“Now over everything the autumn light is thrown And every line is sharp and every leaf is clear…” – Poem in Autumn, by May Sorton It really does seem like the light is different in autumn. I’m not sure why. There seems to be a clarity often enhanced by the morning chill. The sun lights […]

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 […]

By Andrew Hodson and Veritas Vineyard and Winery Tasting:  Acid/Sugar Balance I’ve spent time in the series describing how best to analyse wine as part of our understanding and evaluation of any wine be it sparkling or still.  We have to, as a first step, witness the properties of the wine we are tasting and […]

By Andrew Hodson, Veritas Winery in Charlottesville, VA “You must be kidding – we all know that sparkling wine originated in and around the Champagne region of France -that’s why it is called Champagne because that’s where the grapes are grown and the wine is made.” Only sparkling wine that comes from that specific region […]