egg.
My Review: Â It’s not often that samples of Virginia wine show up at my door, and I’m certainly familiar with Stinson Vineyards, having visited them several times since they opened a few years back. I’d enjoyed their Sauvignon Blanc in the past and was definitely interested to try the newest vintage.
In the glass the wine was light, and on the nose I quickly picked up notes of grapefruit. In the mouth the wine featured citrus, but not the overwhelming grapefruit that I expect when trying Sauvignon Blanc from Chile. Instead, here the citrus, while still present, was more muted, and grassy notes and hints of mineral showed more, giving the wine more than a single note of powerful acid.
My wife and I paired the wine with a dinner of pesto tilapia and potatoes, and I thought the wine did a great job of providing an acid counter note to the meal without being too acidic to require a fattier fish. Both before and after the meal the wine was enjoyable to sip on, and as time went on the acid continued to mellow and notes of gooseberry became more obvious than they were at the initial first sip.
I’m a big proponent of Virginia wine, given as I live in Virginia, and wine like the 2012 Stinson Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc make it easy for me to justify that decision. We’re making lots of really good wine, and continuing to expand and experiment with grapes that most people don’t think of when they think of Virginia wine. If you have a chance to try the 2012 Sauvignon Blanc from Stinson, I recommend it, and I look forward to heading out to their tasting room and trying more of the new vintage.
Editor’s Notes: I received this bottle as a free sample.
