Virginia - Williamsburg - Williamsburg Winery

Williamsburg Winery - (December 2015) As we entered the winery, we noticed that some of the area had changed since they were there several years ago. The paved parking lot was full so I parked in their grass lot and went to get our tasting tickets. I had just missed the cut-off for the current tasting and we had to wait thirty minutes for the next tasting and tour. While we waited, we walked around the gift shop and read about the wines we were going to sample as part of their tour

When it was time to start our tour, we met the rest of our group and proceeded onward. The first stop was a video about the history about the Williamsburg Winery; it is the largest in Virginia. We went to the hall where they have wedding receptions and banquets. But it was the wine cellar that had me intrigued.

As we entered the wine cellar, there were rows and rows of wine barrels. All the oak aging is done in this room. There were mostly reds in the barrels. I took a photograph of the label on a few of the barrels. It tells what grape was inside, when they were picked, how long fermented, yeast used in the fermentation process and the date it was put in the barrel. That is a lot of information on one label, but it plays an important role later on.

After visiting the cellar, we were able to look in the reserve cellar as there were people doing a reserve wine tasting. As we walked along, we were told about the concrete egg-shaped aging tanks. This is a new process in America, but originated in France. I wonder if there are other wineries looking into this process. At the end of the cellar were the stainless steel aging tanks; the larger ones were out of site in another room.

We went upstairs to the tasting room. There, we were treated to the following wines: 2014 viognier, one of their estate wines; 2014 midsummer’s night white, a blend of traminette, vidal blanc and viognier; 2014 traminette. We enjoyed the midsummer's night white with its middle of the road body and taste, we both can enjoy this wine. We continued with the 2013 merlot, 2013 trianon, a blend of cabernet franc and petit verdot, and the Susan Constant red, 100% sangiovese. The reds did not excite me and I should have looked for the awards. The final wine was the petit fleur, a blend of moscato ottonel and vidal blanc, not overly sweet, but smooth.

The wines were not as impressive as before, but before leaving, we did purchase a bottle of petit fleur and midsummer’s night white.