A look back at the summer of 2021 If you think about it, what COVID has forced us to do is change in some way or another. Whether it’s the decision to wear a mask or get vaccinated, we have been forced into making a decision that in many ways could be considered a life […]

Veraison – What was that again? If you Google the French term “véraison” the English equivalent is “veraison.” Under the French entry it says, “Maturation des fruit, spécialement du raisin qui prend sa couleur.” That roughly means ripening of fruits, especially of the grape which takes its color. When I come across a term like […]

This is the spring that we dared to hope for. What a difference a year makes! Last spring, we experienced the shutdown from COVID-19 and then the shutdown from frost. Not just one frost but two brutal events, two weeks apart that very nearly shut us down. This year is the reverse and we can […]

Efflorescence, or simply flowering, of the vines is one of the most sensitive and crucial periods in the life of a vine. If you remember in my last post I talked about crucial times in the life of a vine. At that time it was all about bud break when the dormant bud on the […]

I was debating whether “Bud Break” for the vine is Christmas or Easter and thinking about it, it is clearly Easter. First of all Easter and bud break occur at roughly the same time and secondly for the vine it is a re-birth and thanks to Mother Nature she never disappoints us, except perhaps when it comes to timing.

Winter 2021 Happy Benevolent Snow It was this time last year when we started to hear about this novel coronavirus and it was this time last year that we were forced to shut down.Our world as we knew it was turned upside down. The humdrum routines of daily life evaporated. It’s hard to imagine how […]

Andrew Hodson’s Newsletter This season of mellow fruitfulness seems like and is like no other, as you may well say is true of everything about 2020.  Autumn is always my most favorite season of the year. The time when autumn leaves start to fall almost as declarative of a change in season as spring is […]

Witnessing Taste Components: Flavor and Finish I started this saga on Sparkling wine but I realized early on that before one can fully appreciate the subtleties of sparkling wine I had to first cover the basics of appreciating regular wine be it still, sparkling or even fortified.  The word “appreciate” is a bit loaded  in […]

The Continuing Saga of Understanding Sparkling Wine Part 5 Witnessing wine – The Body of the wine The properties we consider when we taste wine come under the following categories, Sweetness  Acid Tannins Alcohol BODY Flavor intensity Flavor identity Finish Getting back to witnessing wine, one of the most difficult qualities to describe is what […]

I thought I would give “ witnessing wine” a break for a week because I recently had the delight to try our latest 2019 release of Viognier as well as experiencing a recent Viognier with Jennie Mcloud of Chrysalis vineyard. I was stoked to witness two superb wines that really are unique to Virginia.The thing […]